Conservative reactionary impulse in the Middle East: Looking for answers in the past

In Syria, the oldest Christian town in the world was attacked, Christians were forced to flee for their lives, even a Christian officer who defected from the Syrian Army to the rebel’s side is to be put to death by an Al Qaeda affiliate for being an infidel. In Egypt, churches are burned, Christians are assaulted and Christian priests are worried about going out in public wearing their religious vestments. The wave of violence in the Middle East has targeted other minorities as well, in fact any Muslim sect not conforming to the strict interpretation of the faith Al Qaeda subscribes to, which includes moderate Sunnis, are targeted. The feeling that there is still worse to come is palpable all across the Middle East. Fear hangs thick in the air and that fear takes on many shapes, one of those is a conservative reactionary impulse, an urge to conserve and hold on to the largely secular values and principles all Arabs seem to share and all grew up believing in, chiefly among these is the dream of Arab union. 

A symptom of this conservative reaction can be seen in Egypt where the chief of the army is being elevated to a status hitherto unseen since the deification of Jamal Abdul Nasser. Another symptom often seen in online social media communities are the nostalgic 'remember how we were' posts that litter the Internet, patriotic pan-Arabist music clips on YouTube, comparisons between today's leadership and the often inflated legends of past leaders. It is clear that as Arabs we are floundering almost leaderless, or at least we lack inspirational leadership. We are desperately clinging on to the fragments of the familiar, to what we know we can depend on, like our national armies, and thus we are giving these armies carte blanche to do the needful in the hope we may finally wake up from this Takfeeri nightmare we all seem to be in, and all this at the expense of what little political freedom we may still have. But, after all that has happened it is understandable people feel the way they do.

Looking back for too long gives you a sore neck. It’s good to learn lessons from the past but it’s not so good to focus disproportionately on the victories of the past, few as they were, while repeating its mistakes. The biggest mistake our parents and grandparents made in the past 50 years was to surrender political power in favor of security and stability and a vague promise to liberate Palestine, to accept the muzzle in exchange for the feed, in short, they were shortsighted, naïve and wrong. If the past has taught us anything it is that human beings will accept to be dictated to as long as they perceive themselves as part of a great communal struggle to achieve a greater or higher purpose. Once that purpose or cause disappears or becomes irrelevant the kids and grandkids will no longer feel bound by their forebears’ ‘gentlemen’s agreement’, i.e. to exchange personal and political freedom for security and stability. But if the Arab Spring has taught us anything it is that a house divided is easy prey for the opportunists, both regional and global, who will want to back the side that best serves their national and economic interests in this household feud.

Placing the armed forces of any nation on a pedestal that is positioned too high above the crowds, giving it powers to enforce draconian measures is dangerous simply because freedoms once suspended are hard to take back. Our countries were ill-prepared for the bitterly cold Arab Spring, we did not have the necessary layers of laws and national institutions that could insulate our national life from internal strife and discord. In Lebanon, our Achilles heel is the very system that was meant to satisfy all sides but ended up disappointing everyone, the sectarian division of power and resources that was agreed on at a time when Christians were a majority. Demographics have shifted, minorities are now majorities and majorities are now minorities, so instead of stability we have instability fueled by fear and mistrust. In the last 50 years, Arabs were so eager to delegate their political rights to dictators who looked good and spoke well or made outlandish promises of liberation that they forgot to build solid institutions and instill in future generations respect for the rule of law in place of tribal and filial loyalty, and thus we find ourselves in quite a mess.