Why isn't pan-Arab nationalism considered colonialist and racist?

Question

Isn't trying to Arabize the area from Morocco to Iraq a form of persecution against non-Arabs?

Answer 1

The Berbers in North Africa certainly think so. So do the Coptic christains in Egypt.

Answer 2

I never considered pan-Arabism as colonialist. When we check wikipedia for the definition of colonialism we see this: "Colonialism is the extension of a nation's sovereignty over territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler colonies or administrative dependencies in which indigenous populations are directly ruled or displaced."

However Pan-Arabism is just a utopia which was born during the first world war, when the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire on the Middle East and the Northern Africa was collapsing.  So people adopting the pan-arabism ideology was just seeking a way for surviving and liberating themselves while protecting their territory from the imperialist western powers. It cannot be a colonialist movement, since those territories were already inhabited by the arabs for many centuries. The main aim in pan arabism is not the persecution against non-Arabs, or non-islamic people; because unlike Pan-Islamism, pan-Arabism has a secular and nationalistic character.

For exemple the spread of Islam after the 7th century does indeed have a colonialist character; since the aim was to "islamize" the people living in other territories. However Pan-Arabism is something totally different.

Also, if we're going to talk about today, I think the ideology Pan-Arabism is more utopic than before. There's lots of inner conflicts between the Middle East countries and the idea of state-nation is way more powerful than arab nationalism, which makes them hard to unify. I cannot imagine a unified power which includes Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and rest of the countries in the region.

But of course we definitely cannot deny the existence of a nationalism in these countries. However it is important to understand that the so called "arabic countries" isn't homogeneous and these countries have way different politics. Islam is also not practiced the same way; you definitely cannot compare Saudi Arabia to Lebanon or to Egypt.The fondemental difference is, some countries try to adopt a secular&nationalist state, while others adopt a islamic rule. And you definitely cannot compare the nationalism in Iran to one in Qatar.

Also the existence of Israel and the interventions of the USA in the region is another factor for the impossiblity of Pan-Arab Nationalism. Because some countries in the region try to get well with this two power and some are just hostile towards them.

And as for being racist, I still question the difference between nationalism and racism; there's a very thin line between these two concepts I guess!

Answer 3

it is racist and imperialist like all or most arab ideologies