Arab Fascism

Submitted by Edward Halper (United States), May 1, 2007 at 10:55

The Nazis in Egypt and Syria may have had a profound ideological impact. Viewed in the context of this article, Nasser's pan-Arabism, his political unification with Syria, and his attempt to unify all Arabs in one country look a lot like Hitler's taking over Czechoslovakia and his call for the unification of all German people. As far as I understand it, the Ba'athist party that ruled Iraq and still rules Syria is the Arab version of National Socialism.

In this context, too, al-Qaeda could be understood as an attempt to give the prevailing national socialist ideology a religious basis. Its totalitarian philosophy does not seem much different from that of the Ba'athists or the Nazis, though it substitutes Muslim identity for, respectively, Arab and German identities.

The idea that al-Qaeda would not be willing to work together with Saddam Husein and the Ba'athist because the latter are secular--an argument that was made against unseating Hussein--is undermined by the similarities in these movements.

For all three, the Jews are scapegoats. But perhaps it is clearer now just why: the Jews represent modernity and the possibility of human rights--ideas that are inimical to the maintaining the social structures that prevail in Islamic societies.

Thank you, Dr. Pipes, for a stimulating article!

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