Word: nasserism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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THAT mystical role has still not found its hero; perhaps it never will. It lingered long and lovingly when it happened upon Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, but then it moved on?still searching. Yet Nasser came closer to filling the role than any other man since the 12th century warrior Saladin or perhaps the powerful 9th century Caliph of Baghdad Harun al-Rashid. A burly, broad-shouldered army officer, son of a lower-middle-class postal clerk, Nasser overturned a rotting monarchy 18 years ago and brought visions of prosperity to his own country and hope for new unity...
...Nasser carried out drastic land reforms, wiping out a parasitic pasha class that had lived off the poverty-stricken peasants for generations. But not long before his death, with per capita income in Egypt still just over $180, he was finally forced to admit that his dreams of building a modern industrial nation had gone aglimmering, that the most he could do for his overpopulated land was to keep it from sliding backward. Nasser had himself mostly to blame. He precipitated a succession of feuds and intrigues with virtually every one of Egypt's Arab neighbors. He was humiliatingly trounced...
...mistakes and shortcomings, Nasser managed one inestimable accomplishment. To the people of Egypt and the rest of the Arab world, he imparted a sense of personal worth and national pride that they had not known for 400 years. This alone may have been enough to balance his flaws and failures. The Arabs thought so, and when a heart attack felled him, Beirut's French-language daily Le Jour cried: "One hundred million human beings?the Arabs?are orphans. There is nothing greater than this man who is gone, and nothing is greater than the gap he has left behind...
From Algiers to Aden, Marrakech to Muscat, Nasser's death united Arabs in grief. Everywhere the plaintive cry went up: "Why do you leave us alone, Gamal?" From loudspeakers atop minarets in a thousand towns and cities wafted the reedy, lugubrious voices of muezzins chanting verses from the Koran...
...Israeli-occupied Jerusalem, 75,000 Arabs paraded through the old city. In Arabic they chanted, "Nasser will not die," and to make