Question

How do you explain the rise of the secular modernist reformists in the Middle East during the post-World War II era? How did they attempt to liberate their countries from Western imperial domination? What were the domestic and foreign challenges to the implementation of their reforms?

Answer 1

The Modernist surge in the Middle East was a result of three main intellectual currents which united the Arab and Middle East thinkers, activists, and writers and artist towards political and social change in their respective societies. The increasing contact with the Western thought, literature, developments in science and technology due to industrialisation along with the increaisng intervention of the Western economic and military forces in the Arab countries of Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and along with Iran, Iraq, Moroccco, Libya and Algeria,

The first movements toward reform started in the nineteenth century and were a result of the introduction of constitutions and a parliamentary system into the Persian, Arab, and Ottoman monarchies. The travels taken by the young Arab and Persian intelligentsia to Europe brought them in contact with Western education and society. As a result, many of them saw in the Westen democratic system a strong alternative model to address the shortcomings of the monarchies of their native countries. This brought in a wave of nationalist movements across the Muslim world in the Middle East where the educated masses began to demand a more secular democratic order against the failing monarchies of their respective countries. For instance, the fall of the Ottomon empire in the First World War brought an end to the system of Caliphate rule in Turkey leading to the establishment of a socialist democracy there. Similarly, Iran witnessed the emergence of its first democratic head with the overthrow of the Shah of Iran.

The second current of a secular and modern movement was marked by what can be called ‘nativism’. As the Middle Eastern intellectuals looked for sources of progress and success in their indigenous philosophy which was relatively opposed to the first period, which was characterized by a fascination with the West. This was the time when many Middle Eastern politicians and thinkers began to experiment with a revivalist perspective where parallels were drawn between modern democracies and Islamic principles. While this new wave of modernism may have seemed fundamentalist on the surface because of its turn to a religious ideology, the approach was dominated by a secular sentiment where religious texts were seen as a source of maintaining an equalitarianism social order.

In the third intellectual current, a strong desire for development led the academics to analyze their societies with the modern critical tools that they had borrowed from Western disciplines. nativists reacted against capitalism along three lines: nationalism, Marxism, and Islam. The general disavowal of Western technology during this period led to several nativist groups and organizations which promoted a home-grown experimentation in society with a combination of Islamic and leftist values.

While modernism flourished in these three periods, the secular modernist movement in the region had faced several problems. The colonial presence of the West particularly Britain and France, in their native countries for ownership of the oil industries had complicated the politically unstable Middle East, and this seemed to have made the transition into modernity a rough path. Moreover, the emerging socialist ideology in the area raised alarm for the US government which soon began to mobilise anti-nationalist and anti-liberal activities in the Middel East society by providing financial And military aid to the repressive military and monarchical groups thereby creating deep political rifts in these societies. As a result, the secular modernist reformers in the Middle East found it challenging to continue with their reformative measures in the region as the states became more and more involved in sectarian politics due to the clash between the liberal socialist intelligentsia on one side and the repressive and fundamentalist religious groups aided by foreign support, on the other side.