Arab supremacy
Arab supremacy is an ideology that promotes the "racial", cultural and ethnic superiority of Arabs over non-Arab Middle Easterners such as black Africans, Kurds, Turks and Persians.[1] Arab Supremacy is a reactionary but toxic ideology that arose as a response to the colonization of the Middle East by European powers. The concept of Arab supremacy is recently getting study as more and more Middle Eastern feminists and members of oppressed peoples in the Middle East are able to speak on it now.[2]
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[edit] History
Arab supremacy has a relatively short history. While ethnic prejudices between Arabs and the other ethnic groups were common in the past, the idea of Arab supremacy didn't arise until after the destruction of the Ottoman Empire. [3]
[edit] Roots
Arab supremacy has it's roots in various ideologies such as Pan Arabism. Pan Arabism is an ideology that promotes the creation of an Arab state that has a unified language, culture and ethnicity.[4] Like all ideologies that preach ethnic unity in a multi-ethnic area, Pan-Arabism was used as justification for racism against non-Arabs in the Middle East such as Kurds, Persians, Berbers, Jews, Turks and black Africans.[5]
Pan-Arabism never became the basis of an entire nation for a variety of reasons. For one, despite the fact these Arab nations were all Arab, many of them still pursued their own national goals at the expense of other Arab nations which only inflamed tensions between the them. The failure of the Arab armies of 1967 war with Israel also hurt Pan-Arabism along with the death of the President of Egypt at the time, Gamal Nasser in 1970. While alive, Nasser blundered his opportunity to create a pan-Arab state between Iraq and Syria due to political infighting and a lack of interest in Syria.
Ba'thism arose as another Arab supremacist ideology as it preaches socialism for Arabs only.[6]. Much like the ideology it "borrowed from" (though Ba'thism has to be the laziest understanding of Marxism on the planet), Ba'thism had a bad tendency of becoming a military dictatorship when it came to power rather than a socialist state. Ba'thism wasn't really popular and the only two ba'thist nations in the world (Iraq and Syria) openly despised one another. Ba'thism died during the 2004 invasion of Iraq though Pan-Arabism is still supported by the current governments of Iraq and Syria.
Numerous attempts to create an Arab nation, all have failed, mostly due to political infighting, the rise of Islamism and the rise of nationalism within Arab nations.[7] Despite this, Arab supremacy remains a powerful force in the Middle East.
[edit] Examples
Much of the oppression of minorities in Middle Eastern nations is increasingly being called racism by outside scholars as it supersedes the authoritarianism that already oppresses all the citizens of these nations.
- Darfur: Arab Sudanese are killing the black Sundanese for a mixture of racial and religious reasons. The "race" section of this conflict is a great example of how the racial aspects of Arab supremacy are fluid. Despite much intermarrying between Arabs and Africans, Sudanese politicians still promote a separation of Arabs and Africans.[8] Darfur is labeled a genocide by the UN.[9]
- Operation Anfal: The 1988 genocide of the Kurds by Saddam Hussein. Saddam planned to recolonize the Kurd's land with Arabs after he killed them all, not unlike the Native American Holocaust or Hitler's Operation Barbarossa.[10]
- Black Egyptians report being victims of open racism by Arabs.[11]
[edit] Relationship with white supremacy
Unlike white supremacy, which promotes the assimilation, murder, and oppression of "non-whites". Arab supremacy simply ignores minorities in the Arab world and kills them if they resist being "Arabized."
Arab supremacy is not nearly as powerful as white supremacy on a global scale. Both are based the supposed superiority of peoples though Arab supremacy is much more fluid on race. Even darker skinned Arabs who identify as Arab have "Arab privilege" while in white supremacy, a mixed person would never have white privilege. Unlike white supremacy, Arab supremacy is as more ethnic and cultural than it is racial.
Despite this, many Arabs consider themselves "white" (often to the ire of white supremacists) which only further complicates things and attempts to become "white", like skin-bleaching, are common in the Arab world.[12]
Both are destructive mindsets that are institutionalized into the structure of nations and oppress minorities.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ http://kurdishquestion.com/insight-research/analysis/arab-supremacy/422-arab-supremacy.html
- ↑ http://www1.american.edu/faculty/singerman/enoughsilence/History%20of%20Sudan/arabsupremacy/arabsupremacy.html
- ↑ http://kurdishquestion.com/insight-research/analysis/arab-supremacy/422-arab-supremacy.html
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Arabism
- ↑ http://science.jrank.org/pages/7944/Pan-Arabism.html
- ↑ http://www.e-ir.info/2013/08/02/nasserism-and-bathism-modern-contingent-confused-and-instrumental/
- ↑ http://www.e-ir.info/2013/08/02/nasserism-and-bathism-modern-contingent-confused-and-instrumental/
- ↑ http://www.pri.org/stories/2011-02-07/racism-sudan
- ↑ http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24063
- ↑ http://uk.krg.org/genocide/pages/page.aspx?lngnr=12&pnr=37
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_Arab_world
- ↑ http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/08/20/55137.html