What was arab nationalism

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Subscriber sign in You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Username Please enter your Username. Password Please enter your Password. Forgot password? Don't have an account? In fact, they do not reject the same elements in Western hegemony; they do not fight the West at the same level, and in a sense that they are not opposing the same West.

While Arab nationalism fights a military and political power, political Islam fights an ideological influence. Discarding this criticism as a purely opportunistic stance dictated by power struggles would be fallacious. Indeed this Islamist view appears to be rooted in the very original doctrine of the movement, which, although it did not call for a confrontation at the moment of its formation and was radicalized over time notably as a result of its conflicts with Arab nationalism and the sometimes brutal repression it implied; Mellon, , already about countering the spread of European ideas.

And indeed, this perception of Arab nationalism being a product of Western ideologies is well-founded. In post-independence new nation-states, secular education is vigorously promoted, as seen in Egypt where school population expands by , in the years surrounding the Sidel, A fundamental ideological cleavage seems to take shape here.

It implies that, even though it is exact that Islamists and Arab nationalists are both combating the West, both are not leading the same battle. Arab nationalism had none and did not seek to have one. Consequently, the view which, irrespectively from their ideological content, defines Arab nationalism and political Islam as essentially two manifestations of the same counter-hegemonic dynamic, is incorrect.

Such a definition would amount to an overly social-functionalist approach, which would, in a way, tear ideas from ideologies. Conceptually, this would commit the fallacy against which Descartes warns, in his Discourse on the Method : confusing the origin in this case, a reaction to western penetration of the Middle East and the foundation what this reaction consists in.

A wide variety of interactions being found, the claim was nullified. A seemingly unifying pattern and a common origin were then evidenced but found to be insufficient to proceed to agree with the discussed assertion. In other words, this essay reached the conclusion that Arab nationalism and political Islam, closely intertwined from their origins, both grow out of the same anti-Western identity matrix, but that the contents, means, and meanings of this rejection are fundamentally different.

In this sense, the metaphor of the coin, may, after all, not be such an inaccurate one. Anjum, M. Bull, H. The Revolt against the West. In: H. Bull and A. Watson, ed.

Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dawisha, A. Int Studies Review , 2 3 , pp. Dawn, C. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 20 01 , pp. Descartes, R. Paris: Garnier-Flammarion. Hardy, R. Mandaville, P. Islam and International Relations of the Middle East. In: L. Fawcett, ed. Matthews, W. Pan-Islam or Arab nationalism? Middle East Stud. Mellon, J. Pan-Arabism, pan-Islamism and inter-state relations in the Arab World.

Nationalism and Ethnic Politics , 8 4 , pp. Shulze, K. The Rise of Political Islam. In: B. Antony, ed. New York: Routledge. Tibi, B.

Pan-Arabism aimed to unite the Arabs. In turn, nationalism in each individual Arab country proceeded from the need for the development of nations within the framework of nation states. It was based on the ethnic principle, there was also a place for Islam in it.

The emasculation of the ideas of Arab nationalism in recent decades has been happening in parallel with the decline in the efficiency of state structures and the degradation of political institutions in Arab countries. The ideas of Arab nationalism gradually lost their weight, dissolving in realities of modern politics. However, they left a rather deep imprint on the Arab public consciousness.