SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Pan-Arab nationalism seeks a closer form of political union between the Arab states. Arab nationalist writers consider that such a union will enable the Arabs to achieve complete freedom and allow them to enjoy rapid social and economic progress. They consider that a nation can be proved to exist if a group of people have a common language, culture, history, territory and economic interests; they seek to prove, employing vague arguments, that all the Arabic speaking peoples do from such a nation. Pew Arab nationalist writers attempt to suggest in detail what form the pan-Arab union should take; they show little unanimity and their conclusions are seen to conflict with the form of government in force, in the United Arab Republic. The relationship between Arab nationalism and religion is seen to be very complicated; there seems widespread disaccord among Arab nationalist writers concerning, in particular, the place of Islam in the proposed Arab union. The attitude shown by Arab nationalist writers towards the Western Powers and Israel show clearly their complete dislike and distrust of their intentions and their policies. Only a minority see a need to give credit to any benefits the influence of the West may have brought to the Arab world. In contrast to this, Arab nationalists, although they criticise communist ideology, are seen to be extremely grateful towards the Communist Bloc for the help it has given them in their struggle with their "imperialist enemies," Many supporters of pan-Arab nationalism see in Jamal 'Abd al-Nasir the personification of the Arabs' struggle for unity and progress; an examination of his speeches, however, shows that until the Suez War at least, he frequently expressed himself as an Egyptian first and an Arab only secondly. Opposition to Arab nationalism is examined superficially in some works in support of pan-Arab unity.