Arab Nationalism
Origins of Arab Nationalism
• “Young Turks” seized remains of
Ottoman Empire
• Build nation for “Turks”
• Sought to Turkicize Arabs
• Arabs developed own nationalist
movement
• Sought nation for Arabs
c
Sati
al-Husri
Notions of Nation
• British & French: heterogeneous
peoples united over centuries by
capitalist economy and state institutions
• German: people who share culture and
language who naturally should become
a state
• Al Husri: situation of Arabs more
resembles Germany
c
Ba th
Party:
Michel Aflaq
( Christian )
Salah Baytar
( Sunni Muslim )
Arab Nationalism
• Nation = Arab language & culture
• Secular: Muslim and Christian Arabs
• Anti-Imperialist
• Non-aligned: neither U.S. nor U.S.S.R.
• Planned development & economy
– Rhetoric of “socialism”
– Pro private property & anti-Communist
United Arab Republic
Gamal Nasser
Hafez Assad
Bashar alAssad
Saddam
Hussein
Moammar
Qaddafi
1967 War with Israel
• End of Arab Nationalism
• Popular turn to Islam
Islamism
Islamism: Background
• Revival movements
19th century
peripheral areas
• Reform / modernist movements
1900 – 1960s – today
urban centers
“Salafiyya” or “Salafi” movements (back to
origins/ancestors)
sometimes support Islamist movements
Revival Movements
• 18th century: Abd al Wahhab
• 1744: alliance with Ibn Saud
• 1924: founding of Saudi Arabia
– Abd al Aziz Saud & tribal & Wahhabist
fighters
19th Cent. Revival Movements
•
•
•
•
•
•
Nigeria
Bengal
Algeria
Lybia
Somalia
Sudan: Mahdi
Reform / Modernist Islam
late 19th early 20th Centuries
• Jamal ad-Din al Afghani
• Mohammed Abduh
• Qassem Amin
• Rashid Rida
Reform / Modernist Islam
late 19th early 20th Centuries
• Revive and “modernize” Islam
• Strengthen Muslim community
• Fight against Western colonialism
Al Afghani
Mohammed
Abduh
Qassem Amin
The Emancipation
of Women
Huda
Sharaawi:
Egyptian feminist
movement 1920s
Rashid Rida
Salafiyya Movements
• Orthodox “Modern” Islam of educated
• Nationalist movements
• Opposed to: “popular” Islam
– Superstitions
– Saint “worship:
– Trance dancing
– sorcery
Islamism
• Muslim Brotherhood (Egypt)
• Hamas (Palestinians)
• Hizballah (Lebanon – Shi’i)
• Khomeini – Ahmadinejad (Iran)
• F.I.S. (“Islamic Salvation Front” Algeria)
• Taliban (Afthanistan)
• Al Qaeda (international)
Muslim Brotherhood 1928 • Hassan al-Banna
– Killed 1948
• Sayyid Qutb
– U.S. 1948 – 1950
– arrested 1954 and tortured
– Released 1964
– Arrested 1965
hung 1966
• Sheikh Kishk
– Arrested 1978
– Released 1982
died 1996
Hassan al-Banna
Muslim Brotherhood
• Sacred history: now living sacred history
• Diagnosis: social problems, colonization,
tyranny stem from turn away from religion
• Solution: return to purified religion;
government of God
Ikhwan: Sacred History
• Prophet & companions: revolutionaries
• Medina: golden age of justice
• Muslim conquests: result of piety
• Decline & colonization: Muslims
abandoned Islam
• Renaissance: return to “pure” Islam
Sayyid
Qutb at
Colorado
State 1948
Sayyid Qutb
• Jahilya: state of ignorance & immorality
before Prophet & Islam
• ruler is “pharoah”
• Hijra: emigration from corrupt society
• Ikwan Muslimin: brotherhood of
vanguard “true” Muslims
• Takfir: tyrants declared “apostates”
• Jihad: struggle against inner jahiliya &
jahiliya tyrants – duty of all Muslims
Sayyid Qutb at trails
hung in 1966
Sheikh
Kishk
Jalal Al e
Ahmad
Westoxication
Euromania
Al-e Ahmad wrote that Satan’s
incarnation is the machine, manufactured in
the West, which enslaves those who
consume its products. Even more powerful
forms of enslavement come from the
superficial cravings Westernization implants
in Iranian minds and the way Iranians come
to see and know themselves through the
gaze of Europeans.
Euromania
“I say that West-stricken-ness is like
cholera or frostbite. But no. It’s at least as
bad as sawflies in the wheat fields. Have
you ever seen how they infest wheat?
From within.”
Euromania
Al-e Ahmad compares iranians to the
crow in a popular Sufi folktale: The crow
sees a partridge walk by and is amazed at
the measured elegance fo the partridge’s
gait. Afgter long and painstaking practice,
the crow forgets how to walk like a crow, but
never learns to walk like a partridge.
The Euromanic “has no personality… he
is an object with no authentic origin.”
Ali Shariati:
Islam & Marxism
Ali Shariati
Combined Marxist critique of alienation
and class exploitation with Islam, to offer
“liberation theology”-like outlook: resistance
to tyranny, Westernization, and elite
privilege is religious duty, symbolized by
martyrdom of Hussain.
Ayatollah Khomeini
Palestine
P.L.O.:
secular
nationalist
Palestine intifada
Palestine
Hammas: Islamist
derived fromMuslimn Brotherhood
Algeria 1990s Civil War
Algeria
• F.I.S.: Islamist party
won local elections
would win national elections
elections cancelled
took up arms
• Civil War: nearly 100,000 killed
Afghanistan
Afghanistan
• Taliban: Islamist
grew from war against Soviets
(with U.S. support)
Sayyid Qutb & other sources
Lebanon
Hizballah: Islamist, Shi’i
Al Qaeda (International)