Defeating the West...an opportunity to rebuild an Arab-Islamic public space

Protesters carry a large watermelon-shaped flag at Flinders Street station in Melbourne, Australia for Palestine (Getty)

At the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the new century, many European writings appeared that took the question of identity as their subject, to the point that these writings became closer to expressing a hidden crisis than to being merely a topic of passing research.

Among the most important books that stood out to me - personally, in this regard - were two books: the first by Navid Kermani, which came under the title: “Who is this Nah?”

(Where is it?);

The second is by “David Precht” under the title: “Who am I, and if proven, to what extent?”

(We are here - and where do we live?).

The reader will notice that the two books are distinguished by the strangeness of their titles in the first place, in addition to the fact that the two titles come in the interrogative form, emphasizing that European identity has become the subject of question before being the subject of consensus.

Despite the difference in writing style and the nature of the approach, the two books open the door to contemplation of European identity as a subject of future foresight, and as something in the making, rather than something fully achieved and accomplished.

Over time, Europe's inability to achieve the desired homogeneous identity became clearer than it could be hidden.

Britain's exit from the European Union represented a clear acknowledgment of the bankruptcy of the project to restore the corroded European identity.

Today, this erosion has reached its peak, leading to what Emmanuel Todd calls: “The Defeat of the West” (La Défaite de l’Occident).

The defeat of the American Protestant elites and the West

In his book about defeat, Toad believes that the West, under the command of the American Protestant elites in particular, has exhausted its moral capital and has turned into societies that are not disciplined except by the controls of frivolous material interests, dictated by financial and business circles.

He believes that Europe's inability to achieve independence from the United States of America leads it into absurd and meaningless wars.

Perhaps one of these absurd wars - in which Europe has no camel or camel - is the war of extermination that is taking place today in Gaza, and before that the Ukraine war, in which NATO - always under the command of the United States - played a major role in its outbreak.

These wars came to confirm an established constant in the history of the United States since the end of World War I, as it insists every time it is able to put dew where the sword is, to put the sword where the dew is, thus missing out on itself and others, the opportunity to contribute to bringing about peace. A world order that guarantees peace, and with which the values ​​of justice, freedom, and moral clarity are common.

Despite the difference in writing style and the nature of the approach, the two books open the door to contemplation of European identity as a subject of future foresight, and as something in the making, rather than something fully achieved and accomplished.

We refer here to what was mentioned in Amin Maalouf’s book: “The Labyrinth of the Lost” (Le Labyrinthe des égarés) - and the reference does not mean identifying with all of the writer’s positions - in terms of talk about US President Woodrow Wilson and his blatant denial of the principles that he continued to preach, such as the principle of the right of peoples. In determining its fate.

Maalouf explains how these principles were merely slogans and empty words that were not designed to benefit the true meanings that were attached to them.

According to Wilson, the liberation of peoples is a principle that does not extend to all peoples, as was proven in the context of the aftermath of World War I.

To the extent that it is limited to apply only to the peoples of Eastern Europe, these peoples had to be freed from the grip of Russia at that time.

We can say that the situation of the peoples who were forced to flee to the United States to achieve their independence in the post-World War I period was similar to the situation of the people who were forced to flee from Ramadan by fire.

How can he seek to liberate peoples abroad if he has not gotten rid of racial discrimination at home?

Wilson's involvement in supporting this distinction was too obvious to be hidden in the American context, to the point that some of the American centers and universities that were named after him chose other names for themselves today, and this is a clear condemnation of the man's racist positions.

To this day, the United States has not gotten rid of the scourge of racism at home, even after Barack Obama came to power. This is what results in a repeated explosion of the situation and portends endless racial tension.

America has, in history, many wonders of moral ambiguity and demonstration of righteousness, the home of corruption, when it comes to racial discrimination, which there is no room to mention, and what reminds us of what is happening in full view of the world today in terms of tampering with international law and jumping on the principles of natural reason.

