I Against My Brother by Ken Lydell

In an earlier post entitled “What Went Wrong? I briefly addressed three puzzles that some may find interesting. The first of these puzzles is how the cultures, languages, civilizations and ethnic identities of subject peoples throughout North Africa and the Middle East were extinguished and replaced by an Arab identity, language and culture over the course of centuries. The tight control and full exploitation of female fertility along with a total rejection of host cultures, customs, languages and institutions were essential features of Arabization. Islam, of course, spread in the process.

During the 15 th century the Arab and European worlds passed each other going in opposite directions. Europe had unleashed in itself a huge reservoir of human creativity that would lead to unprecedented and previously unimaginable prosperity, security, opportunity and well-being while the Arab world by 1798 more closely resembled 10 th century Europe. The very first printing press in the Arab world was put to work in 1822 and over the next 20 years would print 243 different books all but two of which were addressed to military affairs. As almost every Arab was illiterate at that time nothing was gained or lost by the lack of a publishing industry. The few Arabs who were literate included the Muslim clergy, scribes in the service of government and scribes in the service of merchants who could afford to employ them. And so too it was in Western Europe during the darkest part of its medieval period.

European travellers to Arab lands over the 19 th and early 20 th centuries were aghast at the decay, squalor and decrepitude of Arab cities. They found Arabs and Turks as well squatting among the crumbling centers of learning and commerce that they had seized from Persians and Christians. During the last half century wealthier Arab countries have hired subcontractors from infidel nations to build and maintain for them the outward appearances of modernity but always at the margins there is evidence of decay and squalor. Everywhere the hard work of making things work is left to imported dhimmi populations denied the rights of citizenship, forbidden to intermarry with their Muslim masters and at the mercy of Arabs who would ill use them.

While Islam has certainly contributed to the ignorance, superstition and xenophobia of the Arabs, the Arab failure to achieve modernity is primarily the product of their Bedouin culture. It is there we must look further in order to understand why Arabs are the vanguard of the Islamic war against modernity.

Raphael Patai in his indispensable “The Arab Mind” shows how Bedouin culture is perfectly adapted to a harsh, nomadic environment where every stranger is a potential threat and every other band of nomads a potential rival. Bedouin culture has two virtues: charity and hospitality. Among its many vices are an honor-shame dynamic and familism.

Familism is not unique to Arab culture. It is characteristic of Turks, Kurds and various Muslim tribal societies of Central Asia. Some examples can also be found among Sicilians, Corsicans, and Neapolitans as well as in parts of Provence. They often resemble criminal associations with no loyalty or regard for any but those of their own kinship group. Pierre Bourdieu describes it this way, “The family is the alpha and omega of the whole system: the primary group and structural model for any possible grouping, it is the indissoluble atom of society which assigns and assures to each of its member his place, his function, his very reason for existence and, to a certain degree, his existence itself”. Islam's only contribution to familism is its justification for subordinating women.

The honor-shame dynamic that influences all Arab behavior is a product of familism. Honor is both personal and shared. It is personal in the sense that an individual can by various means increase the regard of others. It is shared in the sense that increasing one's honor also increases family honor and anything that increases family honor also increases personal honor. And so it is with shame which invariably entails the loss of both personal and family honor. Honor is the holy grail of Arab life and shame the worst hell on earth imaginable.

Raphael Patai notes that Islam offers a system of humane ethics (infidels excluded) that is consistently ignored by Arabs. Familism and the honor-shame dynamic trumps Islamic teachings for all but a small minority of Arabs. That which increases the honor of the kinship group is good and that which diminishes it is bad and warrants retribution. This produces a social system characterized by an amoral no-holds-barred struggle for power, wealth and prestige. It is brother against brother jockeying for honor points within a family. It is family against family, clan against clan, tribe against tribe and sect against sect with each contender using any means necessary to advance either personal or group aims at the expense of competitors. Those higher up the scale of honor are bitterly envied while those lower down are despised. All others are rivals to be brought low if possible.

It can be fairly argued that Arab culture is essentially amoral. While public piety is essential to maintaining or increasing family honor personal, private piety is not. In matters of honor and shame anything goes and the devil take the hindmost. This, of course, makes it impossible for Arabs to construct modern civil societies and their failure to do so is for many of them a source of profound shame that can only be expunged through violent retribution against that which has made them feel ashamed: modern civilization. Arabs are in the vanguard of the Islamic war against modern civilization not because they are more pious than others. It is because they are more vengeful than others.