Arab nationalism

“ They must also guard their economic interests, as part of their duty as Governors. He hoped no Power imagined that it had the right to limit the independence of a people because it had material interests in their country. Arab religious differences were being exploited. These had been triumphed over in the Hedjaz army, in which all creeds co-operated to free their country. The first efforts of the Arab Government would be to maintain this welding of the faiths, in their common service of the principle of nationality. ”

“ The non-Arabic-speaking elements in this area do not, I believe, exceed one per cent, of the whole.
The aim of the Arab nationalist movements (of which my father became the leader in war after combined appeals from the Syrian and Mesopotamian branches) is to unite the Arabs eventually into one nation. As an old member of the Syrian Committee I commanded the Syrian revolt, and had under me Syrians, Mesopotamians, and Arabians.
We believe that our ideal of Arab unity in Asia is justified beyond need of argument. ”

“ The abandonment of great cities and the ruin of many tribes contributed to the apparent nationalization of the Arab peoples. Though the traditional jealousy and hostility of the two branches, the Yemenites and Maadites or Ishmaelites, remained, the Arab world had attained by the levelling process of common misfortune the superficial unity it presents to-day. The nation thus formed, never a nation in the strict sense of the word, was distinctively and thoroughly Semitic in character and language, and has remained unchanged to the present day. ”

“ In order to be a true Arab believing in the objectives of the nation, such as Arab unity, which are essential for its strength and strong building, has an Arab to look upon this matter in a premature and shortened way on the basis of the neutral, naive and incapable question: What can he gain materialistically or economically from that belongingness just now? ”

“ Having been put to test, the Arab Nation alone is capable of playing this role truly and honestly, and not any oppressive, authoritarian or exploitative role when it becomes distinguished regionally and internationally, in contrast to other nations which have failed to play that role. ”

“ Unity, Freedom and Socialism, the past twenty years have witnessed developments that resulted in many phenomena in our Arab nation and its Arab homeland. Those developments have raised many questions, including, for example, that the per capita income in the Arab Gulf States and Emirates has increased to an extent, which creates a kind of selfishness amongst specific communities towards Arabism and Arab struggle, particularly against unity and socialism. Some people began to consider talking about Arab unity as if an approach to seize and control their wealth through integration. ”

“ Hence, is it a paradox that some Arab states should consent or seek to become part of regional or international organizations in which a new flag flutters above their flags over which flies the US or other flag, as is now the fashion with the so-called GATT and subsequently the World Trade Organization... and find it strange that the will of the nation should fly over their will to strengthen and heighten it? ”

“ The leaders of this movement recognise that a closely compacted Arab State is neither in harmony with the national genius of the Arabs nor feasible from the point of view of finance and administration ; however, they are of opinion that if protection against Turkish and German domination is assured, a confederation of Arabic-speaking States could be formed which would satisfy their racial desire for freedom, and at the same time conform with their natural political customs. ”

“ The Great War undoubtedly stimulated Pan-Arabism, especially by its creation of an independent Arab kingdom in the Hedjaz with claims on Syria and Mesopotamia. However, the various Arab peoples are so engrossed with local independence agitations looking toward the elimination of British, French, and Italian control from specific regions like Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Tripoli, that the larger concept of Pan-Arabism, while undoubtedly an underlying factor, is not to-day in the foreground of Arab nationalist programmes. ”

“ I think that any wise and objective person, even if his nationalist belief has not been completely matured, will choose his nation and its united state. This is the way which connect the weft to its wrap in a manner that leads to weaving the beautiful dress of the nation which reunified its spirit in a new creation and defends the Unity whether amongst the sons of the Arab Gulf countries and other Arab countries or amongst all parts and countries of the nation with each other. ”

“ At all events, Arab unity is brought about by the solid will and the devoted endeavor, relying on God, of the national and nationalist Arab leaderships, with the capable support of the crusading and conscious masses, or comes about, even when the will of the rulers hesitates on the path of its achievement, through imposing the will of the conscious masses, under the leadership of their crusading revolutionary vanguards in the name of the people and the nation. ”

“ Does not the word 'Ghazi' signify a hero who slays the infidel? Does not every Mollah, when he recites the Khuttab in the mosque, invoke divine wrath on the non-Moslem? What then? The establishment of an Arab Empire would mean the revolt of the whole Eastern world against the Western world, and a return to all the brutality, all the intolerance of the farrago of moribund nonsense known as the Sacred Law. ”

“ Wealth, as such, together with trade, investment and depositing, has no safe place and an arena where it flourishes, without the Arab homeland in its entirety being open to it, without being supported by all the capabilities of the nation and without the grand Arab Unity, which plucks out egoism and fear from hearts, releases energies and capabilities in order to soar to their clear sky and future. ”

“ My father has a privileged place among Arabs, as their successful leader, and as the head of their greatest family, and as Sherif of Mecca. He is convinced of the ultimate triumph of the ideal of unity, if no attempt is made now to force it, by imposing an artificial political unity on the whole, or to hinder it, by dividing the area as spoils of war among great Powers. ”

“ The unity in which we believe, about which we talk and for which we call, is not a passive, inevitable integration of the Arab countries which eliminate their cherished and necessary characteristics, but rather it is a glorious and ample framework for interaction and great becoming which expresses the nation's capabilities, destiny and its looking for what is higher, superior and the best. ”