Serving for obvious corrupt purposes.

Maalouf, in his talk about the entrenchment of racial discrimination in the history of the United States of America, reminds us of a case of invoking the law to hide the truth of this discrimination, a case that raises laughter due to the severity of its confusion and insistence on continuing to cover up the obvious corruption.

For example, in an attempt to prevent Negroes from registering to cast their votes in elections, many states decided to impose fees on anyone who wanted to put their name on the voting list, or to require them to prove the ability to read and understand;

In order to ensure that these measures only concerned Negroes, and not whites who were poor and illiterate, an article was added stating that the new laws did not apply to those whose fathers and grandfathers had the right to vote.

We find countless evidence of this type of deception in the record of the United States of America’s dealings with world issues, most notably the issue of the Palestinian people.

The war of genocide that Israel is waging against this people is carried out with the blessing of the United States of America in the first place.

Instead of working to achieve a just, fair and final solution to the Palestinian issue, America continues, in a position similar to its position on the issue of racial discrimination throughout history, in finding legal and legitimate formulas for an essentially immoral issue, at a time when it could have assumed the role of the created strong and decided to end the conflict. .

The inability to stop the genocide in Gaza - as it perpetuates the feeling of the end of the narrative of Arab unity and the narrative of the Islamic nation politically and militarily, and exacerbates the feeling of injustice, humiliation and humiliation in the streets - opens a new realistic horizon for thought and action, in the political and societal cultural fields.

It is clear that the need to prove the West's moral defeat in the face of what is happening in Gaza no longer exists.

However, what needs to be proven, on the other hand, is the cohesion of the identity of the Arab and Islamic world and its moral superiority.

It is not useful for us to indulge in talking about the disintegration of the West’s identity and its moral fall, and to turn a blind eye to the countless new narratives that are fighting in the Arab-Islamic world, trying to seize the right to dictate the identity of this world.

Or the discordant tendencies that rage within it, some of which rise and some of which set.

The truth is that this world is not safe from the disintegration of identity and the disappearance of values ​​and morals.

In this context, I find myself repeating with the Moroccan group “Nass El Ghiwane” the beginning of an old song that has always been sung by the voices of an entire generation, which says: “What are we going to do? Are we going to turn my heart around or is it impossible?”

I find that this question, which was posed in a popular artistic context forty years ago, has great relevance.

We have the right to ask, as Kermani and Brecht wonder in the European context: Are we still us?

On the way to review

What is happening in Gaza today has a decisive role in pushing towards a review of existing representations in the Arab and Islamic context about the self and others.

As the cries of “With our soul and our blood we sacrifice for you, O Palestine,” rise in the streets of our Arab and Islamic world, we see a clear disintegration of the idea of ​​Arab unity or the Islamic nation at the political level.

There is a vast gap between the street circle and the political circle, and a gap that cannot be bridged.

This is because this street is not a public space that influences political decisions, as much as it is a space for venting, and nothing more.

What makes this space even worse is that today it is witnessing competition in a digital space in which fierce battles take place over the most trivial reasons, which only further fragment the torn Arab and Islamic reality.

The inability to stop the genocide in Gaza - as it reinforces the feeling of the end of the narrative of Arab unity and the narrative of the Islamic nation politically and militarily, and as it exacerbates the feeling of injustice, humiliation and humiliation among the Arab and Muslim peoples in the streets - opens a new realistic horizon for thought and action, whether in the political field or the societal cultural field. .

It is obvious that a person would be among the gullible people who deceive themselves if he imagines that it is possible to jump over the constraints of the reality of the national states to unite the peoples of the Arab and Islamic world.

But it is not at all naive to think strategically, in light of the major transformations previously mentioned, about rebuilding an Arab-Islamic public space governed by the controls of a comprehensive, comprehensive identity whose components derive from two feelings: the feeling of civilizational affiliation, and then the feeling of unity of destiny.

Perhaps achieving these two feelings is a necessary condition for openness to the world.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.