6.5 Applications
6.5.3 Other Applications
A nation‘s history cannot be fixed at a certain starting point, nor can it be dated from a specific event. It rather comprises a continuum of events emanating from beginnings that may belong to as remote as was the case for the Arab nation – although the course of her history has not adhered to a single pattern. The Arabian Peninsula was the original home of these people, and through its climate and geographical location it both fashioned their natural environment and impressed a common stamp on the history of their civilization.
Arabian‘s geographical position between India and the Far East on the one hand, and the Mediterranean World and the West, on the other hand, showed at a glance the international trade routes. This had a decisive influence on both the settled and nomadic societies of the Peninsula.
The region has been subjected to series of domination by external powers and elites. At the height of its power in the 16th and 17th centuries, the tri-continental Ottoman Empire controlled much of the Middle East and North Africa. With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, all parts of the Arab World (apart from Saudi Arabia and Northern Yemen) fell under European imperial domination. In the 1950s and 1960s, most states won independence, but soon came under control of military dictatorships.
There are many common characteristics shared across this vast region of about 325 million people. The primacy of Arabic as the written and official language of the region (though some ethnic minorities use other languages) is recognized. They have close similarities in manners, customs, political and social systems. With regard to faith and religion, Islam has a large dominance; although some countries have significant Christian and small Jewish or other
66 religious minorities, though their culture is largely rooted in Islam. They have a shared history of external domination principally by the Ottomans, British, French and Americans with their continued influence on the laws which they imposed on them. Freedom of association and expression, which are the vital elements for fostering civil society, remained under strict control.
In some countries, prolonged states of emergency, restrictive legislation or special courts provided regimes with sweeping powers to regulate political parties and civil organizations.
The region enjoys a rapid population growth in recent decades, with a high percentage of young populations; with a resultant high level of unemployment, especially among young people. They are exposed to rapid urbanization and a significant concentration of population in capital cities.
The Arab world has embarrassing continuing high rates of illiteracy, especially among women.
Only two-thirds of Arab adults can read and write with understanding, one of the lowest adult literacy rates in the world.1
There is always a high rate of emigration, forced migration and brain drain in the Arab World.
Staggering numbers of Syrians, Lebanese, Palestines and Iraqis many of whom have professional qualifications have left their various countries and there are almost as many Syrians outside the country as there are residents. The prolonged impact of foreign occupations, armed conflicts and military interventions on civil `society and human rights abuses, especially in Palestine, Algeria, Lebanon, Iraq and now in Syria have remained a constant attribute in their daily life experiences.
They enjoy the membership of the league of Arab States. The League is an organization set up in 1945, with the declared aim of protecting the interest of the Arab countries.
It must be remarked that there are the uneven pace of spread of literacy and modern education. In the countries like Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, earlier access to education and
67 development of newspapers created an intelligentsia which helped in the formation of a viable civil society. By comparison, Gulf States remained closer to tribal values. There is also a regrettably uneven distribution of wealth. While the oil-rich Gulf States have attracted significant numbers of foreign workers from elsewhere in the Arab world – other states are among the world‘s least developed. For example, Yemen ranks 150th on UNDP’s Human Development Index.2 There is also a disturbing uneven development of civil society, while countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen have many civil society organizations, there are few in such states as Saudi Arabia, Syria and Libya.
The concept of political culture has been widely used by political scientists as a tool for interpreting political behaviour. In its biological usage, a culture is a medium in which an organism lives; the nature of the medium will affect the viability and behaviour of the organism.
Culture in its broadest social application according to the dictionary, is ―the body of customary beliefs, social forces, and material traits constituting the distinct traditions of a social group‖.
Politics David Easton has suggested, is ―the authoritative allocation of values,‖3 and Harold Lasswell has defined it even more succinctly as the process that determines ―[…]who gets what, when and how‖.4 One can easily agree that the beliefs, forces and traits that constitutes a social culture must profoundly affect the society‘s political process.
In his famous lecture of 1882, Ernest Renan posed the question, ―what is a Nation‖? His answer was that nationhood resided in the collective will of the people to live together as a community.
Nowhere is the task of definition more difficult than in the Arab World, where the multiplicity of primordial identification includes kin group, sect and universal religious community. In the industrialized west, their identifications are for the most part of only marginal significance to national politics and, in any event, are easily distinguished from nationalism. But in the Arab
68 World, all three are frequently closely related to a national identity. For example, the national identity of Jordanians or Kurds is coloured with tribalism; the national identity of Lebanon and Yemen has been associated with a particular sect; and the national identity of Saudi Arabia and Libya or the Muslim Brotherhood is infused with Islamic symbols. Yet, there remains a kind of group identification that cannot be subsumed under these categories.
The principal dimensions of Arab nationhood appear to be a collective awareness of a common history, a distinctive language and culture (literature, art, and folkways), a degree of similarity in appearance which is not racial since the Arabs are an amalgamation of races and do not practice racial exclusivity – and a historic, geographic homeland. ―The Arab nationalism in which we believe‖, wrote Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz, ―is based…not on racial appeal but on linguistic, historical, cultural, and spiritual ties, and on fundamental vital interest‖.5
The hallmarks of modern Arab identity are, on the ethnic dimension, Arabic language and culture, and on the religious dimension, Islam. On both dimensions, the inhabitants of the Arab world are generally homogenous. The Arab world today is also over-whelmingly Islamic. Except for the Sudan and Lebanon, each with nearly half its population non-Muslim, the Arab states are either almost wholly Muslim or contain small but important Christians minorities of around 10%, as in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian community.
According to Sati al-Husri, the most influential theorist of modern Arab nationalism, Every person who speaks Arabic is an Arab. Everyone who is affiliated with these people is an Arab. If he does not know or if he does not cherish his Arabism, then we must study the reasons for his position. It may be a result of ignorance – then we must teach him the truth. It may be because he is unaware or deceived - then we must awaken him and reassure him. It may be a result of selfishness – then we must work to limit his selfishness.6
69 There is no doubt that contemporary Arab nationalists agree with this broad definition. Anyone whose native tongue is Arabic belongs to the Umma al-arabiyya, the Arab nation, and partakes of Uruba, Arabism. Just as the Jews consider themselves the people descended from Abraham and his Son Isaac, the Arabs, another people arising from a group of tribes, claim prophetic ancestry.