The Great Middle East - Essay Example

The Great Middle East The Great Middle East In most cases people tend to believe that Muslim and Arabs belong to each other’s group but that is not the case. This is because while Muslims embraces Islamic religion, Arabs are free to choose any religion or faith they plan to follow. Furthermore, Muslims are characterized by their Islamic race while Arabs are characterized by their Arabic language and formation of a nationality. This kind of nationality is what is currently referred to as the Pan-Arabism; this is a general term for the political movement that tends to unify all the Arab nations of the Great Middle East. Since the loss of Ottoman Empire’s power, Arab nationalism has been undergoing a tremendous growth. Thesis statement: Because of the Pan-Arabism movement of 1945, there is a unification of all the 22 Arad nations of the Great Middle East. According to Scheltema (1917), Arab is a linguistic and cultural term. It refers to people who have Arabic language as their native language. He also argues that Arabs are united by history and by culture and that it is not a race. In most case, there have been intermarriages between Arabs and other cultures because Arabs have a free will to choose any religion to follow. For that reason, Arab is not a race that embraces a certain religion like Muslims do. Instead it is a nationality that embraces diversity. Sometimes Arabs can be Muslims, Christians, and Jewish; others can have red hair, blue eyes and be dark skinned. In fact, that is why Comoros and Somalia in Africa are identified as part of Arabs due to historical background. Indeed, Arab is a linguistic term just like Scheltema claims. This is because current there is a general rule of thumb that identifies any individual speaking Arabic, as her or his native language, as an Arab. The term “Arab” is therefore an ethno-linguistic identifier. It encompasses approximately 300 million people and mostly concentrates in 22 Arab countries both in North Africa and Middle East. In addition, there are also significant figures of Arabs resident in the Middle East countries that are non-Arab such as Turkey, Israel, and Iran. However, other non-Arab countries include Africa, North America, and South America. In the current generation those identified as Arabs have no particular ethnic designation. Instead they are identified as a mixture of cultural and ethnic identities. For instance, in the North Africa most of the current Arabs are of Moor or Berber stock. In addition, Egyptians primarily originate from Hamitic. The Levant has persons of Caucasian, European, and Turkic ancestry. However, what bind all these people together as Arabs are the ethno-linguistic identifier and the Arabic language (Scheltema, 1917). Farah (1987) argues that, there is a great relationship between Arabs and Pan- Arabism. He says that since 14th century when Ottoman Turkish Empire rose to power, Arabs would always desire for reunification as part of re-building Arab political power. During the World War I, Great Britain and France encourage the establishment of Arab nationalism while trying to seek allies against the Ottoman Turkish Empire. The Arab nationalism movement comes into effect after the World War II in 1945. During this time there is formation of Arab League which attempts to give Arab nations the power for political expression. In addition, the charter members are Syria, Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon. However, other unification attempts proceeds in 1958. They include Arab Federation of Jordan and Iraq, the Arab Union, the United Arab Republic, the Arab Maghreb Union, and the United Arab Emirates. Farah arguments are based on true assumptions. The purpose of Pan-Arabism is to bring together all the Arab Nations of the Great Middle East by giving them the political power of expression. In the ancient time we find Ottoman Turkish Empire ruling over the Arab region and forcing people to embrace the Islamic religion. In this case the Muslim world forced Arabs to leave their world and join theirs. During that time the Muslim world is seen to be under power while the Arab world is its subordinate. With time the Arabs try to form a resistance against the Muslims through unification attempts. However, the differences in the two worlds are the ultimate reason for the resistance. For instance, Muslims embrace the Islamic religion and belong to a religious sect (Farah, 1987). On the other hand, the Arabs have a culture that embrace diversity and they are at free will to choose the kind of religion to follow. For that reason, the fact that Muslims force Arabs to embrace a specific religion, which is slam, influence Arabs to develop a resistance movement which would bring them freedom of choice. Currently, the Arab world has 22 countries in the North Africa and Great Middle East. These countries include: Algeria, the Comoros Islands, Bahrain, Egypt, Djibouti, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Syria, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Mauritania, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Palestine, Libya, and Lebanon. However, Arab nations consist of a rich diversity of linguistic, religious, and