Is Arab Socialism Truly Anti-West and Anti-Colonialist?
Now, putting this finding aside, there was something that I had read that really made me understand the state of West Asia during the Cold War, and especially before the Islamic Revolution in Iran.
While reading the first volume of Iqtisaduna - Our Economy - by the late Shaheed As-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir As-Sadr (ra), he made a very good point about Arab Socialism - organized as Ba’athism/Nasserism (which only defer in minor details).
He stated correctly - and obviously - that these organizations were formed by Nationalist thinkers. Now, these thinkers, knowing that it was impossible to form a political party and ideology around only Nationalism, decided to mix Nationalism with Socialism. Don’t get confused, it wasn’t National Socialism (like the NSDAP) or Social Nationalism (like the SSNP). Now, as simple as this is, he made a very profound point that changed my thinking of Arab Socialism completely. Despite proclaiming anti-Colonialist and anti-West slogans, these ideologies and parties still followed a Western economic, political, and philosophical system, that being Socialism - which, remember, came to being in Germany during the 1800s. Thus, despite proudly showing a stance against the West and Colonialism, the Arab Socialist parties were still finding dependency on the West for an ideology to unify the Arab people. These party leaders most likely knew this, so they tried their best to hide this ideological dependency by proudly shouting anti-West and anti-Colonial slogans.
On top of this fact, the Arab Socialist parties sought to make Arab society quite secular, despite the presence of Islam. They weren’t outright undermining Islam, but they were still attempting to turn Arab society into a mainly secular society, which, like Socialism, is a Western and Colonialist thought.
So, we can see how flawed Arab Socialism really was, especially when we tear down the slogans and look at the core of it. It was/is nothing but an ideology dependent on the West, thereby making it impossible to actually break free from the chains imposed upon us by the West. If we can’t depend on ourselves to make an ideology free from the corruption and rotten core of Western society, which is found on ungodly morals and thoughts, how can we truly call ourselves free?
This is why the only form of government capable of providing freedom to the Arab people - and all the peoples of this world in general - is an Islamic government, governed by the Jurists (Fuqaha) until the Zuhoor of Imam Al-Mahdi (ajtf). This government is one that is divine, for it relies solely on Islamic Sharia, Islamic thinking, and Islamic morals, protecting us from the corruption of man.
