Ideology of Arab World - Coursework Example

Arab Ideology Table of Contents Topic Page no Introduction....................................................................................................3 Historical evolution of the ideology……………………………….………..4 Socio-political and Religious Factors – impact on Arab Nationalism .........7 Arab Nationalism- Evolution……………………………………..………..9 League of Arab Nations…………………………………………………….12 Conclusion: ………………………………………………………………...13 Introduction: The Arab World is passing through an age of ideology that initiated with the destruction of their traditional society and culture. This particular age started with the fall of the Ottoman Empire and shares the same time frame as the first Great War. In 1950s once the Palestine was lost and a new middle class came into prominence this age reached its peak. In 1970s after the Arab world reached a partial conscience regarding their political as well as economic system; the ideological age as mentioned and defined above started to decelerate1. According to the strain theory; ideology and social strain is positively correlated. Arab world without any doubt has undergone through severe social, economic and cultural strain. The colonial rule, formation of new nation-state and the urge to find an identity to integrate the fragmented tribes, races, diversified linguistics and different religious groups; gave birth to the Arab ideology2 (Salem, 1994, p.4). It is worth mentioning that apart from the aforementioned reasons; the presence of Islam and its role in formation of traditional form of society and politics lies at the heart of the Arab ideology. Fouad Ajami puts this point as “The mix between theory and practice in Arab political culture is susceptible to a recurring belief in grand schemes and readymade doctrines3”. The traditional Arab world was forced to witness the blitz changes that their society, culture, economy and politics experienced within a very short span of time. Once the caliphate became defunct and the Europeans occupied the Arab world, such changes were inevitable and got accelerated with the rise of the Arab and other movements with nationalistic ideologies; not to forget the usual war time disturbance that worked as a positive catalyst. The Second World War only fastened the process. The influence of Britain and France on Middle East became severely limited after the mentioned war and many states got their independence. In 1948 the Arabs lost the Palestine to the Zionists and that shocked the entire Arab world. The officiating governments in Egypt, Syria as well as Iraq fell and those in others were just counting their days. At this juncture new power groups took control of things in the Arab world and with them they brought new ideologies4. Historical evolution of the ideology The 1950s portrays the peak of this Arab ideology. Fresh ideas governed by strict principles and with specific aims promised progressive and prosperous future with a powerful presence in the entire world. The Arab world became an idea and that idea was portrayed in a word. That word spread like bush fire through extremely powerful ideologists and accomplished orators. However, the Arab utopia receded with the breakup of Egypt and Syria tie up in 1961, the defeat of the combined Arab army in the hands of Israel in 1967 and finally with the death of Nasir in 1970. However, with the partial victory in 1973 war and the OPEC cartel that promoted a rise in the price of the oil initiated a somewhat less ideologically charged yet more logical and restrained politics in the Arab world5. Reasons behind the rise of Arab Ideology: The Eurocentric world economy successfully entered the Middle East during the nineteenth century. The main cities particularly those in the coastal region were the first to test that liberation but soon the more remote areas became accessible. The change happened this way was remarkable; the entire Arab world tested deindustrialization and became the home for import of western manufactured products and export of raw material as well as primary goods. The traditional urban manufacturing industries that have served the Arab world for centuries became defunct. The boost to the agricultural sector this way gave birth to a small class of land owners while the Arab economy became immensely dependent on the industrialized economies of Europe. Gradually the changed landownership pattern promoted a handful of few as the well offs of the society whereas the lion’s share of the Arab population became proletariat. Later on with the arrival of steamships and introduction of railways the traditional merchant networks became insignificant and the entire Arab economy got somewhat interwoven. On the political frontier the secular reforms undermined the dominance of religious class in all most all the spheres. The old warrior class lost its significance with the modernization of military. So far the religious class along with the warrior class used to share the task of governance but these changes put them aside of the mainstream of politics and governance. These efforts to change the traditional Arab world in something similar to the European capitalist and industrialized states achieved very less success and actually made it very unstable. Unstable governments, dwindling economy and population growth owing