Arabs and the West, and the images of success and failure

Maha Bitar, Riba Mansour 

     The Arab countries were an Ot toman     colony, and there was acceptance by the religious fundamentalism of Ottoman colonialism, because the Ottoman Caliphate according to their understanding was not an occupation, but an extension of the Quraysh Caliphate, the peoples of the Ottoman colonies did not dare to profess their nationalist thought, only after the provocation practiced by the movement of union and progress, which practically isolated the Caliph or the Ottoman Sultan and began to leave the peoples of the colonies, which led especially after the Ottomans were weakened, some of the Lebanese origin to practice the opposite thinking and opposition to the existence of Ottoman colonialism, some of which were, for example, Najib Azuri and Anton Saada and others, these considered the Ottoman existence of colonialism must be disposed of, unlike part of the Mohammedans, who considered the Ottoman Sultanate a continuation of the Caliphate and therefore must be preserved, this position was called the concept of “Ethnicity” to be the Ottomans, to be a colonization of the Ottomans, “The concept of the conquering”

Perhaps by comparing the European nationalist thought with the Arab thought of understanding the Arab problem better, the nationalist thought in the Levant differed from the European nationalist thought with many characteristics, for example, the fact that the European nationalist thought is the result of a direct conflict with the clerics, while the Arab nationalist thought in general was the result of the conflict with the Ottomans in the first place and indirectly with the clerics, because the Ottomans colonized in the name of religion, won in Europe the secular thought and as a result, secular nationalist authorities were formed, unlike that happened in the East, the authorities that ruled the countries of the Levant after Sykes-Picot were nationalist, and after the year 1928, these national authorities were infiltrated by religious thought, the political Brotherhood, even that it was said on the tongue of the Arabism, Islam, Arabism, etc. Therefore, European nationalist thought succeeded and the Arab failure 

The European nationalist thought originated in independent countries, while the Arab entities in which the Arab nationalist thought originated were not independent, and the external challenges faced by the Arab entities are radically different from the challenges faced by the Western countries, which possessed the deserved independence and the possibility of decision-making, there was an enlightenment and was able to influence the Europeans, who were present in scientific and industrial societies.

The attempts to transfer the European Enlightenment to the East did not have that success and thus great influence, did not find the concepts of enlightenment in the culturally and cognitively backward tribal East enough positive interaction, in addition to that there was the position of hostility to the West and the rejection of the West, which is still based and based on several factors, including the religion of the West, including envy, which usually turns into hatred and rejection, and then other problems related to the tasks of religion and the relationship of religion to politics, which was absent in the West and spread in the East, especially after the birth of the Mslim Brotherhood in 1928  

The causes of rejection and hostility to the West did not differ a century ago from this era, and did not change in this regard anything, in general, the success of a concept is not only related to its abstract quality, but in the form of its applications, and the form of applications related to the party on which the application, the applications of European national thought were in the hands of more developed people than the peoples of the Levant, in addition to that the European national thought was popular while in the Levant was an elite thought, and in Europe there was no possibility of confusion by religious concepts after the separation of religion from the state, while the confusion in the East and so far 

It would not have been possible for the Arab situation to reach the state of misery and delay that we see and see now, if the Arab-Brokhonic thought did not commit fatal mistakes, not committed by the European nationalist thought, which was a revolution with the utmost positivity and creativity, especially in the field of freedom, i.e. the freedom of the citizen and the freedom of the homeland and the liberation of religion from superstition and then the liberation of politics from religion and the liberation of women and liberation from ignorance, what happened in this region was a kind of disease of the reckless and ignorant nerve of the interests of the peoples, the Arabs have focused all their attention on the subject of overcoming dependence on the West and liberation from Western colonialism and non-pollution in the West, which aborted the possibility of learning from the West and benefiting from its experiences 

