The Arab masses’ cathartic tendency

The Daily Star - Lebanon ^ | 4-19-03 | Muna Shuqair

[Oldeconomybuyer]

On the evening of April 9, the imam of an Amman mosque did not follow evening prayers with a special entreaty asking God to grant the Iraqi people victory against the Anglo-American invaders. The roar of the imams in Amman’s mosques fell silent. For three weeks, they had all been beseeching God, almost simultaneously. But by noon on April 9, as indications that Baghdad had fallen strengthened, Amman sank into dumbfounded disappointment.
Like most other Arabs, Jordanians ­ irrespective of their position on Saddam Hussein ­ had wagered on a long Iraqi resistance that would exhaust the American and British forces and embarrass their governments.
The Friday, large crowds of worshippers did not congregate in the mosques of Arab cities following prayers. The masses did not fill public squares to call for the fall of “traitor” Arab regimes that have “betrayed their peoples,” nor did they publicly invite people to jihad in support of the Iraqi people. The simmering anger in Arab capitals subsided as though the Iraqi crisis had ended with the liberation of the Iraqi people, the repulsion of the American-British invasion and the defeat of the invaders.
The mechanism that brings Arab masses together to demonstrate and protest ­ forming slowly and receding with surprising speed ­ merits some consideration and analysis to determine its nature, motivation and modus operandi.
The Arab masses are historically frustrated and deeply humiliated by successive Arab setbacks and defeats. They believe their unelected leaders are responsible for those thrashings. At a time when the masses are calling for permission for volunteers to sign up for jihad in favor of God and the nation, Arab rulers are conspiring against the interests of the masses, not only by shutting the borders, but by preventing them from demonstrating and forcibly and violently breaking up demonstrations.
However, the phenomenon in question cannot be explained by popular action and the government reaction it provokes or by the contradiction between the position of the Arab masses and the ruling Arab regimes on any given issue. The explanation lies in the cathartic tendency that marks collective behavior whenever an Arab political crisis occurs and an Arab people wages a struggle to resist invaders and occupiers.
Through the struggle of the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples and the previous struggle of the Lebanese, the Arab masses regain their self-respect and are delivered from the humiliation in which they live. The struggle of the Palestinians and the resistance of the Iraqis thus translates into expiation for the deep-seated collective guilt of a (pan-Arab) nation that has been historically unable to achieve victory.
Although the masses express a willingness to struggle and fight to repulse aggression alongside their Arab brethren, their willingness remains theoretical and short-lived. It surfaces when the mass excitement climaxes, but soon peters out, ending in a state of complete relaxation in front of TV screens as people follow events and enjoy the spectacle of Arab military and popular courage shown by others.
The willingness of peoples to fight to achieve their national and pan-Arab objectives takes on a sacred quality, because it represents the highest form of self-sacrifice to free the nation from those who are occupying it. Therefore, the Arab masses demand that the peoples who are actually waging the struggle should exert all their efforts to resist because they are providing expiation for the entire disappointed nation, allowing it to regain its pride and purging the masses of disappointment and frustration.
So the Palestinians are required to draw on the utmost human and practical abilities to endure. And the abilities of the Iraqi people to remain steadfast and resist becomes unlimited and takes on mythical proportions.
No consideration is given to the living conditions of the people and regular and irregular forces expected to put up such resistance. Siege, starvation, terrorization and the absence of the most basic living requirements must not affect the ability of the people concerned to continue giving.
Martyrdom operations must continue, even when the homes of martyrs are blown up and their families made homeless and their mothers experience the bitterness of cumulative loss of their sons. Martyrdom must be turned into a wedding. The martyr goes to heaven, and a mother who is grieving for the loss of her loved one must turn her sorrow into joy.
The Iraqi people, with their supernatural abilities, must remain steadfast and continue resisting. As for its years under sanctions, the years of repression it has lived through, the periodic wars it has endured almost once every decade ­ all that must not weaken the Iraqi people and the willingness of its forces to resist.
As for the fact that the rest of the pan-Arab nation forgot the Iraqis while they were under embargo and the suffering and misery they experienced, that should have no effect on their steadfastness and resistance.
No one seems to realize that the capacity of peoples to endure, like that of individuals, can peter out, and that struggling peoples are not addicted to suffering and aspire to achieving their right to life without turning into permanent victims and into fuel that nourishes Arab pride with whiffs of victory.
Because this cathartic tendency is the strongest trait of mass action, the Arab masses in any one country demand more of other Arab peoples than they do of themselves. They are unable to understand resistance without the martyrdom of those others, even if that martyrdom becomes an end in itself.
What have the clutch of Arab volunteers who crossed Iraq’s borders and went to Baghdad achieved, except to turn themselves into easy targets for American missiles? They are neither able to fight, nor to achieve a basic minimum of objectives that would justify martyrdom.
The role of the Arab masses must be changed through their organization into new structures and frameworks. Their modes of spontaneous and unplanned action must become methodical and more durable. And they must be educated about their multi-faceted role in building the pan-Arab nation. Without such restructuring and education, the masses cannot be effective.
Worshipping God and seeking heaven do not merely entail purposeless martyrdom. They involve building up effective strength and working consistently and sincerely to revive the nation. Without this, the Arab masses will remain a vocal phenomenon that blares out slogans, but is incapable of action to transform the pan-Arab nation’s situation into one that generates pride and dignity.
Before the masses purge themselves of the guilt of defeat, they must purge their situation through constructive work and through organizing themselves into political and party frameworks that enable them to mobilize effectively and to act seriously.
Chanting in public squares will not topple a single Arab regime however weak it may be, nor will it change any facts on the ground unless it is linked with political action that organizes the masses into viable frameworks in an atmosphere of freedom that acknowledges their right to unfettered political action. Only then will imams in mosques pray without interruption for the pan-Arab nation’s victory. But this can only happen if serious, organized and effective mass action does not fade when the roar of missiles stops.

