The Middle East: Arab World or Muslim World? Essay

Introduction

Some key points on the term origin

When defining the term Arabs, it is necessary to consider some important historical points. First of all it should be noted that the first records of the term appear in the annals of the history of the Assyrian empire. Keeping in mind the growth of a wide range of Arab-Islamic empires, one can probably state that Arabs are people who speak Arabic. The assumption seems to be partially correct, as there are many other ethnic groups on the territory of the Middle East. For instance, one cannot speak about an Arab majority in such countries as Iran, Israel and Turkey. Thus, in Iran there is a Persian majority (55% of population), 85% of population is Turkic on the territory of Turkey. Jewish (82% of population) constitute the majority ethnic group in Israel.

Religion in the Middle East

Religion is also recognized to be one of the major points which cannot be neglected, as it is closely related to people’s ethnicity. The majority of population of the Middle East professes Islam. For this reason, the followers of the religion are called Muslims. Judaism and Christianity are the major religions in Israel and Palestinian areas. Still, despite the fact that Islam is the major faith of the Middle East, it should be noted that there is a variety of different sects within Islam. Some people who are unfamiliar with the history of the Middle East try to find certain connections between people’s religion and their national identity. It is a mistake, as ethnic background is usually defined according to people’s country of origin.

As far as the word is used to describe people from the Middle East, one can conclude that in common sense Arabs can be regarded as the representatives of the ethnic group, which originated from the Arabian Peninsula. However, it is extremely important to understand that the meaning of the term Arabs differs from the meanings of such terms as Arabics or Arabians. For instance, one is to keep in mind that the word Arabian is mostly associated with Arabian horses.

Pan-Arabism as a major ideological force and its importance

When discussing the term Arabs in relation to pan-Arabism, some fundamentals on the dominant ideological force must be considered. Generally, it should be pointed out that pan-Arabism gave rise to a variety of nationalist movements. The key idea of pan-Arabism is considered to be the unification of all Arab people.

Originally, pan-Arabism was recognized to be both – political and cultural movement; for this reason, its basic concepts were regarded rather ambiguously. For instance, some people considered pan-Arabism as the movement for political autonomy; therefore, the principal idea of the movement was one state for one nation. Other individuals associated the movement with the idea of cultural revival; so, no political conceptions were taken into account. In the early thirties, the common idea of the movement was finally formed: pan-Arabism started to be associated with the quest for independence.

Michael N. Barnett (1998) is of the opinion that “Arabism began to emerge as an important political movement because of the massive political and social upheavals that accompanied World War I and the death of the Ottoman Empire” (p. 4). Generally, it should be noted that there were Arab leaders who transformed Arabism into the tool of political survival. When Arabism became a popular movement, political elites started to expand transnational network. A wide range of cultural movements appeared to form people’s national awareness. The leaders of the new ideological force started to popularize the idea of Arab identity all over.

Despite the fact that pan-Arabism propagandized the unification of Arabs, there were no concrete political programs the movement was based on. Supporters of pan-Arabism dreamed about the political unification of the territories wherever Arabic was spoken. For this reason, the independence of the separate Arab states became the key idea of Arab nationalists. A territorial character of the new movement gives us an opportunity to conclude that the key principle of Arab nationalism was mostly related to the territorial independence of a variety of Arab states, but not their political consolidation.

The major myths on pan-Arab nationalism

Keeping in mind the events, which took place in times of the Gulf War, one can remember what basic principles of pan-Arab nationalism were broken. Thus, when speaking about the movement the “Arab Piedmont and Prussia”, it becomes evident that Egypt’s Nasser and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein did not implement their idea on Arab leadership. The idea of the so-called “artificial borders” failed as well as the idea of “common Arab interests”.

As far as these three pillars of one of the major ideological forces were broken, one can conclude that all the countries of the Middle East were not ready to implement the ideas of political unification and face issues on Arab identity. In other words, there were numerous internal contradictions concerning collective identity, which prevented shaping Middle East self-consciousness. In my opinion, Middle East nations were not ready to resolve a wide range of contradictions the issues of patriotism and nationalism involve.

