Identities’ issue in the Middle East and North Africa

Since the formation of modern states in the MENA, one major common issue has been there which is the identity crisis. Whether each country should enjoy a self-identity or should it have one common identity with its neighbors.

Pan-Arabism was the answer for some leaders, such as Abdel Nasser, in Egypt, El Baath party, in Syria and Iraq; Islamism in the gulf, Judaism in Israel and staying in the middle in some countries such as Morocco and Tunisia …

As a result, we are in 2020 and nearly all those regimes have changed but still struggling with the determination of our own identity, it may seem not important, yet it is the key for the stability in the MENA

But how?

In order not to fall into the complexity of a specific country in the MENA, let’s imagine a virtual country that has the common characteristics of the MENA’s nations (Excluding Israel and Lebanon for their different demographics, and somehow the gulf for their special conditions).

Let’s call it Menaland, In Menaland we usually have nearly 6 factions: Islamists, Pan Arabists, Westernization pros, nationalists, Native Menalanders (Native people such as Amazigh or a large faction non-Arab such as Kurds), and sectarists; among all of them, there is secularists and theocrats.

Governing Menaland is NOT EASY AT ALL, bringing democracy to it would not be a good idea because political parties won’t live in harmony. they will only fight for shaping the country’s identity according to their own belief -and not for the benefit of the nation — ; Either it would be the majority imposing their ideology on a minority which would create a tyranny and an investible feeling for the minorities’ leaders and foreign powers that could lead to civil war and betrayers, or it would rise the minority to the power, which would oppress the majority till the fall of the regime and encourage the majority to take revenge on the minority. Hence, The idea of dictatorship seems more suitable now, but wait a second it wouldn’t be a great idea either! actually, it had been already tried but unfortunately didn’t work, and we have all seen dictatorships falls one after the other because they failed to unify the hard nation’s demography under one identity, also they failed also to establish strong institutions that could guarantee the continuation of the country and why again? Because they failed to make people feel that they are Menalanders and not part of a specific faction. For example, in the Syrian civil war, those feelings were heavily invested from the factions’ leaders and created real militias out of this national diversity ( The FSA out of Islamists; The Arab Syrian army out of Alaouites, secularists, and pan Arabists; SDF out of west pros and Kurdish…); So the identity is a real problem in Menaland and not a side problem as many may say.

Shall we now think out of the box?

The key to this problem is to find a real unifying identity, something that all the people could agree on. Historically, it could be the race, language, religion, or a set of values that the country was established on. As Menaland is rich with races, religions, sects, and disagreed diverse values, we would be left with one factor is the one of language.

Which language could play the role of the unifier?

Arabic, English, or even French are all foreign languages in Menaland, and the preference of Arabic (or French in some provinces) over local languages was a result of policies aiming to unify the people under one governess (or to conserve a certain elite’s power), But it did ignore all other minorities, who in fact are not a minority. Statistics were heavily flasificated so that the Arabization of Menaland could seem legitimate, and the worse is that the Menalandi dialect was really undermined; For example, France, the USA, Turkey, Germany, and a lot and a lot of other countries, use their local language in their professional, academic and literature fields. In contrast, in Menaland IT, Politics, Philosophy and Literature are not easily accessible to most Menalanders because simply they speak other languages than the real used language; Thus, there is a necessity to have a local language inspired from the local languages that could play the role of the unifier.

Accordingly, Menalandi dialect should be recognized and transformed into an official language (by making it more compatible with academic and business purposes), so that Menalanders could have easier access to IT, (Menalanders could have their own cellphone with their our own language), could be more efficient in workplace work using (by not appealing to use foreign languages to express ideas to their colleagues), could enjoy a richer internet content so that knowledge is democratized and won’t be exclusive for Arabo/franco/saxophone and Philosophical, literature, academic products would be closer to people which would lead to a whole social revolution!

But Why not use Arabic instead?

Let take a look back in history, France one of the most powerful literature civilizations has come to a point that Latin should not be used anymore in the scientific, philosophical fields because it monopolizes the knowledge in favor of the elite and the church. And So on, choosing Arabic would firstly neglect all other ethnic groups, Secondly, would monopolize knowledge, and thirdly would keep the linguistic decision comes from another capital other than the Menaland’s capital.

Therefore, the most ideal decision is to officialize the Menalandi dialect and modernize it to get a language useable in academics, politics, and philosophy…

And to have such a unified language, Menalandi should be in the middle of all the dialects, languages of the country. By including the vocabulary of Menalandi, Arabic, and other minorities’ languages in the new language. Moreover, it would be a could opportunity to come up with a language more nonsexist, more tolerant to the other, more adapted to the development … Because all languages that we speak today are roughly influenced by what people used to think X years ago and at the same time the language also influences the way people think so it’s better to make a language with a modernized syntax, vocabulary which can enlighten the way people think…

Is a unified language enough to shape Menaland’s identity?

The answer is No. However, the new language would create a common environment for all, would facilitate passing the knowledge to the public, and help to start the biggest national project that would bring all factions to the middle by well educating their children, reconsidering radical ideas in their ideologies, and agree on a red line for all which is THE UNITY OF THE NATION.