Muna Shuqair is an Amman-based Jordanian political analyst. She wrote this commentary for The Daily Star

[Oldeconomybuyer]

A number of Arab "intellectuals" seem to be doing a lot of soul searching and keep coming up empty...

[hotpotato]

I think by watching the Iraqis dancing in the streets and abusing their shoes on the heads and faces of Saddam's statues and portraits caused them to reconsider whether the Iraqi's really wanted their help to rid Iraq of the evil anglo invaders who squashed Saddam. I also think Baghdad Bob has given them lots to think about....

[McBuff]

It is the same for Red Sox fans.

[AFPhys]

This is a very good article. In a good way, it motivates one hoped for "collateral benefit" of this BASH: the possibility that setting up a successful (even marginally) democratic Iraq based on Law could serve as a shining example for the rest of the MidEast.

The Arab masses are historically frustrated and deeply humiliated by successive Arab setbacks and defeats. They believe their unelected leaders are responsible for those thrashings.

These poor Arabs have been so oppressed and misled by them that such an example could go a very long way to changing the situation. This holds the promise of a complete change in the political situation in the MidEast.





and, yes, my friends do call me overoptimistic, and at times a pollyanna

[MEG33]

So this is the famed Arab street that must not be inflamed.Sounds more like a pep rally for a game with no winners. (with tragic results.)It just mystifies me.

[George W. Bush]

The war has strengthened the hand of pro-democracy and pro-rights thinkers in the Arab countries. Hopefully, they won't be ignored as the Arab populations try to put their heads firmly back into the sand and return to their failed fantasy world.

[Savage Beast]

"...asking God to grant the Iraqi people victory against the Anglo-American invaders...For three weeks, they had all been beseeching God..."

It never seems to occur to these people to ask God for guidance in fulfilling His will--instead of "beseeching God" to fulfill their will. Maybe this is the crux of their problem.

[Savage Beast]

"For three weeks, they had all been beseeching God, almost simultaneously. But by noon on April 9, as indications that Baghdad had fallen strengthened, Amman sank into dumbfounded disappointment..."

See what I mean?

[MEG33]

Dumbfounding disappointment is more like it.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Allah is not the God of Abraham.

[America's Resolve]

The Arab masses are historically frustrated and deeply humiliated by successive Arab setbacks and defeats. They believe their unelected leaders are responsible for those thrashings.

If arabs can't fight an unarmed and defenseless civilian populace, they're not interested in a fight. period.

