Arab Unity Instead of Their Division

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Reports about the partitioning of Arab countries appear before us from time to time, and Arab media outlets busy themselves conveying the details of the devilish or infernal plans that Western states, foremost among them the United States, are said to be plotting in this regard. Arab media tell us how the Arab homeland will become about fifty states or thereabouts, instead of the not-so-modest number that currently exists, and how every sect, denomination, nationality, region, tribe, party, and organization will have its own state, and how American dominance over them will be complete and total.

It is very difficult, amid all this talk of partition, to hear talk of unity. Why do we treat ourselves as merely an object, a mere thing acted upon, a mount to be ridden, and it rarely occurs to us that we are the actor, not the one acted upon? Why does America plan to partition us, while we do not plan unity for ourselves? Arab media go into a frenzy if an American writes about partitioning the Arabs, but turn a deaf ear if an Arab writes about the unity of the Arabs and their insistence on foiling foreign schemes. I am an Arab writing about a plan to unite the Arabs — will any media besides al-Jazeera.net bother to convey what I have to say?

America’s Partitionist Stations

America is not interested in partitioning all Arab countries and then rearranging them in a manner that serves it. Generally speaking, it dominates the Arab homeland now, despite the existence of some regions that do not owe it loyalty and obedience, and it has no need to partition countries in a way that would disturb the calm of its dominance. For example, what interest would America have in re-partitioning the Arabian Peninsula and establishing a Shia state on the western coasts of the Gulf? Do political commentators not see that this would harm its own dominance, and the security of the oil it is keen to monopolize for itself? Is it prepared to open the door to growing Iranian influence by establishing a Shia state in western Syria, a Zaydi state in northern Yemen, and a Sunni state in western Iraq?

America is interested in partitioning Sudan, for example, because the unity of its territory constitutes a strategic economic asset for the Arab nation, and might form the basis of a broad Arab-Chinese cooperation. And it may be interested in separating Kurdistan from the Arabs because of the wealth contained in Kurdish areas in the Syrian Jazira region and in the Kirkuk and northeastern Mosul areas of Iraq. But America is also interested in promoting the idea of partition in order to deepen feelings of division among the various Arab groups and Islamic denominations. The Arab citizen notices that talk of unity is absent from the scene in favor of talk of division and fragmentation, and that Arab consciousness is gradually and intensively being molded to accept the idea of partition and the breaking of bonds, so as to be ready, psychologically and materially, to take up arms against his Arab brother, or his Arab Muslim brother.

Many colonial states, together with Israel, do not want stability in the Arab region except the kind that secures their interests and the continuation of their dominance. Let the Arabs fight among themselves, and let them also fight with their Iranian, Turkish, Chadian, and Ethiopian neighbors, because this keeps them backward, weak, and a mount for others to ride.

Arab Unity Is Inevitable

Why should the dialectic not be as follows: the Arabs suffer weakness in various fields of life, groaning under the weight of Western domination and Israeli contempt, and enjoy no international respect. They also suffer from backwardness, straitened circumstances, poverty, bad and oppressive rulers, and bloody division and rivalries among themselves that sometimes develop into wars. And if they look at other nations, they find themselves at the bottom of the list of human, scientific, and technical achievements, bowing their heads in humiliation as they beg others to search for solutions to their concerns, problems, and conflicts. Does the Arab not feel shame as he sees states thinking on his behalf, deliberating over projects to determine his future and his fate? Does the Arab not feel that humiliation follows him in most of the places he finds himself, and that his standing remains beneath the standing of the sons of other nations? Will he not, in the end, decide to revolt against his reality?

Historically, great nations like the Arab nation do not remain humiliated and disgraced; rather, they rise from the rubble, gather their strength, avenge themselves, and decide to walk the path of progress and construction. There are nations that have largely become extinct, like the Native Americans, but they were not great or mighty nations possessing a civilization and a history rich with achievements, and the Arab nation is not a candidate for dissolution or extinction.

Nations, like individuals, like an oppressed people with no escape, will inevitably revolt against their unjust ruler, no matter how long it takes. And there is every reason calling the Arab nation to revolt against external domination and against internal fragmentation, and to rebuild itself anew. The people of the West have humiliated the Arabs and plundered their wealth, and still sit heavily upon the nation’s chest financially, culturally, intellectually, in security, militarily, and economically, and internal fragmentation continues to feed on the nation’s resources, its ambitions, its future, and the fate of coming generations. A handful of rulers establish injustice, enslavement, and tyranny, and drive the nation into depths of appetite, waste, and internal conflict, and corrupt religious cliques see the world through nothing but sectarianism, denominationalism, and repugnant tribalism.

