M. Bitar, George Banna:
Arabism has occupied a central, normative position for measuring progress and backwardness, Arabism is nothing but a culture and what this culture includes in terms of religion, beliefs, customs, traditions, science, knowledge, etc, The quality of this culture expresses the ability to change and develop or to surrender to stagnation in place, that is, not progress but rather relative backwardness, which characterizes this part of the world, whose groups try to refrain from progress and remain captive to the backward past, as a constant that must be preserved for a reason that has no relation to objectivity, logic, or interest, The sad thing was the “consolidation” of attempts to stabilize and reside in the past and thus to adhere to the methodology of backwardness and backwardness!
Arabism, or Arab culture in general, is characterized by the dominance of tradition over reason, due to the dominance of religious faith over human decision-making,This rigid, dogmatic faith has led to numerous distortions in the human psyche, including a messianic narcissism that has driven followers of this particular religion to believe they have a leading role in the world, and therefore the right to dominate and to be role models for others as the best of nations, They believe they have no need for knowledge because they were the world’s teachers, despite the fact that this “mastery” of the world is a farcical premise that became a laughingstock after being promoted by a Jordanian Muslim muslim Brotherhood member, Muhammad al-Qudat., The Arabs’ situation prevented them from being role models, and they were unable to lead the world, Leadership does not mean being able to occupy certain regions in a moment of historical hijacking, They were unable to even establish a “state,” or even to lead their own people,The Arabs have no influence in this world except for oil, which they neither produced nor extracted, and they cannot even control it as they wish, The world’s teachers, but they did not become teachers and were not teachers, and the best nation is an empty concept, for the best nation produces more good than others, and this is not what we have seen from the Arabs and Arabism until today.
One of the diseases afflicting the peoples of this region is the disease of self-importance, which then swells to the point of bursting, The source of this pathological self-importance was the feeling of possessing absolute truth, which represents absolute madness, It is enough for some to be born into, or what is called innate, Muhammadanism for God to think that He has bestowed upon them a religion that He has not bestowed upon others, meaning that the Creator loved them more than He loved others. Herein lies the paradox, since the Almighty Creator did not deal with them in a way that suggests His deep love for them,And when they are asked about the reason for this unfair treatment of His beloved ones, which manifested itself in poverty, backwardness, hunger, shortened lifespans, disease, and much more, they claim that the Creator wanted to “test” them, that is, to test the strength of their faith! And why doesn’t the Creator test others, the atheists, who do not believe in Him openly and day after day? In any case, the issue of testing remains vague and closer to superstition than to objectivity and rationality that can be understood!
Arab culture, or Arabism metaphorically, is characterized by religiosity and the accompanying passion for dwelling in the past , The reason was the belief that religion is sacred and valid for all times and places, This sanctification and validity for all times and places imposes on people an ahistorical reading of texts, that is, not taking into account the historical circumstances in which those texts were found,The validity remains for all times and places despite the change of time and place, Some superficial or even silly examples are like the prayer times related to sunrise and sunset, which are different in Alaska than in the Arabian Peninsula,The validity for all times and places compels the practice of ruminating on the past and linking the present to the past or importing the past into the present.
Living in the past has a profound impact on all aspects of life, even in the field of literature , Here, a person imprisons himself in the past and in the company of Abu Zayd al-Hilali, Antarah, or others, Here, the literary products of the new era are rejected, If peoples had practiced obedience and submission to the Ottoman Sultan, and if Napoleon had not brought the printing press, there would have been no printing! If people had adhered to the fatwas of the sheikhs, there would have been no telephone, radio, internet, and others, Imagine the state of humanity when they live in the past, imported in its entirety into the present! In general, nothing is valid for all times and places, and nothing is sacred except the sanctity of man and his will.
The revival of the “glories” of the Arab nation, as desired by the Brotherhood and the Baath Party, is not limited to material aspects, but also includes non-material aspects, which are considered to be at the core of religiosity, which perpetuates the feeding of human culture with hostility, rejection, and takfir, which breeds to give birth to treason, Then what is the relationship of Baathist socialism to the past? And were the caliphs and their role model, Ibn Abdullah, Marxists-Leninists? Is the perpetuation of violence, looting, and the mentality of war spoils beneficial, worthwhile, and a factor of progress and advancement? The mentality of war has taken the form of “looting,” which is incompatible with morality ,Therefore, war spoils must be considered a grievous evil, and any saying or statement, “Eat of what you have gained, it is lawful and pure,” must be considered invalid and subject to abrogation or cancellation, Here, the rules for distributing spoils (the rule of one-fifth) must be treated with the same tool of abrogation or cancellation, It is also a human and national necessity to reject the mentality of warfare, such as the mentality of the Battles of the Camel and Karbala, and others, It is also necessary to reject the tribalism and clannism that are still strongly dominant, Invoking the past means invoking all that has been mentioned, and more can be mentioned, such as the concept of “pollution” that considers the other “impure,” or the concept of “Arab cultural security,” The concept of Arab cultural security means openness to the world, Cultural security does not mean closing windows and doors to the winds of progress and opening them to the dust of Karbala and wars like Karbala,The creeping culture of the other’s progress over the heads of the Arabs does not mean occupying and colonizing their heads, but rather making them suitable for this time and especially for the future.
The culture of dwelling in the past perpetuates the concept of “inspiration,” which spares humanity the effort of creation and innovation, ultimately leading to cultural extinction through stagnation, rigidity, and an inability to keep pace with the times, This failure to keep up is characterized by the principle of accumulation, meaning the accumulation of backwardness until societies reach a point of suffocation from this backwardness, causing disasters such as food or medical security crises, etc. To this day, some have not grasped the difference between modernity rooted in science, progress, and humanism, and a rootless modernization devoid of critical scientific foundations, Modernization is consumption through purchase, not a modernity that enriches the mind with thought, science, and progress towards a better future!