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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Criticism of the Idea of Arab Nationalism Three Arguments of Arab Nationalism Arab nationalism is not a well-argued or defined doctrine, as has already become clear in the previous sections of the present paper.

Its advocates usually have a limited repertoire of arguments that derive their only strength from being tirelessly repeated by their propaganda and uncritically circulated as self-evident truths.These arguments are weak and they reveal the stress of the contradictions we have examined. I now propose to round off this criticism of the idea of Arab nationalism by discussing three of such arguments that are frequently advanced. 1.

The Argument of 'National Unity:' The most powerful argument proudly displayed in the arsenal of Arab nationalists is that their doctrine will solve the problems of the non-Muslim minorities in the Arab countries by abolishing the principle of religious rule by the Muslim majority and substituting it with nationalist rule in which the higher authority will be secular and under which the minorities will regain their 'rights.' There are no religious minorities in the 'Arab world' except the Copts in Egypt, who have been assimilated into the Muslim majority in all walks of life and who live in harmony with it unless provoked from the outside, and the Christians and some deviant sects in the Levant.

The latter have been hostile to Islam for centuries and have cultivated close ties with the imperialist powers and world Christendom in modern times. It is among them that the idea of Arab nationalism emerged to serve as an instrument of attack upon the Caliphate and Islam and to separate the Arab countries from the rule of Islam to be an easy prey for the European imperialists and their clients -- the Westernized elite.

It was these early pioneers', who could not write Arabic proficiently, that called for Arab' nationalism with their entire inspiration coming from the West and their sentiments drawn to it. In the light of the confinement of disaffected minorities to a narrow corner of the Arab world, the primacy given to this issue by Arab nationalism raises doubts about this movement.

It has very wide claims over all aspects of life and it declares its intention to replace Islam as the guiding project' of the Arabs.