Home Page: OCIN INITIATIVE
By Areha Kazuya
E-mail: areha_kazuya@jcom.home.ne.jp
Chapter 2 Global wave – The end of colonial era and the emerging two super powers
2-5(19) Arab world where ideology did not take root
The three Western military alliances - NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) and CENTO (Central East Treaty Organization, originally METO or Baghdad Convention) were anti-communism military allies against the USSR. It was a containment policy for the USSR. This made the USSR completely surrounded from the west to the east of the Eurasian Continent. The US feared that after the world war II socialist and communist ideology was penetrating the world with a furious momentum.
The United States named this "Domino theory". As soon as the revolution took place in one country bordering the USSR and a communist regime was born, it might spread to neighboring countries one after another. It was "Domino theory" that communism infiltrates globally like a domino. The barrier of defense to stop the spread of communism resulted in the military alliance of NATO, CENTO and SEATO. The US seriously worried that his country would be influenced by a communist idea. In the US, the storm of "Red Scare" commonly named McCarthyism was blown under the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC).
Despite the suppression by Western countries especially the United States, communist regimes were born around the world at this time. However, Communist forces got few power in the Middle East. One was in Iran by Prime Minister Muhammad Mossadegh and Tudeh Party during 1951 and 1952. Prime Minister Mossadegh nationalized the oil industries, but eventually it came to be ended short-lived by the anti-revolutionary coup of the Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. And another one was in Yemen where People’s Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) became independent in 1967 which was integrated with Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) in 1990. In case of Yemen, it was not emphasized because it was regarded minor matter in the remote area far from the center of the Arab world.
In Europe, Industrial Revolution clarified the classification of capitalists and workers. The class difference between capitalists who monopolize production means and workers who have only labor force has expanded. The workers group stood up against the capitalist group with socialistic or communistic theory. There is a famous passage at the beginning of The Communist Manifest written by Carl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848. It says "A ghost is haunting Europe – the ghost of communism”. In the 20th century, communism began to appear as a real image, not as a ghost of a virtual image in Europe.
In the Arab world, however, the industrial revolution hardly made progress even in urban areas. No division of class has been occurred because there was no industrial capitalist who operating a large factory nor a large number of workers. It was the commercial capitalists of family ownership that held the real power of the economy. There was little room for socialism and communism.
Among the three identities of “ideology”, "ethnicity" and “religion”, ideology is the weakest in the Middle East. If three identities are compared human body, ideology, ethnicity and religion are brain, blood and heart respectively. To speak of extremes, ethnicity (blood) and religion (heart) were too strong in the Middle East, so "ideology (brain) " did not grow up.
There was also a problem with the Arab nationalism. Arab nationalism is another pillar of Pan-Arabism in line with socialism. The concept of Arab is too wide to define ethnic group. Generally speaking, the ethnicity is spreading from family, relatives, clan, tribe to race. Race is the broadest concept. For an ordinary citizen in the Arab world, the tribe has a sense of unity at best. They are unable to understand the meaning of "Arab ethnic group". However, politicians like Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt who survived in the power struggle were obsessed with the delusion of "glory of the Arab" and thought that the people would follow the slogan of "Arab nationalism".
For the most of citizens who grew up in the rural area, it seemed that the unity of "blood" was enough up to the clan or tribe. Ordinary citizens satisfied that religion(heart) of Muslim gave a sense of unity than the ethnicity of Arab. It is still active in the present Arab world.
(To be continued ----)
