Bangladesh, May 23 -- When US President Donald Trump touched down in Saudi Arabia last week on a return visit to the Gulf, many observers viewed it as just another diplomatic engagement peppered with business deals and ceremonial fanfare. But beneath the pageantry lay a far more consequential message: a long-overdue recognition of the seismic transformation sweeping across the Gulf region. Trumps public affirmation of these changes – social, economic, and geopolitical – lent weight to what many in the region have long known but felt the world had been slow to acknowledge: the Gulf is not only modernizing, it is redefining the global narrative of what modernization in the Muslim world can look like.

The prevailing perception o...