DAMASCUS - "Secularism in the Arab world" sounds out of place, almost as
abstract as saying "Sex in Disneyland". There are a few prominent Arab
seculars, such as Egyptian scholar Nawal al-Saadawi, Syrian scholar Sadeq Jalal
al-Azem and ex-Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi. They are a small minority in a
region plagued by sectarianism and fanatics.
Many historians link secularism in the Arab world to Napoleon's 1798 invasion
of Egypt, when the Egyptian elite was strongly exposed to a secular world,
through interaction with French scholars, scientists and military personnel.
That statement, however, is somewhat incorrect, since 11th- and 12th-century
philosophers of the Muslim world spoke of secular values - without
using the word "secularism" - long before Napoleon's men marched into the East.
Then came European colonialism in the 19th and 20th centuries, which brought
along a new term for the Arab East, like "secular nationalism", which,
ironically, was used to combat the British and the French.
For years, the three strongholds of contemporary Arab secularism have been
Egypt, after the revolution of 1952; Iraq, after the army came to power in
1958; and Syria under Ba'ath Party rule since 1963. In Egypt, seculars received
the upper hand under former president Gamal Abdul Nasser, especially when he
cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s, and drew a clear line
between mosque and state, making any challenge of that new order a capital
offense punishable by death.
Egyptian secularism began to erode - fast - when political Islam skyrocketed in
popularity, as a direct result of the Camp David Accords of 1978. By then,
Nasser was dead and his successor Anwar Sadat was simply unable to combat the
Islamic giant on the streets of Cairo, accusing him of selling out to the
United States and Israel. Political Islam was further empowered, at the expense
of secularism, by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, when the Jimmy
Carter administration in the United States decided to train Arab jihadis and
ship them to Kabul to combat the Russians.
Secularism suffered another heavy blow, climaxing with the assassination of
Sadat, at the hands of Islamic fanatics, in 1981. Since then, political Islam
has constantly been on the rise in Egypt, despite - and perhaps because - the
Egyptian state has been arresting and silencing Islamic leaders almost daily
for the past 30 years. The more they were persecuted, the more the Islamists
turned into the Islamic underground, creating a clear divide between "seculars"
and "Islamists" that continues to rock Egyptian society.
The situation in Iraq is similar, where secularism was enforced - by brute
force - during the long years of Saddam Hussein. Because of the delicate
sectarian scene in Iraq, Sunnis and Shi'ites were forced to live together,
steering clear from any political Islamic tendencies. Parties that had an
Islamic agenda, like al-Da'wa, which was created in the 1960s, were heavily
suppressed by consecutive military regimes, which, based on the Nasserist model
in Cairo, preached a strong brand of Iraqi secularism.
Ironically, the United States butchered Iraqi secularism when it toppled Saddam
in 2003, opening the door wide for Islamic parties to surface and rule, and
they currently stand as masters of modern Iraq. Allawi is a noticeable
exception to post-2003 Iraq, since he is one of the few who remains committed
to a secular Iraq, driven by patriotism rather than religion. Apart from him,
all post-2003 politicians, like Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, Ibrahim
Jaafary, Tarek Hashemi and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, are religiously
driven and sectarian to the bone.
With both Egypt and Iraq clearly out of the secular family, this leaves Syria
as the only remaining secular state in today's Arab world. Syria was once very
secular, from the immediate post-Ottoman era until the 1980s. Its secular
thought was first promoted by a scholar named Sati al-Husari and a nationalist
leader, Abdul Rahman Shahbandar, who, in turn, were both influenced by French
and German secularism.
They preached modern secularism, wrote prolifically on the subject and
Shahbandar was eventually gunned down for his views, in 1941, by a group of
Syrian fanatics. Apart from these two men, Syrian leaders from the 1920s
onwards were not secular by definition, but they differentiated between Islam
as a way of life and a political system.
The head of the Islamic bloc in parliament, Shaikh Abdul Hamid Tabba, firmly
believed in Islam, but he strongly endorsed Faris al-Khury (a Protestant) as
prime minister in 1943, although his appointment meant that a Christian would
now control the Office of Religious Endowments (Awqaf) in Syria.
