Pan-Arabism and Pan-Islamism - Essay Example

Pan-Islamism and Pan-Arabism Pan-Islamism and Pan-Arabism are two entirely different ideologies. Protagonists of Pan-Arabism consider that the Arab World should be unified as one nation like the Umayyad Caliphate which existed in 750 C.E. excluding Southern Spain and Persia. According to these supporters of the ideology, the borders of Arab world have been artificially created by the Turks, Europeans and the greedy emperors of Arab nations or else the Arab world is naturally unified and can be categorised as one nation like the United States.

Pan-Arabism, on the other hand, is an ideology that involves Islam as an integral part of the regulatory framework of the country (like laws) but they believe that the government needs to separate Islamic religious ideologies and bring more secular sorts of governments and therefore the Islamic teachings merely reflect as a symbol of culture and not integrated in country as a religious marker. Pan-Islamism involves the integration of Islamic states under one Caliphate or a united Islamic state or a European Union sort of international organization based on Islamic principles without taking into consideration the ethnicity while pan-Arabism only involves independence and unity of Arabs without considering religion.

As a kind of religious nationalism, the ideology of Pan-Islamism distinguishes itself from rest of ideologies such as Pan-Arabism, by ruling out ethnicity and culture as principal components towards conjugation. Although both are political ideologies involving Arab nations, both have distinct targets. The Pan Arabism originated between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as the Arab nations of the Middle East acquired more education which in turn brought in a literary and cultural renaissance in the region.

This imparted to political agitation and contributed to the independence of majority of Arab states from the European administrations during mid twentieth century and from the Ottoman Empire in 1918. On the other hand, the political movement of Pan-Islamism was started by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, in Turkey, during the end of nineteenth century with the intention to fight against the westernization process and to nurture the unification on the basis of Islamic principles. With the progression of colonialism, Pan-Islamism turned to be a defensive ideology that was directed against the European military, political, missionary and economic penetration.

This ideology placed the Turkish sultan as a worldwide caliph and thus all Muslims were obliged to show commitment and obedience towards Caliph. Though, the basic aim behind this unification was to offset economic and military impuissance in the Muslim world by privileging central government over the fringe and Muslims over other ethnicities in office, education, and economic opportunities, it collapsed ultimately after the World War I as the Ottoman Empire was defeated. However it has re-appeared after the World War II and is expressed through organizations like Muslim World League and rest (Ali 197).

Pan-Arabism on the other hand was more eminent as political parties reinforced this ideology and attained powers in countries like Iraq and Syria. Then the foundation of Arab League was also a remarkable achievement of the Pan-Arabism. The most effective and charismatic proponents of Pan-Arabism was Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. After the death of Nasser, Muammar al Qaddafi of Libya attempted to assume the responsibility of Arab leadership (Ali 68).Works CitedAli, Shaukat. Pan-movements in the Third World: Pan-Arabism, Pan-Africanism, Pan-Islamism.

Publishers United, 1976. Print.