As some of you may or may not know, Cairo is home of the Arab League, a regional organization of Arab states the main goal of which is,
according to Wikipedia, to "draw closer the relations between member States and coordinate collaboration between them, to safeguard their independence and sovereignty, and to consider in a general way the affairs and interests of the Arab countries." My friend and I were walking by the headquarters (it was kind of one of those "oh, there's the Arab League" moments) and it began an interesting conversation about unity and the elusiveness of it. Arabs have talked about unity between their various states for a long time, whether through a secular/nationalistic or Islamic framework. The idea of pan-Arabism was very popular in Egypt in the 50s under Gamal Abdel Nasser--that is, all Arab states should be united by their common language and culture in sort of a utopian socialist brotherhood. Sounded pretty good at the time, but a series of defeats by Israel kind of discredited Nasser and put that idea on hold. Then came the Islamists, who are still slowly gaining momentum in a lot of Arab countries. Their goal is basically to undermine the region's secular regimes and eventually replace them with a resurrected Islamic caliphate, reminiscent of the "good old days" when Islam more or less united everyone in the region, whether it was under the Abbasids or the Ottomans. This idea is popular among some who feel a renewed pull towards religion, but not enough to really challenge the status quo.
In short, Arab unity has been elusive. The Arab League has probably had the most success bringing Arabs together to condemn Israel than achieving any measure of regional integration. My friend made a very thought-provoking comment to this effect:
"I find it confusing and a bit sad that a continent like Europe--with all its various languages, cultures, and religions--can come together and form such a wonderful organization like the European Union and we Arabs--who actually share a common language, culture, and religion--somehow can't find it in us to unite in any tangible way."
Yeah, what's up with that.
RAMZ! I am really enjoying your posts. Keep it coming.
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ReplyDeleteKeep in mind it took centuries of mutual destruction, culminating in two world world wars that nearly destroyed the continent, before Europe was ready to come together as the EU. by that standard Arabs have been comparatively peaceful and unified. and even today, the EU fails to get a constitution passed and struggles to ratify treaties for further integration.
ReplyDeletepersonally i wonder if the failure of Arabs to unite isn't partially a reflection of broader social divisions within the various countries of the Arab world. as you have been detailing in your blog, Egypt seems unsure about which direction it is headed. is it moving to become a more conservative and fundamental religious society? or is it embracing a more secular and western path towards modern development? individuals and groups within Egypt would of course have different answers to those questions. and those divisions could probably be extrapolated throughout the whole of the arab world, where we have saudi-style wahhabism and salafism faced off with more secular lifestyles in parts of the Levant, and in the government of Syria. if arabs are so deeply divided on a societal level, how can they truly come together politically?