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3 Opinions about the Arab Identity

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how do we recognize the Arab Identity

Sadek Jawad Sulaiman

The Arabs are defined by their culture, not by race; and their culture is defined by its essential twin constituents of Arabism and Islam. To most of the Arabs, Islam is their indigenous religion; to all of the Arabs, Islam is their indigenous civilization. The Arab identity, as such, is a culturally defined identity, which means being Arab is being someone whose mother culture, or dominant culture, is Arabism. Beyond that, he or she might be of any ancestry, of any religion or philosophical persuasion, and a citizen of any country in the world. Being Arab does not contradict with being non-Muslim or non-Semitic or not being a citizen of an Arab state.

What is Arabism? As it has evolved historically under Islam, Arabism is one of many national cultures that were augmented by the advent and spread of Islam. However, since Arabism was the culture that received and gave expression to the Islamic message at inception, it became, and remains to this day, distinctively the authoritative repository of Islamic creed and thought. The Qur’an describes itself as Arabic, notably where it appeals to reason, knowledge, and morality as requisites in the inquiry for truth and the effort for self improvement. This is because the Arabs of the time, though cognizant of these values, as evidenced by some of their pre-Islamic literature, ignored them, and remained mired in tribal rivalry and an arrogant lifestyle. Islam called upon the Arabs to reinstate ethics, reason, and brotherhood in their life; beyond that, it prodded them to rise to a culture that transcended tribalism and race and to open up to humanity.

Thus, the Arabism that Islam nurtured as the purveyor of its message to humankind was cultural, ethical, rational, and inclusive. It was this cultural, ethical, rational, and inclusive character of Arabism, as prompted by Islam that attracted peoples of other races and religions. As other peoples embraced Islam and took to studying it through learning Arabic and reading the Qur’an, they became Arabized, in much the same way as people of various ethnic backgrounds embracing the American experience and learning the English language become Americanized.

One remarkable outcome of the “Arabization” trend was that many scholars of non Arab descent became proficient in Arabic and authored their intellectual product in it, rather than in their native languages. They became members of an Arabic intellectual community although they were cosmopolitan in race, native tongue, and even religion, Thus they became part of a common culture, Arabism, that, like Islam, indeed, because of Islam, rejected discrimination among people based on ethnic background.

Our scholars traversed the vast Islamic world, using in what they wrote, debated, and taught, the Arabic language, thereby enriching it all the more. Through their enterprise, uninterrupted through five centuries, Arabism and Islam, providing culture and thought, coalesced. As a result, a yet unprecedented wealth of recorded knowledge was commonly generated and shared throughout the Muslim world in the Arabic language.

Thus, historically, Arabism, like Islam, transcended race and ethnic origin. People from all over the known world who came in contact with and lived the Arabic cultural experience became Arabized. Thus, to be Arab is not to assert a racial lineage or a religious affiliation. Rather, it was and is to affirm affinity with a great culture that received, lived, and conveyed to the world a great religion. The culture and the religion coalesced to offer humankind one of her greatest civilizations. What is Islam, the other twin constituent of the Arabic culture from which the Arab identity derives? As both a religion and a civilization, Islam's basic perspective may be comprehended at three distinct levels: the conceptual, the moral, and the practical.                 

The Conceptual Level

1. The first Core Concept is “Tawheed”, or Oneness. It affirms that God is One, Absolute, Ultimate, Eternal, Matchless, Transcendent. ‘Tawheed’ or Oneness is Islam’s first determinant of reality, of truth, of the world, of space and time and of human history. It pervades and unifies all the various elements in Islamic thought. At the human level, it embodies three major ideas: Unity, Freedom, and Rationalism.

Unity means that God is one and all creation is one, governed by the selfsame laws of nature; the divine message is one and humanity is one as well. No civilization can arise without unity.

Freedom establishes the precept that a human's ultimate allegiance is to none other than God: subservient to God alone, a person is freed from subservience to any fellow human; hence, all humans are created equal and must be treated as such.

Rationalism recognizes human reason as the proper means of comprehension. By the same token, rationalism does not admit contradiction between Revelation and reason.

2. The second Core Concept is Prophecy. Simply stated, it affirms that guidance for humankind, i.e. the moral direction sustaining the human experience and moving it forward, has come from God, historically through prophets, who were human themselves.

3. The third core concept is Ma'ad, or Return. It means returning after completing a life cycle on earth, and accounting for one's conduct in life. The Quranic verse cited in the face of temporal adversity: “To God we belong, and unto Him we return” .

The Moral Level. On that level there are four principles. .

1. The first principle is Justice. God being innately just, justice must be upheld in every human activity. Without justice no human transaction is essentially valid or beneficial. The accumulation of injustice leads to the disintegration of society. Conversely, with justice societies are helped to endure and prosper.

