Arab Nationalism Origins of Arab Nationalism Young Turks

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

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 al. Assad

Saddam Hussein

Moammar Qaddafi

1967 War with Israel • End of Arab Nationalism • Popular turn to Islam

Islamism

Islamism: Background • Revival movements 19 th century peripheral areas • Reform / modernist movements 1900 – 1960 s – today urban centers “Salafiyya” or “Salafi” movements (back to origins/ancestors) sometimes support Islamist movements

Revival Movements • 18 th century: Abd al Wahhab • 1744: alliance with Ibn Saud • 1924: founding of Saudi Arabia – Abd al Aziz Saud & tribal & Wahhabist fighters

19 th Cent. Revival Movements • • • Nigeria Bengal Algeria Lybia Somalia Sudan: Mahdi

Reform / Modernist Islam late 19 th early 20 th Centuries • Jamal ad-Din al Afghani • Mohammed Abduh • Qassem Amin • Rashid Rida

Reform / Modernist Islam late 19 th early 20 th 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 1920 s

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.