Arab nationalism

**Arab nationalism** or **pan-Arab nationalism**, is a political ideology and movement that stands for unity of the Arab people. The aim of Arab nationalism is to unite the countries of the Middle East and North Africa and together form one strong Arab nation, by working together in the field of military and culture. The idea is also that the same language is spoken throughout the nation.

Arab nationalism originated in response to the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of European colonialism in the Arab world. 

Arab nationalism also had setbacks and challenges. For example, there were huge divisions and different Arab states had different ambitions. The Six-Day War of 1967 was also a major setback for Arab nationalism. This was due to the fact that the agreements between the Arab states were not kept. After this war, state nationalism emerged. This meant a nationalism of Arab nation-states for their own state and not one big state.

## History 
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the end of World War II, Arab nationalism became very big. The reason for this was that England and France divided the provinces of the Ottoman Empire among themselves, while there was promised on an Arab state. Their goal was to make the Arab nation modern. At first, al-Fatat wanted more freedom within the Ottoman state. They did not want full independence. In 1913, al-Fatat held the Arab Congress in Paris to talk about reforms with other Arabs.

The Ottoman rulers stopped al-Fatat's activities. The group went underground. Faysal and many Iraqi thinkers and officers joined al-Fatat. This group helped create a new Arab state in the Levant and Hejaz. Arab revolts against European powers happened after the British and French mandates. In 1920, anger at British rule led to the Iraqi revolt. Britain kept control, but its role became mostly advisory. In 1925, the Druze in southern Syria, led by Sultan al-Atrash, revolted against French rule. The French bombed Damascus, killing thousands. They later took steps towards Syrian independence.

In Egypt, revolts against British control in 1919 led to Egypt's independence in 1922. But the British military still had influence. The independence of Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and North Yemen encouraged Arab nationalists to oppose colonial powers.

The first big pan-Arab meeting was in 1931 in Jerusalem. Arab delegates talked about Arab matters and made a pan-Arabist covenant. It said Arab countries formed an indivisible whole. They rejected colonialism and sought full independence within one unity.

In French Algeria, the Association of Algerian Muslim Ulama, founded in 1931, became a major Arab nationalist movement. Its motto was "Islam is our religion, Algeria is our homeland, Arabic is our language." The association taught many Algerians in Arabic and supported Arab causes, including solidarity with Palestinians. In 1955, it joined the National Liberation Front's fight against French rule.

Plans for a pan-Arab conference stopped when Faysal died in 1933. The Arab Independence Party kept working for Arab unity and resistance against British rule and increased Jewish settlement in Palestine.

Arab nationalist movements grew in the 1930s and 1940s. They led revolts and formed groups that wanted to unite and strengthen Arab nations against colonial powers.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Arab nationalism reached its peak under the leadership of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. His goal was to unite the Arab world into an Arab nation state. After 1967, Arab nationalism hit rock bottom. The Arab forces lost in the Six-Day War against Israel.  Arab nationalism started to weaken after this loss. A lot of people believed the movement had become politically weak. From the mid-1960s, internal conflicts and divisions damaged the movement even more . The Arab Nationalist Movement shifted from Nasserism to Marxism-Leninism and eventually breaks up. In 1966, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party split into factions in Baghdad and Damascus.

There were a lot of reasons why Arab nationalism fell. One of the biggest reason was the resolution of many political issues that had powered nationalism in the 1950s and early 1960s. The failure of secular (non-religious states) in economic, social, and state-building roles also played a part.

Regional loyalties weakened the movement. Iraqi President Abd al-Karim Qasim's "Iraq first" policy and the suspicion of Arab unity by groups like the Kurds and Shia Arabs in Iraq were important factors. The rise of Islamic revival weakened Arab nationalism even more. Many Islamists were against nationalism, feeling it had no place in Islam. The movement's lack of interest in pluralism, separation of powers, and political freedom also hurt it. The region had a feudal structure in the Ottoman Empire. Because there was often conflict between different dynasties and the Ottoman Empire, this led to fraternization among the Arabs. An important early thinker is Sati' al-Husri. He called for all Arabs to unite together and form a nation-state. This was after the Ottoman Empire weakened.

After the rise of Arab nationalism, it declined after a few decades and the failure to unite Arab societies behind the Arab nationalism vision led to a slow downfall of nationalism. But while Arab nationalism may have declined in its political strength, it is still a strong ideology and this can be seen especially in conflicts with external threats.

## Bibliography 
* Choueiri, Youssef (2000). Arab Nationalism – A History: Nation and State in the Arab World. Wiley-Blackwell. .
* Dawisha, Adeed (2016). Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century: From Triumph to Despair. Princeton University Press. .
* Khalidi, Rashid (1993). The Origins of Arab Nationalism. Columbia University Press. .
* Lybarger, Loren D. (2018). *Identity and Religion in Palestine : The Struggle between Islamism and Secularism in the Occupied Territories*. 
* Romero, J. (2015). Arab Nationalism and the Arab Union of 1958. *British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies*, *42*(2), 179–199.

## References