We can not avoid using a scale simply because the Arabs are using it too. There are so many makam scales (over 60 I think) that both the modern minor and major scales as well as all church modes have correspondences among the Arabic version of the makams (1=bayati, 2=sikah baladi, 3=ajem, 4=sikah, 5=husseini, 6=hijaz kar, 7diatonic=iraq, 8=rast). It all depends on how the scales are used not that they are good or bad by themselves. One mouth can be used to praise the God and to make sins.
On the other hand people perceive the music accordingly to their past experience. The best church music for Arabic Christians is not necessarily best for Russian Christians and vice versa.