(contents)
Chapter 2 Global wave – The end of
colonial era and the emerging two super powers (10)
048 The Arab world repeats unity
and divorce (1/3)
Pan -
Arabism raised by the Baath Party in Syria was a movement aimed at solidarity
of Arab peoples. Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt was a man who was chasing it
desperately. In the First Arab Israeli War in 1948, Egypt could not defeat
Israel. But when the 1st Asian African Conference (called as Bandung
Conference) was held in 1955, Egypt established the prestige in the Arab region
as the flagship of non-allied countries. In Suez War (Second Middle East War) in
1956, Nasser lost the war militarily due to the occupation of the Sinai
Peninsula by Israel. But politically speaking, he won the war because the world
recognized the nationalization of Suez Canal by Egypt. The result of the war
was neither victory nor defeat.
Through
these experiences, Nasser became confident that the overwhelming alliance of
the Arab peoples could be the only way to defeat imminent enemy Israel, and to
let the world recognize the unified power of Arabs. Nasser had a thought that
the heyday of Arab and Islam started in the era of Caliphate by Prophet
Muhammad in Makkah in the 7th century, and the Umayya dynasty of Damascus and
the Abbasid dynasty of Baghdad created the great heritage of Arab and Islam. In
the era of Umayya dynasty they conquered the Iberian Peninsula in the Western
Europe. In the Abbasid era their territory was extended to the east of India.
At that time Arab Islamic world was more superior to European Christian world
not only in academic field but also in culture. Such accomplishment was
attributable to the unity between the esnicity of Arabs and the belief of
Islam.
(To be continued ----)
(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)
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