to improvements in health care facilities led to prolific rise in poverty level by the First World War. Later the Ottoman reformists and the Colonial rulers of the Middle East initiated bureaucracy together with a new form of legal code. After the Second World War, specifically during the 1950s and 1960s the Arab World witnessed interventionist governments indulging in huge level of welfare activities and revolutionary governments campaigning for modernization and secularization. All these changes brought a one eighty degree transformation to the Arab World as it was in the early part of the nineteenth century to what it became in the later part of the twentieth century. These socio-economic changes placed quite a strain on the Arab World and one of the main reasons behind the formation of Arab ideology6. The military conquest of the Arab world by the Europeans during the nineteenth century and early part of the twentieth century was at a much greater magnitude than crusades. During the colonial regime the Arab World witnessed the increased state intervention even in the most remote part of the country and centralization of political power as far as he governance is concerned. Such change gave birth to friction between state and the society. Again the urge for independence during 1930s and 1940s; the populist regime of 1950s and 1960s saw increased mass participation in politics. Though such participation reduced to great extent during 1970s and 1980s yet the political scenario of the Arab World during twentieth century changed a lot from what it was in nineteenth century. Such rapid change also put severe strain on the Arab World and helped in formation of Arab ideology7. The aspect of cultural change that is central to this Arab ideology has been captured by Bernard Lewis (1968) as he states “While western material culture transformed the structure and aspect of Islamic society often for the worse ideas from the West were affecting the very basis of group cohesion, creating new patterns of identity and loyalty and providing both the objectives and the formulation of new aspirations8”. The rapid change that was the intellectual Arab world subject to generated immense anxiety and imbalance in the cultural sphere. Once Islam got somewhat isolated from the mainstream cultural life of the Arab World; the need for new ideologies and idols was felt and that gradually shaped into Arab ideology. However it is worth mentioning that though Islam was reduced to a tributary to Arab politics but all most all the Arab nationalist leaders of the 1950s and 60s began their speech in the name of Islam or Allah. This portrays the fact that even within secularism Islam remained an important ingredient to Arab Ideology. All though transforming from a singular identity of being a Muslim to an Egyptian, Iranian or Syrian was an arduous process and carried inherent cultural strain9. Finally the psychological trauma of all these social, economic, cultural and political change in quick succession acted as a positive catalyst in the formation of Arab ideology10. Socio-political and Religious Factors – impact on Arab Nationalism Before the advent of the Europeans in the Middle East the loyalty to the Sultan and demonstration of the same was the core action of Arab socio-political world. However, after witnessing the European supremacy in all respect; many influential Arab writers and activists were convinced that love towards their country or patriotism lies in the root of worldwide European dominance and the Islamic world is missing similar kind of patriotism. This gave birth to Arab nationalism. The relative backwardness of the Muslim countries in comparison to the European ones convinced early Islamic thinkers that Muslims have lot to learn from the Europeans and the patriotism is the main ingredient for the European supremacy. This eventually led to promoting Egypt as a nation or fatherland. Love towards the country or birthplace was nothing new to Islam, yet such love gained political significance with the introduction of the notion of patriotism or Arab nationalism. RifaaRafial-Tahtawi was first to consider this aspect and mentioned “Let the motherland be the site of our common happiness…which we shall build by freedom, thought and factory”11. This kind of thought became prominent among the Egyptian upper class of the early nineteenth century and realized in Syria through setting up of schools, secularism, and urge for foreign education during the Egyptian occupation of Syria. During that period an inherent idea of a possible Muslim state under Egyptian guidance gained momentum. Furthermore many Ottoman reformers were also immensely convinced by European ideology and promoted the same during and within the Ottoman regime. Ottoman officials were trained by the Europeans and that helped this event to great extent. The core words of the Tanzimat regime “reason, science, progress” became similar to radical Islamic thought by the initiation of the twentieth century. Apart from the Egyptian and Ottoman influence; French, Russian and American missions in the Middle East also contributed to the spread of Arab Nationalism. Thus the Arab Nationalism became the portrayal of western ideas regarding society and politics. The Lebanese-Christian writers of that era might be considered as the driving force behind