As we approach the 21st century, the Arab nation is experiencing a crisis that it must overcome to move successfully into the new millennium. In the last of our series of articles, Al Shindagah looks at the factors that Influenced the modern Arab personality

Numerous factors and events contributed to the cultural stagnation, poor production and innovation that ruled supreme over the Arab world in the past and continue to prevail in varying degree to date. This was the product of the social, economic and cultural conditions that emanated from such factors which can be summed up as follows:

To begin with, the Arabs were excluded form leadership and management positions for a long time. Since in 132 hijri which marked the fall of the Omayyad state, which was Arab in the true sense of the word in terms of government, leadership and army, the Arab nation until the early decades of this century, was dominated by non-Arab groups and races which did not particularly like the Arabs. Among these groups were the Persian whose role became prominent in the early era of the Islamic state of the Abbasides. The Turks were another group which was trusted by the Abbaside Caliph Al Mutasem but they proved to be a real disaster to the other Muslim Caliphs after him. In addition, non-Arab states emerged in the Muslim territory under the control of the Abasside Caliphate such as the Samani and Bouhiwi states in Persia, Toloni and Ikhshidi states in Egypt, the Saljouki state in Asia Minor, to be followed by the Mamlouki and Ottoman states. The emergence of these states was characterized by the deterioration of the social and cultural conditions in the Arab nation.

The crusades also added to the factors that contributed to the social, economic, cultural and political disasters that befell the Arab nation. The Mogul invasion wiped out all traits of civilized life as they rolled into the Arab Muslim homeland. In 656 hijri, the Tatari military leader, Holaco, For example, occupied Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasside Caliphate. He killed its people, its cultural and intellectual heritage was dumped in the Tigris River. He caused untold amount of damage and destruction to the cultural and intellectual life that left the personality of the Arab nation bruised for many centuries.

Coupled with these factors were the divisions that tore the unity of the Arab nation in the past and weakened its social fabric. These are the remnants of the pre-Islamic tribal prejudices and biases that divided the nation over the years and persisted up to date.

Added to these factors are the numerous religious schools of thought and sects that emerged in the early period of the Islamic society and continued to present days.

In modern times, the Arab nation was also subjected to many events which left a very strong impact on it. The most apparent of these events is the imperialist domination of the Arab world by various powers such as the Portuguese, Spaniards, Italians, French and British. This was culminated in creation of the State in the heart of the Arab nation. This of course was accompanies by persecution, deprivation of freedoms, rights and pillage of wealth. In addition, these powers attempted to alienate the Arab people from their history, culture and heritage. They employed countless intrigues to keep the Arab world weak, divided and lacking confidence in itself and its potentials. This in their view will keep the Arab nation dependent on them and unable to restore its ability to control its resources and wealth.

Finally, one of the factors that contributed to the current personality of the Arab nation lies in the fact that a segment of the Arab nation is impressed with the European civilization and the Western lifestyle. They tend imitate the Western mode of life believing that this is the way to development and progress. This segment of Arab society were not content with emulating the Western lifestyle, they went even further to mock the Arab personality, its heritage and values. They alienated themselves from their past and called for the destruction of the Arab cultural and literary heritage. They therefore initiated dubious calls such as replacing the Arabic characters with Latin ones, using the Arabic dialects in stead of standard Arabic. They also began to harp on antiquated regional biases.

The negative traits of the Arab personality as shown by experience and proven by scholars can be summed up as follows:-

Tribalism and Nepotism
Cultural schizophrenia caused tribalism and nepotism to spread and persist in Arab societies. This means that our culture is just a whitewash which has no influence on our behaviour. Rather, our behaviour is governed by ancient precepts that go back to pre-Islamic times; namely, tribalism with all its biases which put the interest of tribe members before the common interest of society at large. In addition, personal interest appears to shape individual behaviour. These two patterns are common in Arab societies. In the first instance, the tribal pattern exploits all principles and value and employ them for the interest of the tribe only. This explains why the electoral process in some of the Arab countries is based on tribal considerations and not on intellectual merits or national interests. In the second instance, intellectuals use ideas and principles as springboard to get high positions, prestige or money. There is no doubt that these two patterns caused harm to the progress movement in our societies and caused it to deviate from its proper course.

The Foreigner's complex
This means that Arabs admire the sayings and deeds of foreign people. They trust their qualifications, products and expertise. This is evidenced in the high demand for foreign-made products although such products are produced locally. Furthermore, this complex finds expression in hiring foreign experts at very high salaries. It is quite possible that an Arab expert may suggest and idea or propose a project which may not receive a positive response. But, when the same idea is suggested by a foreign expert, it may be hailed by some as a wonderful idea.

Conspiratorial Frame of Mind
This represents the tendency to interpret events, attribute failures and problems the beset the Arab world to a cause which is external to the Arab personality; namely, a foreign plot. According to this interpretation, this means that the failures encountered and are still being encountered by the Arabs do not stem from the poor management of the political, economic and social movements. Rather, they attribute them to the intrigues fabricated by the foreign enemy, i.e. the West. Every time a minor or major event occurs in the Arab world, it is interpreted as a foreign conspiracy against the Arabs and Islam.

This interpretation has its roots in the ancient and modern ambition of the West in the Arab world. These ambitions extended from the Crusades to modern imperialism and its effort to weaken the Arab world and ensure that it remains under its influence and a market for its products.

Tendency to believe in the supernatural
There is a tendency among a significant segment of the Arab society, even on the more educated level, to have faith in magicians, astrologists and fortune-tellers. The Arab environment is a fertile ground for these swindlers who practice their tricks make large sums of money. The newspapers report almost daily stories about one or more of these swindlers who convinced their victims to employ the jennies to find lost treasures, to multiply his fortune or to cure him of serious illness. This means that the Arabs still believe in superstition, which was common in the pre-Islamic period.

This danger of this phenomenon stems from the fact that the thinking mode of the individual becomes unsound and far from being systematic in the sense that it fails to link between event and its real causes. Rather, it links events to the extraordinary and supernatural. This is far removed from the rational and scientific reasoning which is necessary to solve problems systematically. Doing so on the individual level, will ultimately contribute to the progress and development of the entire society.

Looking into the Future
As we look into the future with anticipation and real desire that the Arab nation will resume its glorious role in building human civilization by catching up with the fast-paced progress of modern science and technology, the following points must be taken into serious consideration:-

We must preserve the cultural identity of the Arab nation. Cultural assimilation will cause the Arab nation to lose its link with its past. This will make it very difficult to the Arab identity to persist, grow and progress. Casting doubt on the value of the Arab heritage will adverse affect our self-confidence, self-worth. To question the value of Arab heritage is to question right of the Arab nation to exist as a distinct civilization, an essential right that gives members of the Arab nation the historical depth, value, a sense of belonging, security and ability to continue and adapt with other civilizations. Questioning the existence of Arab civilization and identity by individuals who lack the sense of belonging to it must be rejected by those who are interested in preserving them.

To Preserve the cultural identity of the Arab nation does not mean doing without other cultures for we cannot live in isolation. A balanced personality with distinct identity does not live in isolation nor does it assimilate with others. Rather, it co-exists with them. Living side by side with other culture is bound to ascertain our personality and enrich our culture. Without the other cultures we will fail to perceive our cultural value as only through other cultures we will be able to see the true image of our identity. This will allow us to better understand our very existence. It will give us a better sense of direction and determines the way to safety. Proponents of assimilation are absolutely wrong because they appear to adhere to wiping out the identity of the nation. Similarly, those who reject interaction with other civilizations are equally wrong because they in fact condemning us to isolation and backwardness.