[yankeedame]

"The Arab masses are historically frustrated and deeply humiliated by successive Arab setbacks and defeats. They believe their unelected leaders are responsible for those thrashings. At a time when the masses are calling for permission for volunteers to sign up for jihad in favor of God and the nation, Arab rulers are conspiring against the interests of the masses..."

So what should that matter? If something is the "will of Allah" Arab rulers can conspire all they want- theologically speaking that shouldn't make a fig's worth of difference.

IMHO, when it comes to dealing with the (modern) outside world, if anything is historically frustrating and deeply humiliating it must be this much vaulted Arab/"pure" version of Islam.

[Nick Danger]

Allah is not the God of Abraham.

The Moslems think he is. In Islam, Abraham is also called the Friend of God, Khalilu 'llah and his name, Ibrahim, occurs 69 times in the Qur'an, making him the second most-occuring name of prophets in the Qur'an after Moses.

But maybe you are on to something. We keep trying to reason with these people, and all we get back is guys yelling "Allahu Akbar" as they fly airplanes into our buildings.

Maybe what we should say instead is, "There. See that? You pray to Allah, we pray to God, and what happens? You get your butts kicked... again. See a pattern here? Allah is not "akbar." Allah is a pipsqueak. Put him up against our God, and you lose every time. Maybe you got the wrong God. This Mohammad character... dump him, the guy was a fraud. He sold you a false god that brings you nothing but defeat and humiliation. Look around you... you know it's true. Your Mullahs are feeding you nothing but BS. Keep listening to them, and the real God will continue to rain crap on you."

Hey, we've tried practically everything else.

[Mamzelle]

We need some ME scholars in our universities who genuinely understand the Arab mindset--not wishful thinkers like Said. This is an opponent which has been oversold in competence and undersold in viciousness. I don't see how these men can be called warriors--they'll trot their little girls, strapped with bombs, into restaurants to kill a Jewish grandmother, but throw down their arms when facing a Marine.

We gave the Arab his illusion of effectiveness when Clinton shrank from convlict in Somalia, bolstering Bin Laden's deluded rhetoric.

The universities will fail us again, probably, trying to salve the vanitiy of the Arab. But there'll be other writers and thinkers to help us deal with the fantasies they live by...Lewis and Pipes are the thinkers of the day.

[sheik yerbouty]

If the "Arab street" needs catharsis, let them take a collective enema.

[WOSG]

Yes, the "Arab Street" sounds like losers (Arab masses) incited to hate winners (like team USA) by hatemongers masked by religious and nationalist (panArab) impulses ((that is, the Islamofascist Mullahs).

What these people need is NOT organization, nor recognition, they need to get a firm grip on REALITY and try to live without using fear, guilt, shame and anger and their avenues of motivation.

"All you need is love" - paul mccartney

[surely_you_jest]

The Arab masses are historically frustrated and deeply humiliated by successive Arab setbacks and defeats.

Either the Arab masses are incapable of recognizing the will of Allah when it jumps up and bites them on the nose, or they are not the true believers they pretend to be.

Either way you slice it, they are into deep denial.

[WOSG]

I think it would be a great idea to opening up Arab eyes to the fact that Mohammed was a violent fraud not a prophet ... the trick is that they keep killing christian missionaries and muslim apostates, and "Sharia" law makes it a crime for a muslim to change religions. beyond that, the mindset that is trained to swallow Arabist lies and reject uncomfortable western truths.

It'll be very tough to bust up that racket, for sure.

[WOSG]

" ... not wishful thinkers like Said."

IMHO, Edward Said is an anti-western Leftist, who probably knows he is lying when he uses a racist/namecalling arugment ("orientalism") to discredit western critiques of Arab culture.. He is an Arab Chomsky.

[KC_for_Freedom]

Hey, we've tried practically everything else.

I would submit that we are trying this, in a more subtle manner than you suggest. However, we have not been trying much IMO until we decided it was time for Sadam to go. Now we are building new schools and training Iraqi teachers (no more hate America I'll wager).

The spin from the radical muslims must be shown to be false. Some "live and let live" muslim leaders must be found who will take on the fundamentalists and show them the error of their ways. It may take another radical islam state to fall before this happens, I don't know.