(contents)
Chapter 2 Global wave – The end of colonial era and the emerging two super powers (15)
053 Arab world having no credit for ideology (3/3)
In the Arab world, however, the
industrial revolution hardly made progress even in urban areas. No segregation
of social class has appeared because there was no industrial capitalist
operating a large factory nor a large number of workers. It was the commercial
capitalists of family business owners that grabbed the hegemony of the economy.
There was little room for socialism and communism in the Arab world.
In today’s modern society there are three
identities; “ideology”, "ethnicity" and “religion”. If three
identities are compared human body, ideology, ethnicity and religion are brain,
blood and heart respectively. Ethnicity and religion are stronger than ideology
in the Middle East. Arab world has no credit for ideology.
There is another problem about the
Arab nationalism. Arab nationalism forms a pillar of Pan-Arabism with
socialism. But the concept of Arab is too wide to define ethnic group.
Generally speaking, the ethnicity starts from family and then extends to
relatives, clan, tribe and race. Race is the broadest concept of ethnicity. For
an ordinary Arab, the tribe is the widest concept of ethnicity. They cannot
understand the meaning of "Arab nationalism". Gamal Abdel Nasser who
survived in the power struggle were obsessed with the idea of "glory of
the Arab". He believed that the people could unanimously understand the
political slogan of "Arab nationalism".
For the most of citizens who is
living in the rural area were different from Nasser. They thought that the ethnicity
meant the clan or tribe. Ordinary Arabs satisfied that Islam gives them a sense
of unity. Such sense is still prevailing in today’s Arab world.
(To be continued ----)
(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)
No comments:
Post a Comment