Something is bubbling. It may follow its natural course and
then vanish, or it may grow and become a problem. Whichever way things develop,
let's all be clear about one thing before events overtake us and become the
headache we can all do without. I am referring to the injection of a new Arabic
word among audiences in the North American marketplace of ideas.
The word – as used by Reuel Marc Gerecht in his latest
article – is “asabiyya.” But for those who are familiar with the following
notation; it sounds more like “3assabeyah.” The article came under the title:
“Sandstorm” and was published on October 8, 2014 on the website of the Weekly
Standard. At least on two previous occasions, an Arabic word was used by evil
authors to distort reality. They did such a thorough job; they caused damage
that required much time and effort to repair.
One of the words was “jihad” which means striving. It is
used all the time in all sorts of contexts especially close to examination time
when parents tell their children to strive so as to get good grades. When used
as “jihad fee sabeel allah” it means striving for the sake of God, which would
translate into holy war. And so, every time a prominent figure in the Arab
world used jihad to mean, for example: “let us strive to build a stronger and
more equitable economy,” the evil authors of North America
reported to their audiences that someone in the Arab world wanted to launch a
holy war on the West.
The other word is “ummah” which is derived from the word
“Umm,” that translates into mother. Most of the time, when the word ummah is
used without specification, it means motherland. For example, someone may give
a speech in which he says: “let us work together and build a stronger and gentler
ummah.” But someone else may say: “ummah islamiyah,” and this would translate
into “Muslim motherland.” In this case, he may well have caliphate on his mind.
Still, every time that someone used ummah in any context at all, the evil
authors of North America reported that some
Arab wanted to set up a Muslim caliphate.
So now, we have the new word “asabiyya” which Reuel Marc
Gerecht says is “best translated as esprit de corps mixed with the will to
power.” I suppose it could be taken to mean that when the context in which it
is used is a politico-military one. But “3assabeyah” has many derivatives which
are used in all sorts of ways to convey all sorts of ideas. At the root of the
word is “3assab” which means nerve. When someone is nervous, you call him:
“3assabi.” When someone holds an extreme opinion, you call him: “muta3asseb,”
to say you consider him a fanatic. But when used in a purely political context,
the word “3assabeyah” only means partisanship.
This word is rarely used in everyday parlance in the modern
era because things have changed since the old days. It used to be that people
expressed themselves forcefully with a kind of nervous emphasis. They do little
of that now, preferring instead to reason things out calmly. Thus, the idea of:
“al-dhabt wal-rabt” – which translates into self-regulation and control – has
pushed 3assabeyah out of the way and replaced it with a word that means
enthusiasm. In Arabic, the word is “mutahammess,” which translates into
enthusiastic. Its root is: “hamas.” Yes, that Hamas means enthusiasm for the
cause of Palestine .
Thus, there is no more assabiyya but there is hamas.
Knowing this, the introductory paragraphs of the Gerecht
article will make you raise an eyebrow for two reasons. First, he constructs a
theory around his understanding of what asabiyya stands for – an understanding
that is at best incomplete, if not entirely false. Second, he makes the
assertion that “today, no state in the Middle East
has an asabiyya that binds its citizens together … Unless new organizing ideas
are embraced, we are likely to see persistence of Islamic militancy.” Well, the
Arabs may have shaken off the old idea of asabiyya, but they have something
that binds them together now. It is the idea of dignity, opportunity and a
brighter future. They launched what turned out to be a pan-Arab revolution to
make these demands. Started in Tunisia ,
the revolution spread to Egypt
and Libya in North Africa,
and from there moved to the Levant and the Arabian
Peninsula .