An American author trying to answer the question of the last century ... How did the West steal democracy from the Arabs?

On March 8, 1920, the General Syrian Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in the name of the Arab-speaking peoples living in Greater Syria, which includes the countries of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine, and during the First World War many Syrian Arabs fought with the Allied forces, which contributed to putting An end to the war.

The Atlantic 2020 publication, "How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs: The Syrian Arab Conference of 1920 and the Destruction of the Historical-Liberal-Islamic Alliance" by American author and academy Elizabeth Thompson, was recently published by Atlantic Publications for 2020.

In her book, which was dedicated to “all the Syrians,” Thompson considered that a century ago, many Arab elites in the Levant embraced the principles of US President Woodrow Wilson in “freedom and the right to self-determination for large and small countries alike, and to ensure independence based on equal rights, and renounce The policy of conquest and colonialism. "

The Syrian conference had already established a constitution for a democratic parliamentary monarchy that could be a counterpart to Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other countries that were independent of the Russian, Austrian, and Ottoman empires that were defeated in World War I, but France and other Western countries met at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and had another opinion.

Arab democracy

The book, Historian and Professor of Modern Middle East History at the American University, tells the story of a pivotal moment in the history of the modern world, when representative democracy has become a political choice for Arabs, while the West has denied this opportunity and deliberately lost it.

The book was published in two maps, one of which was for the lands that Prince Faisal considered "Bilad al-Sham" or natural Syria in 1919, and it included Jerusalem, Haifa, Tripoli, Beirut, Damascus, Daraa, Amman, Homs, Aleppo, Raqqa, Deir Al-Zour and Al-Jawf. July 1922 in the League of Nations, a division that almost matches the current situation in the countries of Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Territories.

The book tells the story of the 1920 Arab Syrian Congress, which drafted and ratified what it described as the most democratic constitution to date in the Arab world inspired by the 14 principles of US President Woodrow Wilson (1846-1924).

Influenced by the fear of occupation by France, the Syrian Council formed a historic alliance between liberals and conservative Muslim leaders, in the name of freedom and equality and with the blessing of Muslim clerics.

Thomson argued that European colonists feared Arab democracy would threaten their rule in North Africa and their easy access to oil in Iraq and the Gulf, so the leaders of the Paris Peace Conference, in cooperation with the New League of Nations, decided to destroy the nascent "democratic system" in Damascus.

The author continues, saying that France's occupation of Syria has tarnished the reputation of liberalism in the Arab world, and under these circumstances, the secular and Islamic elites separated from each other and divided, which established a sharp political polarization between Islamists and liberals that continued to weaken the struggle against the dictatorship after a century in a time Arab Spring and beyond.

Reality inspiration

In her interview with Jadaliya, Thompson said she decided to start the book in August 2013 in conjunction with "the massacre of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo that became a hallmark of the end of the revolutionary alliance between Islamists and secular liberals, Muslims and Christians, which mobilized Tahrir Square and brought down dictator Hosni Mubarak." After that, the Syrian uprising against Bashar Al-Assad turned into a civil war, as she put it.

The author compared the collapse of this alliance between Islamists and secularists, and what happened in 1920 when religious and secular leaders united and agreed to replace a democratic system with the Ottoman rule of Syria, according to its description.

Western rejection

The author says that the British supported Arab nationalists in a "nationalist" uprising against Turkish rule, in an effort to build an independent state, and in October 1918 Prince Faisal, British intelligence officer Lawrence and the Arab leaders of Damascus entered, where they announced a constitutional government in an independent Greater Syria.

The following year, at the Paris Peace Conference, Faisal obtained the support of US President Wilson who sent an American committee to Syria to investigate the political aspirations of its people. However, other Allied leaders in Paris - and later the San Remo conference - criticized Arab democracy and considered it a threat For their colonial rule.

On March 8, 1920, the Syrian Arab Conference declared independence and Faisal was crowned king of "representative ownership", the cleric and Islamic thinker Rashid Reda supported this option, and he led the founding assembly to achieve equality among all citizens, including non-Muslims, under the full legitimacy of Rights, according to the author.

But France and Britain refused to recognize the government of Damascus and instead imposed a mandate system on the Arab provinces in the defeated Ottoman state in the war, arguing that the Arabs were not yet ready for autonomy.

Under this mandate, the French invaded Syria in April 1920, crushing the Arab government, and sending the leaders of the Syrian General Conference into exile, and the fragile coalition formed by the coalition of "secular modernists and Islamic reformers" who may have established the first democracy in the Arab world was destroyed according to the expression the book.

Astonishment and astonishment

In her interview with "Jadaliyya", the author said that her book is a contribution to historical discussions about the weakness of democracy and the impact of World War I in the Middle East, and challenges the colonial narratives that still prevail and that blame the local culture on dictatorship, political violence and repression of minorities, by showing how it undermined The French and the British deliberately intended a popular political program for tolerance, equality, and the rule of law.

Thomson considers the book to be its third contribution to efforts to understand the ways in which colonial rule shaped political institutions and norms in the Levantine Arab world, and how "foreign intervention has struck a wedge between secular and religious parties, which has weakened the democratic opposition to the Arab dictatorship since then."

The author discusses how the British and French viewed the Arabs at that time, and how they were politically organized despite the years of war, famine and deprivation of the basic tools needed to build and secure an independent state.

The author expresses her amazement that members of Arab societies in Damascus read and adopted the principles of American President Wilson, and she also expressed surprise at the dialogue, as well as the contribution of Sheikh Rashid Reda during his presence in Damascus in drafting a democratic constitution and its central role in this civil movement that adopted different civic attitudes than ideas The "crushing of the religious class" that took place during the Ataturk era in Turkey at a later time, according to the author's expression.