[This handful of rulers] has failed to provide reassurance to the Arab, so will a Shia, Sunni, Zaydi, Wahhabi, Adnani, or Qahtani fiefdom provide it? The Arab will find that his future is tied to his strength, and he has no strength except through the collective — that is, through Arab unity. There is no place for the small in this world, and every rational actor in this world works toward gathering, not division, and the Arabs will not be an exception to this rule.

Arab Unity Embodies Interest

Apart from the philosophy of history, the squandering of dignity and rivers of blood give rise to thinking about solutions. The Arabs have paid away their dignity and pride, the blood of their sons has become cheap in their own eyes, and backwardness has eaten away at their sides, but their thinkers are not in ivory towers looking on from afar. The pens of thinkers are not futile, and do not collapse before rifles and bullets, and history has proven that words strike harder than cannons. There are, in the Arab homeland, those searching for solutions for the nation, and their words may find no echo now, but the future belongs to them, and in the end sorrows must summon reason, and their bearers must find calm as they search for solutions.

If creeds, nationalisms, denominations, and sects have failed to produce solutions for achieving a settled Arab life, then their negation must be the alternative, and this negation is not embodied in fleeing from them and withdrawing into the self within the confines of a denomination or sect, but rather in unity. Fleeing toward partition compounds the crises and raises the tempo of sorrows, because the fighting will continue and external domination will grow more intense, and conscious self-interest demands rational solutions built upon the ruins of blind fanaticism, rancor, and hatred.

Gradualism Toward Arab Unity

It is very difficult to establish Arab unity across the breadth of the Arab homeland without gradualism, for many economic, social, and financial reasons, etc. But it is possible for unity to begin with the following blocs:

First: the unity of the land of the Levant and Mesopotamia. The unity of Syria is an urgent matter given what the Levant is exposed to in terms of dangers, wars, and suffering, and it must integrate with the land of Mesopotamia so that together they form a strong, prosperous state capable of building a future and of confronting Israel. For this reason, the thinkers, intellectuals, and media of the Levant and Iraq are required to reject the Sykes-Picot Agreement and affirm the unity of the Fertile Crescent.

Second: the unity of the Arabian Peninsula together with the Comoro Islands, according to modern political standards that liberate the Arab from the tribe.

Third: the unity of the Nile Valley and Somalia to protect water and economic resources, and to eliminate movements of separation and partition.

Fourth: the unity of the Arab Maghreb, which constitutes the largest Arab area.

Afterward, a unionist strategy should be devised and implemented gradually and with steady steps to achieve comprehensive unity.

Arab rulers do not want unity because each of them is happy with the portion he sits upon. For this reason independent Arab media, intellectuals, thinkers, and academics are required to carry out wide-ranging awareness campaigns to build a strong current confronting the currents of fragmentation. And the question posed before all of them is: why can some hysterical, unjust rulers and corrupt clerics drag the nation into internal fighting, while tens of thousands of intellectuals who believe in the unity of the nation cannot persuade the nation to work together for the sake of all?

Elements of Strength for the Unionists

The idea of Arab unity is not isolated, nor is it without defenders and those willing to sacrifice for it, and it gains strength from the following elements:

First: there are Arab media outlets prepared to clearly embrace the idea of unity even if it angers existing Arab regimes.

Second: among the sons of the nation — and they number in the millions — there are those prepared to confront nationalist and sectarian fanaticism, and to restrain and contain the fanatics. There are Muslims who are neither hysterical nor fanatical, and who have the capacity to present Islam in its beautiful face, grounded in faith and driving toward achievement and progress.

Third: the Arab arena is not devoid of forces, groupings, and nationalist and Islamic parties prepared to push toward unity, and to resort to methods of understanding, dialogue, and scientific reasoning in establishing governance, and in arranging public relations within Arab societies.

Fourth: the logic of unity always overcomes the logic of division, and will find broad Arab arenas that accept and embrace it, provided it comes with a practical logic different from the logic adopted by nationalist and Islamic groups until now. The logic guiding this must be practical, reflecting the concerns and aspirations of the nation, not boastful, arrogant, and false.

The Illusion of Unity

Some will speak of the illusion of Arab unity, and of the writer’s romanticism. Some will say that the idea of unity has died out, and that mere talk of it is a fantasy. But they must remember that Germany was once torn apart, as was Italy. And they must remember that America’s internal wars claimed hundreds of thousands of American lives, yet America became the United States. We will achieve what we aspire to if we resolve practically to do so, and the word “impossible” is only ever engaged with by those who choose to relax.

Then why should the Americans be able to achieve their plans to partition the already-partitioned Arabs, while we, as sons of an Arab nation, cannot be the actors who overcome every foreign scheme? We will defeat the partitionist schemes regardless of their engineer, and our unity will be realized through our own free will, and thanks to everyone who can help us in that.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “وحدة العرب بدل تقسيمهم” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.