2. The second principle is Equality. Being equal before God, we simply cannot be unequal among ourselves. Discrimination by gender, race, or creed is rejected.

3. The third is the principle of Human Dignity. Humanity is divinely endowed with dignity, hence human beings, as distinct from human actions, should not be humiliated or condemned.

4. The fourth principle in the Islamic moral code is Shura, or consultative governance. While Shura did not historically evolve in Islam as a democratic process, nor was it given significant weight in Islamic governance, it has never been denied or challenged as a constitutional ideal. The Qur’an depicts Shura as the natural order of decision making.

In the Islamic perspective, all human rights and obligations— personal, familial, national, and international ensue from these four principles of Justice, Equality, Human Dignity, and Shura.

The Practical Level

Islam places great emphasis on time tested values that are universally beneficial, that is, irrespective of race, culture, or creed. Some such values are: knowledge, cooperation, prosperity, compassion, faith, integrity, and physical as well as mental well-being. These values are by no means exclusive to Islam; Muslims call them Islamic only in the sense that Islam has underscored them as well, as essential to the healthy development and ultimately the survival of human society. Accordingly, I believe that to understand the Arab identity, it is important to understand at some depth the Arabic culture by which it is has been shaped and defined. 

Early in the second half of the twentieth century, with the advent of considerable oil wealth, the build-up of professional cadres, and a popular impulse for unity, opportunities arose before the Arabs to unite, democratize, and invest substantially in human development across the entire Arab world. But the opportunities came and went, withering away in the face of parochial selfishness, petty inter-state quarrels, inadequate understanding of the modern world, and generally a less than an enlightened interest in the welfare and destiny of the nation as a whole. 

Yet, notwithstanding the adversity, debilitating and demoralizing as it is, the Arab identity, defined by the Arabic culture with its twin constituents of Arabism, and Islam, still stands distinctively as one of the outstanding identities in the human matrix. By the same token, though deficient and frustrated, the Arab nation is by no means defeated or disabled beyond a realistic potentiality for unity and renaissance. I find it hard to concede that this great nation, once so rich, vibrant, productive, and pregnant with vigor and talent, would not join the ranks of great nations.

The Arabs once gave the world a full fledged civilization that enhanced many national cultures; they can yet contribute significantly to the human enterprise. They can yet rise to take their proper place under the sun and play their part in augmenting human progress. That kind of opportunity is never denied by history to a nation that finds her soul and works her will with unity, industry, integrity, and wisdom. The Arabs, too, have that opportunity before them. Proud of their identity and culture, and if intent as well on rising up the ranks of nations, they must pull together and claim that opportunity before long.

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THE ARAB SENSE OF BELONGING

Dr. Halim Barakat

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Arabs sought to stabilize their national identity, and there they are, at the end of the century, struggling to maintain it, after it had suffered partition and complexity. In this struggle to stabilize their identity and overcome problems and divisions, they had to agree upon one language and one history for themselves and for the others who were trying to impose their own identities by breaking down the Arab ones.

The most important aspect of this search is to recognize the Arabs’ perception of their identity: often it has been a "perfect" perception, emphasizing similarity instead of complementarity. That is why consensus has been achieved all too often through coercive compliance, the imposition of a one-sided identity and hostility towards others, instead of recognizing them and collaborating to attain political-social integration. In the Arab’s point of view, the Arab identity was constant, fixed and pre-existent. These Arabs secluded themselves from others in the name of authenticity rather than being open to the benefits of diversity.

1 –The Sense of Belonging: Population, Peoples, Tribes? 

Every major attempt to define Arab identity has included language at its heart, despite the myriad of other factors involved.  All of the theorists of Arab nationalism agreed that language is a key element to determine the Arab identity, regardless of their disagreements over other elements. Abed el Aziz al- Douri argued that language was the first common element throughout Arab history, which led to the beginnings of the Arab consciousness, before the rise of Islam. Thus he concluded that Arab identity is a cultural issue, not a racial, national or religious. However, we must admit that the Arabs faced several problems with their language. One of these is the huge gap between classical Arabic language and local dialects. What worsens the latter problem is the spread of illiteracy and limited access to education, which reflects negatively on the fundamental tenet of the theory that classical written Arabic is the key universal language that unites all Arabs despite their different regions, atmospheres, countries and civilizations.

Whatever the relationship was between Arabs and their language, the language alone does not constitute an identity, and if it did, it would be vulnerable to whims. It is undeniable that the Arab sense of belonging and the rise of a national consciousness have other grounds like culture, history, geography, economics, social structures and historical conflicts. Before we address these other grounds in subsequent parts of this chapter, we should clarify that belonging to an identity is a unique mix between objective and subjective elements during a certain social-historical era.