“ The Arabs, whether they be those in the scarlet [296] burnouses of the caïd-ship or in the rags of the beggar, are all the same: a people who have destroyed without creating, who have been divided when their unity would have made them great, who have lived on theory.
We have before us the relics of the Carthaginians, of the Numidians, of the stupendous work of the Roman Empire, and then centuries of nothing. War, devastation, intrigue, mark the period covered by the Arab domination. ”

“ Any other solution would be regarded by the Arabs in the light of a division of spoils after a battle. The Arabs had fought a hard fight to achieve unity. He hoped the Conference would regard them as an oppressed nation which had risen against its masters. The Arabs asked for freedom only and would take nothing less. He thought the Conference would be of the opinion that the Arab revolt had been as well conducted as any rebellion of an oppressed people in recent memory. The Arabs were an ancient people, civilised and organised at a time when the nations represented in this room were unformed. ”

“ The Arabs have constantly been seeking their freedom and independence; when the Second World War broke out and the Allies declared that they were fighting to restore freedom to the nations the Arabs sided with the Allies and placed all their means at their disposal and in fact fought with them for the realization of their national aspirations and their independence. Great Britain took upon herself the recognition of the independence of the Arab countries in Asia including Palestine. ”

“ But neither here nor elsewhere did they intermarry with the Arabs on equal terms, nor were they, in point of fact, looked upon otherwise than as of inferior caste. Thus though in theory, on becoming Muslims, conquered nations might enter the "equal brotherhood" of Islam, they formed not the less an altogether lower estate. The race and language, ancestral dignity, and political privileges of the Arab hue continued for many generations to be paramount. ”

“ For these reasons and for other more important reasons on which a principled and moral position has been already taken, since an Arab is obliged to correct the deviation and to be a good example to be followed by humanity, not a bad one, his society, especially the society of unity which is a society of highness and not a society of falling into the abyss, should be prevailed by equitable rights and duties. ”

“ On the arena of the Arab nation, extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arab Gulf, and its great capabilities, its economy flourishes in order to be in various bright colors, all of which serving the supreme interest, to the greater firmness and solidarity of Arab unity. ”

“ They are in the land in which that race was cradled. There are no fundamental incompatibilities between them. The scheme satisfies the deepest aspiration of both: independence. There is a considerable body of opinion in both groups which seeks the course of cooperation. Despite, then, the drawback of the Arab minority, the setting is one from which, with good will and a spirit of cooperation, may arise a rebirth, in historical surroundings, of the genius of each people. ”

“ In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, fundamentalists helped articulate anticolonial grievances but played little role in the overwhelmingly secular struggles for independence after World War I.Western-educated lawyers, soldiers, and officials led most independence movements, and clerical influence and traditional culture were seen as obstacles to national progress. After gaining independence from Western powers following World War II, the Arab Middle East followed an arc from initial pride and optimism to today’s mix of indifference, cynicism, and despair. ”

“ It marries with the monotony of things, of life. What monotony of life must be here! Who could understand such lives! I felt a darkness under all that I had seen of Arab existence. There is another side, an underworld, beneath what appears on the surface. Read the annals of Arab war, of Arab love, of Arab rule. What cruelty, what baseness, what rapacity! What a power of hate! No pen can tell the horrors of their warfare, their lust for blood and pain, their delight in carnage and savagery. ”

“ The general decadence of nations and faiths at this time offered an unparallelled chance to the mythical Arab who, by evolving a religious and political system based upon the common elements that formed the solid foundation of every Arabian tribe, should fuse the emotional and economic strength of the land into an indivisible unity, and—who knew?—perhaps carry on the torch recently dropped by the expiring Roman Empire. ”

“ Wherever Arabs went they formed a class apart and dominant,—the nobles and rulers of the land. Subject peoples, even if they embraced Islam, were of a lower caste; they could aspire to nothing higher than, as "clients" of some Arab chief or tribe, to court patronage and protection. Thus the Arabians set themselves apart, as a nation militant, for the sacred task of propagating Islam. Even after the 150
new-born zeal of the Faith had evaporated, the chivalry of the Arabs as a race wholly devoted to arms, was, owing mainly to 'Omar's foresight, maintained in full for two centuries and a half. ”

“ However, with the capabilities of the impetus of principles and the impetus provided by the stage of rise, the doors for the future are widely and firmly opened. The present and future of Iraq, which are measured by its will and faith, are more secured and bright than other cases which do not believe in the importance of Arab Unity and do not work for it. ”

“ The most sacred ties of nationality, of religion, or of kindred were powerless to counteract this deep-rooted antipathy, which seems inherent in the two divisions of the Arab race. The most noble incentives to patriotism, the pride of victory, the alluring prospects of commercial greatness, of literary distinction, of boundless [280] dominion, were ignored in the hope of humiliating a rival faction and of gratifying a ruthless spirit of revenge. At different times—such is the strange inconsistency of human nature—the Maadites became voluntary dependents of the kings of Yemen and Hira. ”

“ Hence, the good which benefits Iraq, for instance, should, since we are one nation, benefit all the sons of our Arab Nation in one way or another: Iraqis, Egyptians, Syrians, Yemenis, people in the Arab Gulf and Maghrib (Northwest Africa) , otherwise, the concept of one nation remains inadequate, unable to cherish the principles of the fateful Arab solidarity among the sons of the Nation to stand in one rank in word, in deed and in trend. ”