Still, if the only religion of the Middle East were Islam, the idea of the unification of Arabs would be successfully implemented. Thus, Sylvia G. Haim (1962) states:

If this bond [Islam] could be strengthened, if it were to become the spring of [Muslims’] lives and the focus of their loyalty, then prodigious forces of solidarity would be engendered to make possible the creation and maintenance of a strong and stable state (p. 9).

Many scientists are of the opinion that pan-Arabism was formed on the basis of internal religious issues. However, on the other hand, certain external influences cannot be neglected. Globalization, for instance, caused numerous political, cultural and religious challenges; so, many followers of the dominant ideological force consider globalization as a negative process, which speeded up the collapse of pan-Arabism.

Some significant points on Radical Islam

When pan-Arab nationalism collapsed, the new political force came into existence. Generally, the new ideological force cannot be neglected, because it still plays extremely important role in the modern Middle East. For instance, political, cultural, and religious principles of the contemporary movement are all based on the concept of collective struggle against “West-toxication”. Many supporters of the movement fight against numerous moral discrepancies, among which most important are considered to be materialism and attitudes that religion should have no place in civil affairs. Radical Islam tends to eliminate moral degeneracy Western influences bring about.

The criteria the Middle East should be defined according to

The term Arabs in relation to the population of the Middle East can be regarded rather ambiguously. There are many contradictions concerning the definitions of the “Middle East”. Thus, it is difficult to say for sure whether an extensive area of SW Asia and northern Africa should be defined within ethnicity or language and religion differences. As far as there are many conflicting answers, one can state that the question is still to be discussed.

The Arab world vs. the Muslim world: the Western positions

Of course, it seems to be evident that the issues of ethnicity cannot be regarded within the areas of the Middle East. In most cases, a wide range of representatives of many other ethnicities see Arabs as those, who follow the basic principles of Islam. When discussing the Western position to Arabs, one can probably notice that West distinguishes between the Arab world and the Muslim world. Thus, the Arab world is considered to be less aggressive as compared with the Muslim one, because Arabs can understand and accept other cultural values and religions; while Muslims reject all religions except Islam. So, still, the principal difference between the Arab world and the Muslim world is people’s attitude to culture and religion.

Generally, one can conclude that the key difference between Arabs and Muslims is their way of thinking. For instance, Muslim political attitudes differ from Arab political positions. Muslims do not consider politics as a kind of activity which can exist independently of religion. Arabs, in turn, draw little attention to politics as compared with Muslims, and the religion they confess does not encourage aggressiveness towards the rest of the world. The most interesting point, however, is that Islam is also one of the most widespread religions of Arabs, but there is the so-called Arab mind, which differs greatly from the Muslim consciousness.

Conclusion

Finally, it seems to be evident that the term Arabs is not easy to define in a proper way. Of course, it is wrong to rely on certain regions of the Middle East, religious issues or distinct ethnic groups to denote Arabs. When speaking about the general meaning of the term, one can state that there is the ethnic group, which originated from the Arabian Peninsula, which is called Arabs. However, certain modern conceptions should be also taken into account. Thus,

Modern Arab intellectuals are well aware of the difficulty in defining an Arab. As long ago as December, 1938, a conference of Arab students in Europe, held in Brussels, declared that “all who are Arab in their language, culture and loyalty (or “national feeling”) are Arabs.” Some of the same intellectuals, however, have spoken of the present disunity of the Arabs as the result of European imperialism during the last century or more. It does not take much knowledge of history to demonstrate that is a complete misconception (Watt & Cachia, n.d.).

For this reason, it is necessary to rely on a wide range of data in order to make a right conclusion in relation to Arabs. Generally, keeping in mind the current analysis it becomes clear that Arabs are not those who speak Arabic (as there are many Jews as well as other ethnic groups who speak Arabic). Arabs are not those whose religion is Islam, as other nationalities can also confess the religion. Arabs are not those who live on the certain territories of the Middle East, as the phenomenon of the so-called ethnic diversity occurs all over. There is no an accurate meaning for the term, but in common sense one can define Arabs as members of a Semitic people inhabiting much of the Middle East and North Africa.

References:

Barnett, M. (1998). Dialogues in Arab Politics: Negotiations in Regional Order. Northsouth.edu. Web.

Haim, S. (1976). Arab Nationalism: An Anthology. Berkeley, USA: University of California Press.

Watt, W., & Cachia, P. (n.d.). Who is an Arab?Upenn.edu. Web.