ethnic communities. They include: Armenians, Kurds, and Berbers among others. On the other hand, the Muslim world is made up of 1.2 billion. The Islamic Countries consists of 55 member states with ten states holding the largest Muslim population. These states include Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Nigeria, and China. Among these countries only Egypt belong to the Arab states. However, most of the Arabs are Muslims while most of the Muslims are not Arabs (Scheltema, 1917). Barakat (1993) argues that Pan-Arabism is one of the movements for political unity that brings reality in the Arab world. This is seen particularly in the 2rd half of the 20th century. He also argues that Arab nationalism gets its inspiration from the European nationalism but its trend occurs differently from that of European nationalist. This difference is as a result of Arabs being under the Ottoman rule. At the time the Pan-Arabism trends were at their early stage. To support Barakat argument, it is possible that European nationalism act as aspirations for Arabs during the time of Ottoman rule. This is because European nationalism had its nationalist trends coming to force in the early 19th century. As a result, the Arab intellectuals become inspired and begin talking about their own independent state. Similarly Rogan (2011) argue that, two Arab leaders supported the Pan-Arab ideology by demonstrating that it was more than just an ideology. The first Arab leader is the president of Egypt called Gamal Abdel Nasser. He initiates the development of Arab nationalism with the aim of enabling the Arabs to break out of Ottoman rule and become a united nation. Indeed, Nasser initiates Pan-Arabism because during the time of Ottoman reign, Arabs face a lot of frustrations and the development of the Pan-Arab movement at the early stage is very slow. We find that Michel Aflag, though the founder of Arab nationalist ideology, fails to take the movement to the next stage. Furthermore, the Arab socialist and nationalist ambitions get frustrated and develop several political parties and movements in support of pan-Arabism. Unfortunately, even these efforts fail to put Pan-Arabism into effect. However, it Nasser who eventually raises the Arab national desires and ambitions of establishing a strong pan-Arab movement. One of the movement’s achievements under Nasser is prevention of the development of Jewish homeland in Palestine. Nasser initiates the Pan-Arabism through the establishment of Arab League and several other unification attempts. They include Arab Federation of Jordan and Iraq, the Arab Union, the United Arab Republic, the Arab Maghreb Union, and the United Arab Emirates (Barakat, 1993). However, Gamal Abdel Nasser takes the advantage of feelings of the ant imperialist in becoming the Pan- Arabism leader. He tries to encourage the development of secularization and modernization program. This program creates the resistance against the Muslim traditionalists. The second Arab leader to support Pan-Arab ideology is Saddam Hussein of Iraq. He is one of the contenders to eventually take Nasser’s place of leadership in Pan-Arabism. Hussein becomes an Arab leader in 1959. His exercise of power is seen during the border dispute between Iran and Iraq in 1970s. Hussein invades Iran in 1980 by using chemical warfare to claim back the Iraq territory (Rogan, 2011). Khalaf (2010) argues that Pan-Arabism movement has a unique specificity because of cultural, religious and political features. Furthermore, Arabs promote unity especially after breaking free from the Ottoman rule. To suppose Khalaf argument, Arab is a culture that embraces unity. Arabs enjoy sharing common Arabic language and form a cultural unit called the Arab nation. Furthermore, Arabs are united by history. The fact that they once used to be under Ottoman rule makes Arabs view themselves as conquers. Their process of reconstructing identity takes place with a lot of difficulties. In addition, the transformation of Arab identity to a great Arab nation is affiliated with the existence of Ottoman Empire. This is because the Empire contributes to the development of Pan-Arabism movement. In conclusion, Arab is a term characterized by nationality and Arabic language. It is unique in terms of culture because it embraces diversity. In addition, Arabs are united by history and by culture that gives people the freedom any religion to follow. However, there is a difference between Arabs and Muslims because they belong to distinct world which are Arab world and Muslim world respectively. This difference leads to the rise of pan-Arabism movement meant to free Arabs the Muslim world made up of the Ottoman Empire. References Barakat, H. ( 1993). The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State. Lower Ferry Road Ewing, NJ: University of California Press. Farah, E. T. (1987). Pan-Arabism and Arab Nationalism: The Continuing Debate. New York, NY: Westview Press. Khalaf, S.R. & Khalaf, S. (2010). Arab Society and Culture: An Essential Guide. London, W2: Saqi Books. Rogan, E. (2011). The Arabs: a History. New York, NY: Basic Books. Scheltema, F.J. (1917). Arabs and Turks. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 37, 153-161. Read More