The variety in pop music on Egyptian radio

I have begun working on an Arabic-style pop song–I wanted to write something not too traditional but not too Western-sounding, either.  I began by looking at Middle Eastern scales; not microtonal ones, but ones like the Phrygian dominant (e.g., C Db E F G Ab Bb C), similar to the Hijaz-Nahawand maqam in Arabic music.  I then went