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

Satic

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

Bacth 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 al- Assad

Saddam Hussein

MoammarQaddafi

1967 War with Israel

• End of Arab Nationalism

• Popular turn to Islam

Islamism

Islamism: Background

• Revival movements19th century peripheral areas

• Reform / modernist movements1900 – 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 Islamlate 19th early 20th Centuries

• Jamal ad-Din al Afghani

• Mohammed Abduh

• Qassem Amin

• Rashid Rida

Reform / Modernist Islamlate 19th early 20th Centuries

• Revive and “modernize” Islam

• Strengthen Muslim community

• Fight against Western colonialism

Al Afghani

MohammedAbduh

Qassem Amin

The Emancipation of Women

HudaSharaawi:

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

SayyidQutb 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 trailshung in 1966

SheikhKishk

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

PalestineHammas: 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

LebanonHizballah: Islamist, Shi’i

Al Qaeda (International)