the renaissance in Arabic language and its eventual contribution in the formation of Arabian Nationalism. Concern regarding fragmentation of Arab nationals and encouraging nationalistic ideas through revival of the Arabian culture and embracement of modern patriotic political views started to reflect in their writings. Butrus al-Bustani is specifically important in this regard. He started a school that taught in Arabic and was opened to students from all the communities. He started a journal that promoted Nationalism and upheld the idea that loves for the country is similar to faith. He always said that national solidarity is far above religious solidarity and religious fanaticism should be eradicated. He was in favour of Arab cultural revitalization that he believed would protect the Arab society against European cultural sweep. Syria was of great importance to him for its cultural heritage anagrammed in its usual Arabic language and he was somewhat in favour of the Ottoman occupation of Middle East as he believed that they have atleast tried to prevent the European occupation of Syria. An Arabic dictionary was also prepared by him that was finished after his death by his family. Thinkers like Ibrahim al-Yaziji; however came up with more extremist approach towards Arab nationalism. He gave call to all the Muslims to stand up, revolt and claim their freedom. During 1870s some of the nationalistic societies emerged in Middle East with a claim of national freedom. Till this time the idea of Arab nationalism though surfaced but overshadowed by fragmented self-seeking nationalistic ideas. The Arab nationalism of Lebanese and Syrian people failed to touch the major Muslim community who still had their loyalty to Islamic state. Even after the spread of secularism Ottoman proto-nationalism became popular among nonreligious state school students than the idea of the Arab Nationalism. Even among the Lebanese the Lebanese nationalism was the prime concern rather than the Arab nationalism; this is true for Egypt as well where Egyptian nationalism became a major force instead of Islamic nationalism12. Arab Nationalism - Evolution In early twentieth century; Quite a few Islamic modernist gave an Arabic version of Islam that later proved to be the gateway of Arab Nationalism. It is mentioned by ZeineZeine that “Arab nationalism in its genesis and growth has been inseparable from Islam” 13. Islamic scholars like “Afghani, Abduh, Rida, Kawakibi, Qasimi, and al-Jazairi”14 all spoke and wrote about reforms and reconsideration of Islam so that it can be used for promoting growth and development, modernization, mass participation in politics and industrial production. Furthermore a nationalistic view of Islam had been framed where the previous submission to Islam was replaced by a political submission and loyalty to the Islamic gurus and the Ottoman government. Afghani was the founding father of this movement; he projected the golden era of Islam that is the era of the prophets and good caliphs as the primary example to follow. He opined that during that era Muslims witnessed intellectual glory, liberal atmosphere, political democracy, military excellence and so on. To be true his opinions, speeches and writings actually gave birth to a movement with much greater magnitude, known as salafi movement. The salafis claimed that a religious man should come to the forefront of the society; he should become teacher, leader or reformer. Unlike the sheikhs who used to hold high places in the government the salafis were at the middle of the power ladder and had fewer stakes in conventional Islamic set up, hence it was easier for them to think of an Islamic reform where they might find larger stakes for themselves. The harmony of reason and exposure in Islam, the brilliance of early Islamic communities and the importance of Arabs and Arabic language as the central force of Islam has been highlighted by the salafis. The salafis actually projected the Arab revival as the Islamic revival15. The contemporary Islamic thinkers opined that the Turkish occupation of Middle East is a decelerating factor in growth and development and independence of the Arab countries would be required for anything better than that state. They have also rallied against the Turkification of Arab. Moreover they had opined in favour of the depoliticization of the caliphate. These mentioned aspects were quite prominent in the works of Kawakibi who is believed to haveinfluenced the Arab nationalistic ideas in later years16. Quasimi and Jazairi were dedicated to promote the similar form of Arabism in Syria as Kawakibi did in Egypt. Quasimi stated that Islam is all about rationality and applying reason to understand the materialistic world would eventually turn into faith. He also revered the positivism of the Turks and believed to get out of the vicious circle the Arabs need to encourage scholars and scientists. He was vocal in favour of the establishment of modern schools that would provide teachings into Arabic. Quasimi supported the setup of a liberal government and was confident that the existing elites would find their natural position within that government. Along with Jazairi he became the teacher and motivator for many Arab nationalistic ideologists before and after the First Great War. Hence it might be said that the initiation