President Hashim al-Atasi, for example, was a pious Muslim and the son of a
Mufti, who used to wake up for morning prayer and go to the Muhajirin mosque
during office hours to pray. The point is: he never prayed at the Presidential
Palace. He appointed Faris al-Khury as prime minister in the 1950s and during
his era a proposal was debated in parliament to abolish an article specifying
Islam as the religion of the state.
It never passed, but the very fact that it was raised in 1950 speaks volumes
about Islam, secularism and Syria. The Syrians were secular without really
knowing that the term seemed built into their system. The strong shift towards
Islam resulted from the clash between the Muslim Brotherhood and the government
in 1982, and has been snowballing ever since, despite government attempts at
upholding secularism, yet walking a tight rope, by the promotion of moderate
Islam.
The continued occupation of Palestine, the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and
the invasion of Iraq all contributed to a grassroots conviction that when all
else fails, Islam is the solution to Arab woes. Hamas, preaching political
Islam, seemed to be winning in Palestine, and so was Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Meaning, political Islam, rather than secularism, was a direct result of the
helplessness in Syrian and Arab society, and a feeling that political Islam
pays, and pays well.
In today's word, the strongest advocates for a secular Syria are ironically,
moderate clerics like the dean of the Faculty of Theology Said Ramadan
al-Bouti, and the Grand Mufti Ahmad Hassoun, who roams the Muslim world calling
for a clear separation between mosque and state.
Obstructing the efforts of these open-minded moderate clerics are
fundamentalists like al-Qaeda's Osama bin Laden, who believe in radical and
violent political Islam and call for theocratic governments in the Arab world.
Supporting this line of thought are Syrians involved with international
terrorism and al-Qaeda. Although they don't live in Syria, they have
connections in Syria and have been used, over and over since 2003, to spread
havoc in Syria.
These groups tried to pull off terrorist attacks at the US Embassy in Damascus,
at the headquarters of Syrian TV in the heart of Damascus, at the Damascus
Palace of Justice and in the posh Mezzeh residential neighborhood in 2004, when
they attacked an abandoned United Nations building. Last September, these
fanatics struck in the heart of the Syrian capital, on the road leading to
Damascus International Airport, killing 41 civilians.
This was a strong warning that although the Syrian government and educated
elite were secular, many in the neighborhood (especially in Lebanon and Iraq)
were not, and they were spreading their views, right into the Syrian heartland.
The list of Syrian enemies of secularism is long, and includes the outlawed
Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestinian-born Shaker al-Absi (architect of the
September attack, which the Syrians called Black Saturday), Abu Musaab
al-Souri, who was accused of the horrific March 2004 Madrid bombings, and Imad
Yarkas, the terrorist behind bars in Spain for his role in the September 11,
2001, attacks in the US.
On the other side of the struggle stand seculars who believe in moderate Islam
and who are loud opponents of Islamic terrorism, like President Bashar
al-Assad, his media advisor Buthaina Shaaban, a scholar in her own right,
Syria's ambassador to the US, Imad Moustapha, and Syria's current Health
Minister Rida Said, who tried with a group of Syrian intellectuals to create a
non-governmental organization promoting secularism in Syria, in 2006. Involved
in the project were surgeon Samer Lathkani, writer Wael Sawwah and attorney
Hind Kabawat.
The battle to preserve secularism and tolerance in Syria is still ongoing, with
enlightened Syrians on one front, and radicals like the Brotherhood, on the
other. Syrian seculars, theoretically, have plenty of friends in Washington,
Paris and London, who realize what kind of a mess has been created in Iraq and
Egypt because of the retreat of Arabic secularism.
A non-secular Syria would be catastrophic to world powers and to Middle East
peace. With Iraq down and Egypt hovering, Syria is the last champion of a
secularism that is in-born, rather than parachuted onto Arab society. If
promoted, it could become contagious.
Sami Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst.
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