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Can You Build a Modern Society on an Arab Tribal Culture?

(Middle East Forum) Philip Carl Salzman - There is not one Arab nakba, the establishment of Israel. Rather, all of modern history is a nakba for the Arab world, a self-induced, cultural nakba as the Arab world has clung to pre-modern tribal forms: The seventh century CE remains the ideal for the Arab world. Modern liberal society depends upon a constitutional foundation, governing institutions based on law, politics allowing constant recall, and civil society going about its business peacefully. Loyalty must be to the constitution, not to groups. Building a modern society and liberal state on a tribal culture is building on shifting sands. The writer is a professor of anthropology at McGill University.
2016-04-27 00:00:00
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