>Somehow that is common to the major religions coming from that little middle east area - is it the monotheistic bend ?

Hey Thomas,
That's a question with its answer rooted mostly in the Bronze Age. Major world religions have one significant attribute that differs: today's "monotheistic" types have inherited from nomadic ancestors a male sky-god and are "exclusive". The poli/pan-theistic ones from the early agrarian peoples are "ideosyncratic".

As a result, the famous Abrhamic ones (Jewish-Christian-Muslim) have "no other Gods" before them, wherea, for example, the Buddhist movement born within the tradition Hindu, moved across all of China assimilating the local deities making them "keepers of the Dharma."

Make sense?