There is an asymmetrical logic behind all Arab behavior. To us, it may seem either heinous or “decent,” but it follows its own system. I wish there was a good book that explains it all simply. The best I’ve found so far is Rephael Patai’s The Arab Mind, 1974 edition. But it has its faults as a study.
My own personal observations are too limited to really understand them, but I do know that the main thing to them is a code of honor that depends entirely on appearance. The Mukhtar could afford to save those men, because he had sufficient prestige and status that nobody dared speak against him, so he made a stand protecting a stranger, and thereby enhanced his own status by braving an angry mob. Nobody else could have gotten away with it.