of the secular reforms by the Egyptian as well as the Ottoman reformers, revitalizing the Arabian literature during the mid of the nineteenth century, the emergence of the modern Islamic modernist reformers just at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century sowed the seeds of Arab nationalism. The Arab nationalism of that era was all about promoting and defending Arab interest17. Decentralization, improvement of the existing political as well as cultural ambience for the Arab nationals were at the forefront of the agenda whereas absolute independence received less importance. This urge for the aforementioned aspects were expressed in Arab Congress of 1913 held in Paris. In short the pre First World War Arabic nationalism seldom spoke of Arab independence and rather bestowed their royalty in the Islamic Ottomans; again this kind of nationalism was promoted mostly by the upper class Arabs and the ideas of the middle as well as lower class Arabs were left beyond consideration of such nationalism18. The Arab nationalism actually got promoted owing to a series of events during and after the First World War. As the war was announced the Middle East came directly under the Military rule of the Ottoman Empire and that aggravated the Arabs. The role of Jamal Pasha in demeaning the Arab nationalism by killing Arab intellectuals and opting for harsh policies towards the Arab nationals agitated the Arabs. At this background the British backed the Arab revolt in 1916 that abolished the Ottoman rule in Syria and established Arab rule. The British and Americans kept their support towards the Arab nationalism and by 1919 Arab nationalism won the political majority in terms of ideological followers in King Faysal government. However, the French opposed such idea and led military operation that eventually divided Syria in four states that kept Damascus separated from the rest of Syrian states. This operation gave birth to immense tension and competition for supremacy among the different Arab classes and the division policy of Syria followed by the French actually acted as a positive catalyst to promote the Arab nationalism as soon the Arabs felt that in order to abolish domination by others not only the Turkish but the entire European ruling class has to be driven away from Middle east and that was only possible through the establishment of a unified pan Arab state19 . League of Arab Nations The Great Revolt of 1925-27 portrayed the Arab nationalism against the French policy, however it was brutally crushed and eventually only those politicians who agreed to act according to the French desire was left to remain and return in Syria (Salem, 1994, p.40). Though the Great Revolt was oppressed by the French yet after that Arab nationalism found various ways to express itself. The 1931 Arab conference of Jerusalem established the Arab National Pact that announced that all the Arab countries are non-dividable and also expressed interest regarding the establishment of Pan-Arab Congress. The immediate next year saw into prominence; ZakiArsouzi who established League of Arab Nations and later played as the propelling factor in initiating the Bath movement. The Arab ideology of that era was pointed towards resisting the French and encouraging Arab Nationalism. In March 1945 owing to immense encouragement from the British government the Arab Nationalism finally took a permanent shape through the setup of the Arab League. It is worth mentioning here that the Arab Nationalistic idea before 1948 was restrained within the independence, unification of the Arabs and republican secular reforms. Any doctrine or inherent social, economic or political agenda was not a part of the Arab Nationalism before 1948. The central force of that movement was Syria and some prefer to call it Syrian Nationalism rather than that of the entire Arabs20. Three years after the Second World War in 1948 Palestine was lost to Zionists and that triggered an altogether different and much more radical form of Arab Nationalism. This new form of Arab nationalism was initiated by the middle class rather than the elites and called for socio-cultural revolution through encouraging secularism and instant Pan-Arab unification. Much younger party as well as army officers climbed to the top of the power ladder under this new form of Arab Nationalism. In Egypt GamalAbd al-Nasir came into power in 1952. Bath party started to take control of Syria during 1955-58 before cherishing full power in 1963. In Iraq Abd al-Karim al-Qasim came into power in 1958 and was soon followed by the Bath party in 1963 with a repeat in 1968. Lebanon and Jordon almost witnessed the toppling of the government in 1958 and traditional governments in other Arab nations such as Libya, Sudan, and Yemen succumbed at the hand of the revolutionary Arab Nationals. The bath party was founded with Communist ideologies but the founders soon got detested by the Soviet policy towards the Middle East and resorted to speeches and pamphlets that promoted Arab Nationalism. Though they were not so recognizable political force at their initiation; but situation changed after the loss of Palestine amid a much centralized and radical ambience21 . In 1952 the Bath Party joined with Akram Hurani’s Arab Socialist Party and became a formidable political party of the Middle East. Hurani’s