[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Generations after political emancipation from direct colonial rule and overt western influence, the quest for genuine political independence, democratization and cultural authenticity in many majority Arab states is still unfulfilled. The abject failures of decades of experimentation with controlled liberalization, Arab and local nationalisms, and Arab socialism in the 1950's and 60's and with Political Islam in its various forms since the 1967 defeat in the war with Israel, were shockingly confirmed by the Arab uprisings of recent years.
The end of colonial rule was the beginning of the era of strong men, usually lower ranking military officers (Nasser in Egypt, Qadaffy in Libya), and the rise of repressive, chauvinistic nationalisms (especially the Baath in Syria and Iraq). The Islamist movements, beginning with the oldest one, the Moslem Brüderbund (established in Egypt in 1928) and the movements it spawned in subsequent decades shared the same illiberal characteristics of the Arab Nationalists and Socialists. In fact illiberal governance is the thread that connects that amorphous universe we call the Arab world.
Illiberalism |