There is no blame for a thought that seeks to get rid of external colonialism, but blames any thought that has not been able to identify itself and its weaknesses, the last century has proved that the peoples of the region between the ocean and the Gulf are not able to manage the projects of the “state” that were considered independent, while the League of Nations realized this reality and imposed guardianship on these peoples and the so-called “mandate”, which basically means the rehabilitation of the people to manage itself themselves, and so was the mandate of France on the Syrian region, France made many steps that were rejected by the Syrians at the time, but the experiences of the last century proved the ineligibility of Syrians to exercise autonomy, and proved the positives of the steps that France has taken, including the holding of the first elections in Syria in the last fourteen centuries, then the construction of schools and the construction of bridges such as the unique suspension of Deir Ezzor bridge, then the issuance of the law of parties and the construction of a building and not 

The beginning of the regression from the project of democracy and falling into the bosom of militarization by the first military coup was three years after the departure of France, followed by other coups until the culmination of failure in 1958 with the arbitrary unity between Egypt and Syria, and the beginning of the era of what can be called the culture of Nasser and Abdul Hamid al-Sarraj intelligence, which destroyed the country at an accelerated and escalating pace through the Baath and through Assadism and before them by Bakbashi Abdel Nasser, until it came to the top at the hands of Golaniya, which surpassed even Assadism in bad and criminality and committing massacres 

Sykes-Picot has been accused of splitting and blaming any division, and whoever takes a fleeting look at the Syrian situation now after a hundred years of independence, sees nothing but debris, fragmentation, internal wars, delay at all levels, then demagoguery, criminality, racism, tribal tribalism, sectarianism, and the abolition of politics, Syria, which was a semi-state and had to develop into a state that failed to change into several states that fight with each other and want to move away from each other, so that it is now possible to monitor several conflicting and representative areas of entities that want to secede and exercise autonomy, because everyone was unable to care and manage what resulted from Sykes-Picot, which was nominally unified, which proved that it is not possible to unify the methods and methods practiced by the Syrian independents, in practice it must be said that Sykes-Picot alone while the Syrians are part of what has been proven that it cannot be unified by the methods practiced by the Syrian independents 

External colonialism went in 1946 and came internal colonialism after 1946, and by comparison between external and internal colonialism can be recognized that internal colonialism was worse to degrees than the external, Syria was not liberated in 1946, but Syria was placed starting from 1946 under a brutal and stupid internal dictatorship at the same time, internal colonialism was able to turn the concepts so that the aversion to the French Mandate turned into nostalgia for it, the rejection of the French Mandate turned to claim it, but the concept of formal independence and formal liberation was hit by a strong earthquake represented by the implicit and declared position by some of their desire to put Syria under international trusteeship 

The Arab-Akhunji national dictatorship did not understand that the liberation of the homeland can only be achieved through the liberation of the citizen, and that it is not possible to combine the opposition to the liberation of the homeland with the enslavement of the citizen and the construction of more prisons for more citizens, and in this way the homeland was liberated from poverty by the impoverishment of the citizen, and from ignorance of the citizen and the sabotage of educational institutions and the establishment of memorization schools, the destruction of civil society through the security state that killed civil society, the fight against fundamentalism by creating conditions that enable it to grow and grow, which surprised many people after the explosions of the Arab Spring, we will be satisfied with the mistakes, and if the room expands to mention us more 

Several societies in the world have been liberated from external colonialism and have been able to develop themselves in a positive and constructive direction, unlike what happened in this region, which has been plagued by the opposite of what was mentioned, it was in Europe after the First and Second World War at least eight new countries, including three countries on the ruins of Yogo Slavia and two countries on the ruins of Czechoslovakia and two German states, etc., and none of these countries know anything but progress and success, unlike the countries of the region between the ocean and the Gulf, who takes a fleeting look at Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, Iraq, Libya and others are depressed 

It cannot be said that the death of the Arab nationalist thought was early, for every thought has a role to play and then come another thought to replace it, this mechanism is not rooted in the atmosphere of the Arab holy sites, the holy sites do not like the new situations and even the new of people, the image presented by the Arab presidents and leaders and even the Arab man very expressive of the intellectual and behavioral situation of the Arabs or Arabizers, the leader is always alive for a new leader, and even the clinical death of the president does not exempt him from the tasks of serving the beloved homeland !!! , Some leaders are still practicing their tasks in the service of the dear homeland even from their graves , The rule of the graves is not limited to the people of the modern era , but the concept of resurrecting what was called the glories of the Arab nation again , And did this nation know “glories”? Are the conquests glories? Is savagery glory