Word: arabist
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Whence this angry dismissal of a "fellow Arab" by a self-proclaimed Pan-Arabist if "Arabism is the most precious thing every Arab has," the sustaining Arab "spirit," the "blood" in the Arab soul, and so forth...
Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of the Pan-Arabist discourse is its susceptibility to the allure of immoral solutions to the grave problems of the Middle East. If the human and cultural dignity of an Arab is conditional upon her/his acceptance of cultural and/or political nationalism, all manner of atrocities become permissible against dissenters. Thus, Baghdad could justify its crimes against the Kuwaiti people by branding them and their Arab coalition allies as "traitors against the Arab Nation...
Perhaps this reasoning begins to explain the willingness of many Yemenis, North African Arabs and Palestinians to wink at Saddam Hussein's brutality; it was cloaked in the rhetoric of Pan-Arabist "justice" and was therefore--although immoral and un-Islamic--understandable and probably excusable...
What are Arabs to do with Saddam Hussein? What are they to think if they see the devil in the hero, the thug tricked up as a Pan-Arabist dreamer? In considering Saddam, many Arabs are sorting out complexities in themselves. They are formulating an attitude toward their collective past and future, toward the Arabs' place in the world. The exercise does not leave them entirely happy...
Still, before the Baker-Aziz meeting, several senior members of the royal family had privately told President Bush that they feared "strains in our % society" if Desert Shield continues indefinitely and inconclusively. A top Administration Arabist has predicted that if American forces are still camped in the desert during the holy month of Ramadan, which begins in mid-March, the result could be "an increase in clandestine opposition from religious extremists, with possible destabilizing results." Many Saudis reacted with something like relief to the apparent breakdown of diplomacy last week. If there is to be a military moment of truth...