In all communities, both the population and the individual have affiliations; in the Arab community, there are caste affiliations, as well as religious, sectarian, regional, ethnic, and tribal, all with overlapping mutual interests. These intersecting affiliations might accord or oppose with the general national sense of what it means to be Arab within vertical or horizontal relationships; in the Arab community, these affiliations are considered an alternative to nationalism thus explicit or implicit clashes might take place.

Since the beginning of the modern era , in the words Abed el Aziz al- Douri , "Islam has unified the Arabs and provided them with a mission and with an intellectual ideology to form a state (…) The Islamic movement was bound to an Arab ambience and [to] Arab people as well .” It was not surprising that Arabs felt a strong connection to Islam  and to an outstanding entity. Hence, Islam and Arabism were equivalent in the eyes of other nations, for the state was Arabic, the language was Arabic, and the Arabs were the bearers of Islam.

2 - Religious and Confessional Identity.

Therefore, some scholars have stressed the inseparability of Islam and Arabism, but others in the modern era also stress the conflict between religious unity and nationalistic unity. This discrepancy is especially prevalent when Islam as a religion, beliefs and texts is compared to Islam as institutions, daily behavior, and political movements. The Ottoman Empire, built on the latter interpretation of Islam, fell in the early twentieth century. Thus, the call to Arab unity that quickly succeeded it, was seen as a viable alternative to the Ottoman succession, where some national groups dominated others in the name of religion.

On the other hand, the most important thing to keep in mind during discussions about the clash between theology and religious civilization is that the religious demographics in a number of Arab countries, especially in the Arab Mashreq, turned a primarily religious reality, under the Ottomans, into a sectarian one, after their fall. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Arabs are Muslims (the proportion of non-Muslims is less than ten percent), emphasizing that Islam has been a factor of unity and not a factor of division.

Despite Islam as the unifying factor, we find that Arab loyalties lie largely to their sects and groups at the expense of society, religion and nation. Tarek el Beshri defines sectarianism as, "an autonomist consciousness awakened within the one's self towards his own race, religion or beliefs, that encourages him, for the right or wrong motives, to exhibit a negative attitude against those who don't share his race, religion or beliefs.

If we focus on confessional systems by themselves, we figure out that muslims are distributed to Sunnis, Shiites, Alawites, Druze, Shafi'ie and Zaidi, as well as by ideologies, sects, and tribal-political-sectarian movements (e.g. Mahdiya and Khatami Movements in Sudan). Arabs often tend to be free from traditional loyalties to the larger society and religion, including loyalties to their confessional government; traditional structures, organizations, and institutions have repressed the Arab’s sense of individual empowerment, which has caused the public to define the citizen as a member of a confession or a group, instead of considering him foremost as citizen equal to others with his own rights and obligations.

For two decades, western imperialism reinforced sectarian and traditional affiliations (even invented, in some cases), for its own interests and dominance. It also contributed, with the collusion of some major local powers, to establishing new states. The foundation upon which these “homelands” were built forced them to compete among each other, always in need of outside interference, help and protection.

The last decade of the twentieth century witnessed new divisions in all Arab countries between both religious and national orientation. Several attempts are being made to reconcile the two trends, since they both call for one identity beyond tribal and local identities, both have suffered repeated defeats, and both struggle under the yoke of conflict with the West.

However, some radical Islamist forces feel threatened by nationalist and Islamic movements that call for change. An article in a Middle Eastern newspaper in the early eighties entitled Down with Arab Nationalism, stated: "The life of a Muslim believer, with Mohammed bin Abdullah (Peace be Upon Him), is based on the Islamic brotherhood, away from nationalism and fanaticism and prejudices ... Long live the Nation of Islam and fall of Arab nationalism."

Yet we have to assure that the national conflict is not a conflict with Islam as a religion, but a conflict with the fundamentalist movements that exploit Islam for political reasons. We are witnessing, in this struggle for national unity, not only a unique union of several movements, but of religions ones as well.

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POINT OF VIEW ON THE MEANING OF ARABISM

Sobhi Ghandour

To understand the meaning of Arabism, one must understand the concept of the essential nature of the human Arab being.  I have placed the term “human” before, and with, the word “Arab” because it is essential in order to stress the unifying element of the human origin and to eliminate every definition based on bloodline, race, family origin, or even place of birth.  Many people are born outside the Arab world but still consider themselves to be Arabs, whereas many others are born inside the Arab region but refuse to belong to the Arab world. On the contrary, they are proud of belonging to other nations.

Therefore, the Arab person is not defined simply by the Arabic language he speaks; merely speaking the language of a nation does not necessarily mean a state of belonging to that nation.