contribution to the Bath Party is often compared to Lenin’s contribution to Marxism. He transformed the party structure into a more politically constructed one that came up with definite political idea and direction regarding the future pathway of the Middle East. It was this changed structure of the Bath party that call for a preliminary Arab unificationunder the leadership of the Nasir through the unification of Syria and Egypt. However, that unification left a bad memory for the Bath party owing to its several disagreements with Nasir. In 1963 the concerned party also came in power in Iraq. By then Bath had distanced itself from communism and rather agitated against the communists who supported Qasim to suppress the natural growth of the party in Iraq. Though the Bah party was also suffering from the back drift of its party members and day by day the difference in ideologies as well as power status between the civilian and the military wing of the party was becoming prominent. However amid this turbulence the both the party wing captured the throne in Syria and Iraq and managed to stay in power even after facing serious domestic and regional problems at times. Even before coming into political prominence in Iraq and Syria; Bath managed to open its branch in almost all the Arab countries and was of special attraction to the urban middle class intellectuals. The party also showed distinct ethnic and religious diversity. From its initiation romantic and spiritual form of Arab nationalism was the primary form of ideological stand for the party22. Another major contribution to the Arab Ideology came from the speedy rise of Nasir into prominence in Egypt. Unlike the political ideologies that floated in Syria; Egypt’s political ideology came from a different background and that was distinct in Nasir’s rise. The development of Egyptian economy, loosening hold of the European powers in the country and a rising threat from the Zionists prepared the platform for Arab ideology and nationalism there. Nasir’s populist regime was vocal against the abolition of the previous autocratic regime, feudalism and imperialism. On the other hand it spoke about a revolutionary Arab Nationalism and manifested the same through the nationalization of the Suez Canal and successful defence against the joint Anglo, French, and Israeli Invasion. His views towards the establishment of a secular, progressive Arab Nation were accepted as the ultimate goal for the Middle East for all other Arab nations until his death. Nasir also gave a statist version of the Arab Nationalism by forcefully adopting many statist policies at the domestic and regional level. He believed in interventionist government and initiated many state institutions mainly dwelling in defence sector. He had also expanded the public sector in Egypt. His presence and ideological standing was so appealing that most of the Arab nations of that time followed his model23. Conclusion: Thus the Arab Nationalistic movements started from a right wing view and gradually changed it to leftism before finding its own stream of ideologies. The initial root of the Arab nationalism laid in Ottoman oppression and the respectful outlook of the Middle East towards the European patriotism. The emergence of an Arab intellectual class and consequent help from the British and Americans as well as other European powers led to the speedy up rise of the Arab Nationalism. The two Great Wars and subsequent policy change of the Europeans towards Middle East and their loosening hold on the same shaped the Arab Ideology mostly in tune with the rightist ideology. However from 1930s the communist influence started to reflect in Arab Nationalistic ideas. However, the leftist ideasof the Middle East were quite distinct from the Soviet form of communism. The rise of Bath party in Arab politics and the populist politics of several Arab leaders of 1950s and 60s; especially Nasir established a romantic Arab National Ideology that spoke of Pan-Arab unification, secularism, and progressive growth. Till the death of the Nasir his heroism kept the romanticism alive in Arab Nationalistic movements and ideologies that gradually became pale after his death. Later on with the Khomeini in Iran and the emergence of Taliban in many Arab countries again brought a religious outlook in Arab politics and lost the charm of Secularism. Moreover, the previous socialist leaders became power mongers and eventually dictators such as in Iraq. The Iran-Iraq conflict and Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait also displayed severe inner conflict among the Arab Nations. In recent time a change is sweeping through the Arab world previous authoritarian governments such as in Egypt has been toppled and Syria has been subject to friction for long. At this turbulent time it would be of great importance to witness what the present Arab ideology might become once the society reach a stable condition. References Ajami, I. (1992), The Arab Predicament, Cambridge University Press Abdel-Malek, A. (1983), Contemporary Arab Political Thought, Palgrave Macmillan Lewis, B. (1961), The Impact of the West, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, OUP Salem, P (1994), Bitter Legacy, Syracuse University Press Zeine, Z. N. (1973), The Emergence of Arab Nationalism, Caravan Books Read More