There are many significant differences that led to European success and Arab failure, including the time difference, as Arab nationalist thought began with the end of European nationalist thought, It can be said that the communist revolution was a sign of the end of European nationalist thought and the beginning of internationalist thought, which is the opposite of nationalist thought, The beginning of Arab nationalist thought was historically linked with the end of European nationalist thought,The Arabs took many concepts from European nationalist thought, but the supply of new European nationalist concepts to Arab nationalist thought stopped almost with the cessation of the growth of European nationalist thought and the beginning of an internationalist stage in Europe.
The Arab countries were an Ottoman colony, and there was acceptance by some groups of Ottoman colonialism, because in their opinion the Ottoman Caliphate was not an occupation but rather an extension and continuation of the Abbasid and Umayyad Caliphate,The Arabs did not dare to openly express their nationalist thought until after the provocation practiced by the Committee of Union and Progress, which practically isolated the Ottoman Caliph Abdul Hamid and began Turkifying the colonies, which led, especially after the Sultanate became weak, some, especially those of Lebanese origin, to practice the opposite and opposing thought (Najib Azoury and after him Antoun Saadeh), that is, considering the Ottoman Sultanate an occupation.
The emergence of Arab nationalist thought was not the result of a conflict with metaphysical thought, as was the case in Europe, but rather a result of the conflict with the Ottomans, In Europe, secular thought triumphed, and as a result, secular democratic national authorities were formed, The opposite happened in the East. The authorities that ruled the Arab countries, especially in the Levant after Sykes-Picot, were nationalist, and after 1928, these nationalist authorities became infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood ideology, etc. The forces considered to be secular nationalist were not democratic, and they were not even nationalist at all, but rather, in their essence, metaphysical. In Europe, the metaphysical was separated from the state, while in the East, the metaphysical was merged with the state, Is it any wonder, then, that local dictatorships failed and European democracies succeeded?
The Arab situation could not have reached the state of misery it has reached, had the Arab nationalist-Brotherhood ideology not committed fatal errors, errors that European nationalist ideology did not commit, which liberated the citizen and liberated him from heaven and the unseen and from superstition, and liberated women and liberated him from ignorance, What happened here was a kind of reckless, forced neurosis , Arab nationalist ideology focused all its attention on the issue of overcoming dependence on the West and liberating itself from Western colonialism. Here, this ideology cannot be blamed for practicing the relentless pursuit of getting rid of external colonialism, but in this regard, it remained for many decades stuck in place, Colonialism went away immediately after the end of the Second World War, and the problem ended, but the jihad against colonialism remained, as if colonialism was still present, The stagnation in place, that is, the continuation of the jihad against a colonialism that no longer exists, was employed to perpetuate the survival of the military, which formally adopted this ideology.
The struggle for liberation from a colonial tyranny that no longer exists was accompanied by the relentless effort to entrench an internal, tyrannical colonialism. In other words, the illusory pursuit of national liberation was accompanied by the creation of dictatorships that enslaved the citizen and robbed him of his freedom… the phenomenon of liberating the homeland and enslaving the citizen! The Arab nationalist-Brotherhood dictatorship failed to understand that liberating the homeland can only be achieved through liberating the citizen, and that it is impossible to reconcile the contradiction of liberating the homeland with enslaving the citizen and building more prisons for more citizens. In this manner, the homeland was liberated from poverty by impoverishing the citizen, from ignorance by keeping the citizen ignorant and destroying educational institutions, developing civil society through a security state that killed civil society, and combating fundamentalism by creating the conditions that enabled it to grow and expand, which surprised many people after the explosions of the Arab Spring. All of the aforementioned mistakes, and if space allowed, I would mention more, were not practiced under European nationalisms, On the contrary, what was mentioned was the case.
European nationalist thought arose in independent states, while the Arab states where Arab nationalist thought emerged were not independent, The external challenges faced by Arab states differed radically from those faced by Western states, which possessed independence and the ability to make their own decisions, It was in the West that the Enlightenment was born and succeeded in influencing Europeans, who lived in scientific, industrial, and secular societies, The Enlightenment, transmitted from Europe to the East, did not have the same significant impact. Enlightenment concepts did not find sufficient positive engagement in the culturally backward, tribal East. Furthermore, the hostility and rejection of the West (as a means of avoiding contamination) persisted, based on several factors, including envy, which often transforms into hatred and rejection. Other issues relate to the role of religious belief and its connection to politics, a relationship that has disappeared in the West but flourished in the East, especially after 1928. There are also issues concerning women’s rights and human rights, which the West advanced while the East regressed, The reasons for rejection and hostility towards the West a century ago are no different than they are today. Not much has changed in this regard.
The success of any concept is not only related to its abstract quality, but also to the form of its applications, The form of applications is related to the party to which they are applied, The applications of European nationalist thought were in the hands of peoples who were more developed than the peoples of the Levant, In addition, European nationalist thought was a popular thought, while in the Levant it was an elitist thought.
It is not true that the death of Arab nationalist thought was premature, for every thought has a role to play, and then another thought comes to replace it, This mechanism is not rooted in the atmosphere of Arab sanctities, Sanctities do not like new situations and even new people, The image that Arab presidents and leaders have presented and continue to present is very expressive of the Arab intellectual and behavioral situation, As long as the leader or president is still alive, there is no need for a new president or leader, and even the clinical death of the president does not exempt him from the tasks of serving the beloved homeland, and some presidents are still practicing their tasks in serving the dear homeland even from their graves.
