CHAPTER ONE
THE DISTORTED COMPASS
IN 2014, SALMAN MASALHA, AN ISRAELI Druze scholar, wrote that Mohamed Bouazizi, the peddler who lit the fire of the Arab Awakening, was âan agent of the CIA and perhaps even of the Israeli Mossad [one of Israelâs intelligence agencies].â He wrote that âthe millions of people who went out to demonstrate and to spread the Arab Awakening throughout the Arab world were actually agents of the CIA and of the West.â These claims were part of an article he wrote titled âThe Crazy Person Speaks and the Wise Person Listens.â1
Masalha was not reflecting his own beliefs. He was referringâwith despair, frustration, and sorrowâto the fact that many people in the Arab world actually think these things are true. He expressed sadness at the fact that there are many people in the Arab world who believe that the millions of people who took to the streets to demand change and a better future, many of whom did so at the cost of their lives, are believed to have been âacting as emissaries of the CIA or the countries of the West in a plot intended to undermine the resistance axis.â2
Masalha shares these claims to examine the question, âWhy are Arabsâmore than all other nationsâabsolutely convinced that all of the problems of the Arab world have their source in local or foreign plots?â3 In his opinion, the answer is that none of the regimes that have risen in the Arab world, nor their consequences, are a result of the free choice of the individual in Arab societies. Masalha wrote that the ongoing war in Syria has ârevealed the face of those [in the Arab world] who in the name of the fake slogan of nationalism actually enhanced an Arab fascist and racist ideology, which was disguised with slogans [promoting things] such as âthe resistance.ââ4
To substantiate his point, Masalha highlighted how the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, strivesâthrough the use of demagoguery, rhetoric, and meaningless slogansâto not only avoid taking responsibility for the tragedy that it is creating but to go so far as to hold the Syrian people, who are only seeking freedom and a better future, responsible for the devastating results. What is even worse, he adds, is that there are so many people in the Arab world who continue to accept the claims, slogans, and propaganda of the Assad regime without doubt, while their hearts âremain impervious to the tragic murder of thousands of men, women, and children, the hundreds of thousands of wounded, the millions of refugees, and the enormous destruction.â
Masalha concluded his article with a searing statement: âEvery Arab should hang his head and be ashamed ⌠every Arab should look in the mirror and ask, âHow did we reach this miserable state? Everything that happened to us has been the work of our own hands.ââ5
Masalha is touching on a raw nerve. Arab academics, intellectuals, journalists, and politicians are pondering a similar questionâand itâs not rare for them to use descriptions such as âsickâ when describing the unfortunate state of the Arab world.6, 7 To understand this, it helps to establish what these âdiseasesâ are and to be clear on their symptoms.
One disease is the deeply-rooted belief in al-muamira (the conspiracy). This refers to the perception in the Arab world that Muslims, particularly Arab Muslims, are victims of local and foreign plots against them, and that the responsibility for the dismal state of the Arab world does not lie with the Arabs, but with places such as the United States, Europe, and Israel. Arabs who believe in al-muamira believe they are victims of things like imperialism, colonialism, and racism. In an article titled âThe Theory of the PlotâThe Theory that Will Never Die,â Abdulrahman al-Rashed wrote about this disconcerting belief: âI am not saying that there are no plots at all, but in the overwhelming majority of cases this is an excuse used as a card that is brandished by various factors in the Arab world to justify failures or emergency measures, and we [Arabs] have only ourselves to blame.â8
Other examples of the concept of âconspiracyâ embedded in Arab thinking are:
In 2011, when Muammar al-Qaddafi was facing increasing calls to step down from his role as leader of Libya, he tried to coalesce the Libyan people against an enemy he said was outside, saying, âThere is a conspiracy to control the Libyan oil and to control the Libyan land, to colonize Libya once again ⌠This is impossible, impossible. We will fight until the last man and last woman ⌠to defend Libya from east to west, north to south.â9
In the spring of 2012, during the first months of the riots in Syria, the Assad regime claimed that Christians from Lebanon were behind the events in Syria; after, the regime blamed the Israeli Mossad; and later, it blamed intelligence agencies of the West.10, 11
In August 2012, a Salafi-Jihadi group attacked an Egyptian border patrol outpost in Sinai. The attack occurred in the evening, when the Egyptian soldiers were eating at the end of a fast day during the month of Ramadan. Sixteen Egyptian soldiers were killed in the attack. The attackers then infiltrated Israeli territory and were killed by the Israeli army. Arab commentators and news reporters, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and some retired senior officers of the Egyptian army claimed that the attack was an Israeli plot.12, 13, 14, 15
In December 2013, then Grand Mufti of Lebanon Mohammed Rashid Qabbani visited a Sunni mosque in Lebanon. While there, he was attacked by worshipers because of his support for Hezbollah16 and had to be rescued by the Lebanese army. Ironically, the next month he proclaimed that the Arabs must âsave their countries from the American plots that are meant to sow schisms and hatred between brothers.â17
In an article by Lebanese journalist Basim al-Jisrâ titled âThe Conspiracy of the Arabs Against Themselves,â Jisr wrote: âThe real plot is that of the Muslim and Arab world against itself because it has not been able put an end to the religious, ethnic, social, and political divisions within it.â18
Another disease of the Arab world is the ocean of demagoguery, fiery speeches, rhetoric, and slogans in which it has drowned itself, spewing phrases such as Arab brotherhood, Arab socialism, Arab solidarity, Arab unity, resistance, the liberation of Palestine, a unification of the lines, and Islam is the solution. These phrases have been propagated by generations of academics, artists, intellectuals, media figures, politicians, and religious leaders.