The Arab is the person who belongs to the Arab culture (in terms of both language and how he/she thinks).  He/she lives within the Arab culture, which includes the language and a common history that took place and is taking place on a common Arab territory. This formation of the Arab identity through diverse linguistic, historical and cultural backgrounds is much like the process through which the American identity was forged during the last five centuries.

The Arab is the person who belongs to the Arab nation, in terms of the elements of this nation’s constitution i.e the language and the culture with a common history on a common territory, even if this person is not aware of the elements that constitute his/her “citizenship.” But there are differences between: (1) Arabism and the Arabic language, (2) Arabism and Nationalism, and (3) Arabism and Arab Unity.

1 – The Difference Between Arabism and the Arabic Language

The Arabic language is the language of the Arab culture.  While every Arab person is an Arab linguistically, not every Arab is an Arab nationalist. An Arab nationalist is the one who brings together the language of the Arab culture and the civilized meaning of the language and who willingly belongs to a unique nation existing now among many countries.  Pan-Arabism is essentially composed of complementary interconnected nations.  Therefore, Arabism does not abolish nor contradict family, tribal, or national connections; rather, it accepts and defines them within a framework of a relationship between the parts and the whole.

2 – Concerning Arabism and Nationalism

Nationalism alone is an expression that includes parts of the definition of Arabism, but excludes the dimension of cultural identity. In some cases, it concerns the ideological and political fields (for example, “Syrian nationalism”); in other cases, it concerns ethnicity (such as “Kurdish nationalism”). Nationalism is an expression in which other meanings from modern and contemporary history have been intermixed.  These other meanings often have racial overtones or have had a history of being an alternative to religion. The expression of nationalism has been abused by many contemporary political movements.

On the other hand, the expression of Arabism is self-defining because Arabism includes a specific and generalized definition of nationalism.  However, the use of the term “nationalism” nowadays does not provide the meaning of Arabism. Saying “I am a nationalist” means identifying oneself as an intellectually and culturally defined person, whereas, if I say “I am an Arab nationalist,” a lot of explanation and clarification is needed. Arabism is an expression of belonging to a more largely defined nationalism, which has characteristics and specifications different even from those of other nationalisms within the circle of the Islamic World.

3 – Concerning Arabism and Arab Unity

The call for Arabism is intellectual and cultural, whereas the call for Arab unification is a political movement. Belonging to Arabism means accepting to belong to one nation that could express itself in a complementary way with unity amongst its people.

Arab Unity might be accomplished by force or by common interests (such as the European model) without having all the peoples belong to a single nation. Therefore, the expression “Arab Unity” is not a standard for the existence of Arabism. Arabism must, by all means, express its existence in a politically unified way or in a federally complementary way.

During the twentieth century, when the French and British empires succeeded the Ottoman empire, the Arabs moved from enjoying free movement throughout one territory (without a unique political Arab entity, of course) into a state of restrictions and barriers within the common Arab territories. There were attempts to make specific, partitioned cultures encouraged by the British and French authorities who dominated the Arab territories at that time.  The United States would later replaced the British and French as the authority over the partitioned Arab territories, including its extensive, open support for Israel as Jewish nationalism on an Arab territory.

The Arab language and culture existed before the appearance of Islam, but it was confined to the Arab tribes and on well-defined geographical areas.  While Arabism, as an identity of cultural civilization and belonging, came about with the emergence of Islam and its association with the Arabic language through the Holy Quran, as well as its dissemination by Arab pioneers. Thus, Arabism is a distinct dimension of the civilization created by Islam, with characteristics of the Arabic language, as a language resulting from its association with Islam and containing the Arab culture from the past, present, and future.

This how Arabism is the Arab Culture with a civilized context, and thus the Arab culture developed out of the tribal or ethnic circles within small geographical limits into a large circle that widens its definition to cover “Arabism”. Tghat includesall who merge into the Arabic culture, regardless of their ethnic origin, religion or denomination

The Arabs are one nation under the banner of a common language, culture, history, and geography, existing for centuries in the context of Islamic civilization; nevertheless, they have not existed within one political framework on the basis of Arabism only.  The Arab territory was under one authority during some stages of history, but this was on the basis of one religious Islamic reference (the Caliphate) and not on the Arab national basis.

This interaction between localized Arab culture and the larger Islamic world is how Arab culture widened its definitions to cover “Arabism” and became the larger “Arab Identity.”  That includes all who merge into the Arab culture, regardless of their ethnic origin, religion, or denomination.

Attaining the goal of a unified entity -- the Arab union -- must be built on a democratic basis internally and on a peaceful dialogue among all the Arab partners.  Thus, the Arabs must agree on the importance of resilience in achieving a constitutional political entity that expresses national unity.