I was generalizing but the proto Muslims going much further back to Egypt did it as well. Of course ‘we’ know that. Because we don’t think education is a bad thing.
According to Muslim theology, all true believers down thru history have been Muslim, including Adam, Noah, Solomon and Jesus.
Mohammed was just the last and greatest of the Muslim prophets.
You can call ancient Egyptians Middle Easterners if you like, but since they were enthusiastically polytheistic, you can’t really call them proto-Muslim.