The narratives and rabble-rousing serve economic and political interests and have granted a perceived legitimization and immunity to dictatorial regimes and brutal rulers in the Arab world. Demagoguery and slogans have been an effective tool for governments and rulers to avoid responsibility and accountability and to distract the publicâs attention from the dismal reality of Arab societiesâa reality the Arab leaders, dictators, and government officials are responsible for creating and perpetuating.
On August 2, 1990, an Iraqi regime led by Iraqâs then president, Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait, triggering the first Gulf War (August 1990âFebruary 1991), in which a coalition of Western powers and Arab states assembled to force Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait. During the war, the Iraqi dictator oversaw an attack against Israel with scud missiles. Hussein hoped to create an Israeli retaliation that would lead to the disintegration of the Arab-Western coalition. He declared that by shooting missiles at Israel he was fighting against American and Israeli aggression. Heâs quoted as saying, âBy God, we will make the fire eat up half of Israel if it tries to do anything against Iraq.â19 Other lines of his include:
âFight them with your faith in God, fight them in defense of every free honorable woman and every innocent child, and in defense of the values of manhood and the military honor ⌠Fight them because with their defeat you will be at the last entrance of the conquest of all conquests. The war will end with ⌠dignity, glory, and triumph for your people, army, and nation.â20
âWhat remains for [George W.] Bush and his accomplices in crime is to understand that they are personally responsible for their crime. The Iraqi people will pursue them for this crime, even if they leave office and disappear into oblivion. There is no doubt they will understand what we mean if they know what revenge means to the Arabs.â21
âWe will chase [Americans] to every corner at all times. No high tower of steel will protect them against the fire of truth.â22
Through firing fiery rhetoric at Israel and the West, Hussein was trying to divert attention from the fact that his troops had brutally occupied Kuwait. In August 1990, Saddam declared that the army would leave Kuwait only if Israel withdrew from all Arab lands it occupied in Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon.23 Many Arabs and Palestinians were receptive to Husseinâs spin. Crowds of Palestinians cheered him by chanting the slogan (which rhymes in Arabic), âHey Saddam / Hey dear friend / Give a beating / to Tel Aviv.â24 Ironically, some of the missiles launched by Hussein landed in areas populated by Palestinians. This, however, did not prevent Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from expressing open support for Hussein, and later the Palestinians paid dearly for this. Following the war, some four hundred thousand Palestinians who worked in Kuwait were expelled by the Kuwaiti government.25 In 2004, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas formally apologized to Kuwait for the Palestiniansâ support of Saddam Hussein.26
More recently, when the riots in Libya that led to the ousting of the Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi began in 2011, Qaddafi tried to incite the masses, hoping to divert their attention and save his government by calling upon his nation to âgo forth and liberate Palestine.â27 Like other Arab rulers, Qaddafi hoped that anti-Israel rhetoric would help him divert the growing discontent of his people and save his own skin. It didnât work.
Saudi writer âAbd al-Salam Waâil referred to the âIsrael phenomenonâ in a 2013 article titled âIsrael, the Everlasting Arab Treasure.â In it he wrote:
Lebanese author, journalist, and political analyst Samir Atallah wrote in 2014 that the âArab regimes that led the Arab nation with slogans and speeches and proclamations and revolutions left the Arab nation poor and despondent, and now those regimes that oppress and exploit their people are sending their subjects to drown in the sea or to drown in the mud or to turn to prostitution in the bitterness of their despair.â29
Another disease of the Arab world is the culture of whitewashing and sweeping controversies and tensions under the rug. Deep conflicts among groups within Arab societies throughout the regions have often been ignored. One of the most common means of covering up the divisionsâside by side with hollow slogans and rhetoricâhas been to create fancy constitutions lauding the religion and culture of Islam and laden with all the buzzwords like freedom, liberation, and unity. A constitution should express consensus, an agreement on basic principles and values that a majority of the sectors of society share. When four Arab states that are violently disintegratingâSyria, Iraq, Libya, and Yemenâhave constitutions, and other Arab states, like Egypt and Lebanon, which also have constitutions, are struggling with serious political violence and instability, it becomes clear that the constitutions in the Arab world do not reflect consensus and are not strong en...