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As I followed the news of war raging between Armenia and Azerbaijan, it captured my attention that the people in both countries back their leadership and army, even many citizens volunteered for war.
I wondered if it’s possible for us to witness the people of any Arab country from our rundown states gather around their leadership and army in case they had to face external aggression. But I suspect that won’t happen, especially since we disagree on everything: On national constants, civic rights, the military, and loyalty.
It has become more explicit than ever, since that event falsely called the “Arab Spring” that has been a burden on us. It increased our division and fragmentation, demolished what is left of our countries, and removed emperors and dictators from power without providing a qualified alternative.
This ominous spring represents the product of another spring that occurred in the fifties of the last century, when the military jumped to power in those countries and ruled them with blood and iron after they sold their people slogans of liberation, defeating imperialism, and liberating the occupied land.
Our people wanted to revolt against injustice, which is their right, so they rose, rejecting political immorality. They dreamt of justice and equality but woke up to the nightmare of the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, and other extremist movements supported by foreign countries like Turkey and Iran to destroy their countries.
Nations should excel in raising their children to love their homelands and inspire them to sacrifice their souls to protect it. There are bright spots and dark spots in the history of all nations, and educators have a mission to illuminate young people’s hearts with bright spots. As Arabs, we have intellectual and cultural foundations. We possess noble morals and virtuous qualities passed down from generation to generation that can be revived and highlighted.
We cannot all become thinkers, and each of us has his own theory to solve the problems we face. Preferably, we need a general approach that is acceptable to most of us and rally around it, an approach that unites us, based on what we have in common, something that cultivates in us a sense of security arising from our belonging to this part of the earth, and unifies our destiny.
I do not believe that creating Arab thinkers and theorists who are qualified to influence and shape the future of a nation can be done by a political decision. Politics has always corrupted thought, and the Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels said, “Whenever I hear the word (thinker), I feel my gun.” Just as the thinker, the intellectual or philosopher cannot be a politician, because politics has its games. It requires another kind of cunning, so I think the intellectual should draw the way for the politician to walk in it.
I look at the region’s map, and I see that whenever the fire is extinguished in one area, it ignites in another. In the midst of that, I see an oasis of safety, political, economic, and social stability, which is the Arabian Peninsula, may God Almighty protect it from all evil. I perceive its rulers with their insightful vision and deep political vision as they succeed in sparing their countries the scourge of strife and wars and drawing a better future for their people.
In the past, it was said, “Wherever Egypt goes, the Arab nation follows.” Now, I say, “The survival of the Arab countries lies in their co-operation and integration with the Arab Gulf states, to save this nation and restore its global position.”