A DREAM-LIKE DRAMATIC REALITY ......

 The 50s and 60s in the Middle East , the period where and when I grew up , was a total Arab Nationalism governed era , practically every Arab citizen was looking to materialize Arab unity , literally from the ocean (Atlantic) , to the Gulf (Arab or Persian , depending on your origins) a period of euphoric  politics ,  high hopes , all driving to conquer any and all obstacles as to the unity of the Arab speaking people  and historically belonging to the Arab Nation .


I'm talking  here about the few decades following second world war , extending into the early seventies , a period of confirming their identities and independence from colonialism for most Arab countries and  peoples , a period when all felt free to pursue their dreams and head into this trajectory and course of action . Nasser of Egypt symbolized these times and dreams .


Two Major ideologies managed to fight this popular Arab aspiration , socialism , mostly at the hand of radical parties later turned into military coups , and religion , personalized in Islam , the dominant religion . Young political leaders with leftist ideologies preferred to confine their grip of power to their own respective countries , with big nominal propaganda slogans and chants of Arab unity . Regimes easily controllable by their leaders and Moscow , who shelved every serious opportunity toward unity with their neighbors . Whether on street levels or national .


Down the line , and with the total failure of most of these pseudo parties / dictatorships and their international backers , they totally gave in to religion . Islam was the natural inheritor , pretending and aspiring to fill the gap , indoctrinating and organizing the masses , it  fought pan Arab Nationalism and administered deadlier blows than any of its predecessors . All in the name of Musslem  supremacy and unity against a possibly secular exclusivity of an Arab nationality.


The great and maybe naive and impossible dream of an all Arab unity , a tolerant and accepting melting pot of all its different peoples , literally covering the whole Arabic speaking areas  was totally obliterated by both ideologies . Less so by the aspiring young turned politicians under their Moscow spell , but more  by Islam and Islamism , moderate or extremists , salafies  or pacifists , wearing robes and turbans or modern suites , all these Musslems shot and killed Arabism .


Whereby we witness all Arab states forging new tyrannies and justifying all sorts of terror and horrors in the name their God . The whole situation is a story of brutal dispossession and oppression , it is a take over of one philosophy  and a will to a better secular democratic future , by another very different ideology carried out by fanatic brutal minorities to rule majorities .


One could now look nostalgically at the idea of Arab unity, repeat slogans and chants , "from the ocean to the Gulf " and maybe keep the dream alive , but in no way could one contemplate the future of these peoples under an Islamic banner . What a difference in perspective in as short  a time as fifty or so years .




Here I'd like to add that I'm convinced , that actual existing Islam , could not be exonerated from the crimes done in its name .  My usual many thanks for your time and patience .