With the fall of Iraq to American and Allied forces and the possibility of a showdown between Christianity and Islam, is the Arab World on the brink of an abyss if it does not fullfil the promise of Arab unity? Arab unity has been a dream and a promise since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, so why has this dream not been fulfilled in the last 100 years? What is the history behind its rise and fall?
The Arab World is a loose, yet complex amalgamation of 22 countries in which a pan-Arab identity is the ideal proclaimed by leaders and masses alike.
Unity was intended to free the Arab East of Ottoman occupation The story of the struggle for Arab unity is entangled with the modern history of the Middle East and both are steeped in conflicting ideologies, revolution, oppression, betrayal and war.Arab unity was intended as a way of ridding the Arab East of Ottoman occupation and - for Christian proponents at least - of creating a secular society in which Muslim and Christian Arabs would be equal.
This introductory episode tackles issues like identity, loyalty and self determination and asks the question, will Arabs ever address the gap between the reality and dream of unity?
Watch part one of Why Unity? on YouTubeWatch part two of Why Unity? on YouTube
The Ottoman empire had ruled the Arab World for 400 years, the final straw coming in the late 19th century when Turkish efforts to centralise control led to strong anti-Turkish feelings.
The Arab cultural renaissance, known as the Nahda, developed in response and revived in people a sense of identity. But a looming World War was about to reveal the fragility of the intellectual renaissance on which the Arabs based their hopes of closing the gap between the dream and reality of unity.
The defeat of the Ottoman Empire and the abolition of the Islamic Caliphate by the newly secular Turkish state forced the Arabs to reconsider their personal and political identities.
In Syria in 1947, Michel Aflaq and Salah Bitar founded the Baath party, a pan-Arabist party rooted in both socialism and nationalism which would eventually only have genuine appeal in Syria and Iraq. Although ostensibly a secular party, Baathism differed from the SSNP in positing religion, specifically Islam, as the greatest achievement of the Arabs and as the source of the Arab World's eventual regeneration.
The fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I left the Near East divided into spheres of colonial influence. In a secret agreement known as Sykes-Picot the Allies namely France and Britain, carved the Arab World between them, even though Britain has actually promised independence to the Arabs who had helped them oust the Turks.
While Lebanon and Syria were controlled by the French, Palestine was taken by the British who had assured Sherif Hussein, leader of the 1916 Arab Revolt, that after the war Palestine would be part of an independent greater Arab Kingdom.
At the same time, however, they promised Lord Edmond Rothschild, a prominent member of the World Zionist Organisation a homeland for the Jewish people. The resulting 1917 Balfour Declaration, which paved the way for the creation of the state of Israel, brought about the single biggest crisis the Arab World has faced in the modern era.
The struggle for Palestine in one of the main issues at the heart of the question of Arab unity.
Everywhere you go in the Arab World, it is the constant refrain, whether in discussions of democracy, identity or even religion.
In this episode we look at how in practice, the conflict has been as divisive politically as it has been unifying emotionally. While in theory subscribing to solidarity and unity with the Palestinians, many Arab states have either made false promises or else withheld aid for personal political gain.
From Nasser to Assad and Hussein, the region's strongest leaders have all sought in different ways and for different reasons, to shape the resolution of this conflict. Can solving the Palestinian problem ever address the gap between the reality and dream of Arab unity?
Between 1952 and 1967, the drive for Arab Unity was at its strongest. This period gave new meaning to Arab nationalism. It was an age of solidarity and the pursuit of unity through mass political movements. It was an era dominated by a leader the likes of whom the Arabs had not seen in a long time.
In 1956 Nasser ordered Egyptian forces to take control of the Suez Canal, a vital artery for the transportation of goods and petrol to the Western World. The British and French technicians guarding the waterway were expelled and although Nasser lost the ensuing war which pitted Egypt against France, Britain and Israel. American and Soviet pressure forced a retreat of European troops from the Suez, leaving Israel in control of the Sinai Peninsula.
Nasser introduced a new way of thinking. Arabism - or Nasserism as it is often called – fed the principals of Arab unity making the peoples of Egypt and the Arab world feel they shared a common cause: freeing all colonized and occupied Arab lands.
A populist, often autocratic albeit charming leader, Nasser's centralised and increasingly policed state eventually became the model for many emerging Arab states and statesmen.
In this episode we ask the questions; did Nasserism distort the Arab World's search for unity by encouraging the veneration of authoritarianism? Do Arab leaders, amongst them Nasser himself, offer more than the cult of personality? What happens to the state or to notions of unity when a leader's feet are found to be made of clay?
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