Blood, soil [Michel Aflaq composed a Koranic super narrative of Arabism, soil and Islam]

jpost ^ | Sep, 24 2008

[PRePublic]

24 Sep 2008 Faith, blood, people and soil... Such themes also come together in that most hideous of Middle Eastern fascist movements, Ba'athism. Ba'athism's founding thinkers, the Syrians Sati al-Husri and Michel Aflaq, composed a Koranic super narrative of Arabism, soil and Islam. They wrote of an Islam as the great cultural and intellectual achievement of the Arab people, and it in turn formed a symbiotic relationship with Arabism, such that they flowed from one another, locked in an eternal embrace.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017382909&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[PRePublic]

As to the issue itself, where is the original Arab country for these (Arab immigrants into Israel) people JORDAN, in all of this?

[Mr. Know It All]

Michel Aflaq, composed a Koranic super narrative of Arabism, soil and Islam

That's a rather bizarre claim considering that Michel Aflaq was Greek Orthodox Christian. Saddam Hussein claimed that he had a death-bed conversion to Islam, but that's generally considered to be BS.

[PRePublic]

Though Michel Aflaq was born into a Christian Greek background, he was nonetheless later Islamized by his surrounding, at least in his ideilogy, like many non-Muslim Arabs.

[Mr. Know It All]

Though Michel Aflaq was born into a Christian Greek background, he was nonetheless later Islamized by his surrounding, at least in his ideilogy, like many non-Muslim Arabs.

That statement is a slap in the face to every Arab Christian who is facing death for his or her beliefs.

Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party bore very little resemblance to what Michel Aflaq dreamed up. It's not his fault and it's no excuse to smear the name of a Christian.

[forkinsocket]

Greek Orthodox Arabs are traditionally very supportive of Arab Nationalism & are usually tied with Sunni Muslims. Possibly because the French gave the Uniate Christians preference over the Orthodox, thus pushing the Orthodox closer to the Muslims.

Middle Eastern minorities have different strategies:

(I’m only talking about the minorites from where I’m from, the Levant.)

Maronites - separation.

Greek Orthodox - Arab Nationalism.

Alawites - Syrian Nationalism.

Jews - throw their support into the small separatist state of Lebanon, supportive of the state in Syria.

Shi3a - same as the Jews in both countries.

Armenians: supportive of the state. (Syria, Lebanon, Israel.)

Circassians: supportive of the state.(Syria, Israel.) Bad blood between them & the Arab Nationalists.

Druze: shifting alliances in Lebanon, Syrian & Arab Nationalism in Syria, supportive of the state in Israel. Bad blood between them & the Maronites.

[PRePublic]

Still, I think that Michel Aflaq did NOT represent most Greeks in his fanatical Arabism (& aggressive Arab-ultra-natiobalism which is not exactly a “Greek” thing).

[forkinsocket]

The Greek Orthodox were some of the first proponents of Arab Nationalism in our area. With their extra contact with Western education, they learned nationalism from the West before the rest of us (except for Maronites). Unlike the Maronites, they lived among the Sunni Arabs & had to get along with them. Arab Nationalism is their strategy to make being an Arab more important than being a (Sunni) Muslim.

When I've been prosletized to by SSNP types (Syrian Nationalists), they always used the lines "We are all Arabs, it doesn't matter your religion. Religion is for the home, not the government. You will be better off with our secular government when you reunite with our Syrian motherland."

That is what the Greek Orthodox were looking for, a strategy to escape the oppression of Islam.

[PRePublic]

Here's more about Pan-Arabism, Arabism, Baathism & FASCISM

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The Ba'ath party was founded in Syria in 1928 by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din Bitar with a pan-Arab nationalist program and elements of both Marxism and fascism.  Aflaq and Bitar were influenced by Arab nationalist trends that had begun in time of the Turks, inspired in part by the Islamic and Arab reform ideologies of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1839-1897), his student Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905), and Abduh's student, Muhammad Rashid Rida (1865-1935). These thinkers called for a renewal of Islam, with limited borrowing of concepts from the West. Abduh in particular was active in promoting Arab autonomy within Ottoman Turkey, and had placed great hopes in the Young Turks. Rida grew increasingly anti-Western with time, and was a great influence on Hassan El-Banna, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood. While Aflaq was a Greek Orthodox Christian, Ba'ath ideology adopted an affinity for Islam, and Pan-Arabists saw one of their goals as asserting the primacy of the Arabs in the Muslim world.
http://www.mideastweb.org/Middle-East-Encyclopedia/pan-arabism.htm

Ba'athism was a deliberate copy of European Fascism; it tried to replace Islam in the people's minds with Arabism, a fascistic glorification af Arab history ...
http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-69426.html

Encyclopedia of the Developing World: Index - Google Books Resultby Thomas M. Leonard - 2006 - Social Science - 1759 pages
... Pan-Arabism with an emphasis on socialism incorporating ideas from Italian fascism. Ba'ath ideology accepted all Arabs regardless of religious faith. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3mE04D9PMpAC&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=fascism+arabism&source=web&ots=6yKRzEp8z1&sig=zpTQkk5oIBawD7APo97CuysVE3o&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result