To some Westerners, the political landscape of the Middle East may seem unpredictable, incomprehensible. And it is a very intricate region, said Wadi Haddad, former deputy corporate secretary of the World Bank.
During a recent symposium on the Middle East, sponsored by Samford University and The Alabama Baptist, Haddad — a Lebanese-American — focused on the Middle East’s Arab countries and, through that, attempted to define the region’s political landscape and explain the rationale behind some of the political behaviors.
Three worlds intersect in the Middle East, Haddad explained. The largest is the Islamic world, which stretches from west Africa to Indonesia and contains 1.3 billion people. In the center of this world is the Middle Eastern world, which stretches from Egypt to Iran and Turkey and sometimes includes north Africa.
The Arab world constitutes a minority of the Islamic population and contains about 300 million people and stretches from north Africa to Saudi Arabia. It is composed of 22 countries with a variety of governments, from monarchies to democracies to hereditary republics.
Who is Arab?
The Arab world is predominantly Muslim, the language is Arabic and it has a unifying political framework — the League of Arab States. The league’s members are the 22 Arab countries, or states.
Formed in the 1940s, it developed a definition of Arab that avoided ethnic distinctions, Haddad said.
According to the league, an Arab is someone who speaks Arabic, lives in an Arab country and whose aspirations are sympathetic to Arab aspirations.
Economically the Arab world belongs to the developing world, Haddad said. But the economy of many Arab countries has a bright future due to the great concentration of oil there.
Religion is an overarching element in the Arab world’s political landscape, Haddad said. But there are six dynamic forces that while not directly responsible for the political behavior, form the rationale for the behavior.
Those in the Arab world have very sharp memories, Haddad said, so the shadow of history greatly influences dialogues about the present and future. This includes both past arguments and achievements. While Europe was in the Dark Ages, for example, the Middle East led the world in science and the arts.
Arabs’ sense of identity is linked to this history. Haddad explained this as “who I am today is who I was yesterday.”
The Arab world has experienced a couple of different identities, beginning as an Islamic state from the seventh century until the 20th, ruled last by the Ottoman Empire.
As the empire dissolved, an identity of Arab nationalism formed, which led to attempts to unify the countries through consolidation and treaties. These failed, however, and an identity of state nationalism arose, which acknowledged the individuality of the countries and unified them under the Arab League.
Attempts at greater unity since then have failed, and this, coupled with military failures, has led to a resurgence in the Islamic identity.
Two other forces are the history of the Arab world’s confrontational relations with the West, beginning with the conflict between Islam and the Byzantine Empire, and the history of relations between Sunni and Shia Muslims. During the Golden Age of Islam in the Arab world from A.D. 750–1200, the Shia were suppressed by the Sunnis. This tempers Shia Muslims’ sense of Arab nationalism.
Another force is the relationship between democracy and the governance of the Arab countries. Haddad cited a 2000 poll by the World Values Survey Association that found that Arab countries led the world in thinking the best form of government is democracy. They also led in their rejection of authoritarian rule.
So the difference between ideology and practice lies not with the Arab people but with regimes in the Arab world.
It can also be hard to accept the results of the democratic process, especially when extremist groups win, as was the case in Palestine when Hamas won the most recent political elections.
The last force is globalization sweeping the entire world, but the Arab world is not prepared to deal with it, Haddad said. It is behind in terms of technology and media.
All these forces play a part in why Arab countries’ governments act and react as they do, he said. For Western Christians to understand this world, it will take patience and time, but that will pay off in terms of better relationships between the two, Haddad said.
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