ARAB NATIONALISM

Arab Nationalism



Arab Nationalism

Introduction

To best understand how religion has assumed over the role of nationalism, it is best to first examine the history of nationalism in the Middle East. The only time in the modern era that a large part of the Muslim world was officially united under a single banner was under the Ottoman Empire. Under this polyglot system, about the only things that people on one end of the empire had in common with the other end were Islam and the Arabic language. Meanwhile, during the dying days of the Ottoman Empire, its European holdings, including Greece, Romania, Serbia, and Bulgaria, successfully won independence and had established functioning states.

Discussion

The late 1800s however, saw the first writings on the idea of the establishment of a Caliphate based in Mecca, a system that would be based on the common faith rather than artificial borders and individual rulers. In the years in between the First and Second World Wars, nationalism based on independence within set borders took hold after the victorious Allies divided up the Middle East as mandates for themselves.

In the interwar period, calls for both individual and pan-Arab nationalism were curiously influenced by the fierce nationalist campaigns taking place in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and 30s. As war loomed on the horizon, the Germans began broadcasting Arabic propaganda into the Middle East in an attempt to keep the British and French occupied. While this did not result in open revolt, it did further implant the seeds of nationalism, particularly pan-Arab.

The next war came without substantially changing the Arab's lot, but the close of the war in Europe did leave Great Britain and France too weeks to maintain their unnecessary colonial games. The two weary powers were quick to relinquish their hold on the region, and most of today's modern Middle Eastern states were granted their independence. In 1948, that list grew to include Israel.

Now, the Arab states were free to pursue their own goals, it became apparently that there was only one thing they could all agree upon: that they wanted to destroy Israel. The one exception to this trend was the creation of the United Arab Republic in 1958 between Egypt and Syria.

While the near term goal of this union was the destruction of Israel, it's aim in the long run, according to American analysis, was to unite all of the Middle East under Egyptian leadership. Influencing this trend was viewed as outside of American control at the time, and the most prudent course of action was deemed to be "discrete encouragement" of the moderate regimes to come around to our way of thinking. As the Cold War progressed and Arab forces kept hurling themselves at Israel with little effect, the situation calcified some. The oil shock relating to the 1973 war only reinforced our relations with the Gulf States and the eventual Soviet disengagement from Egypt calmed that part of the region. There have been three phases of progressive Islamic nationalism since ...