The Arab World before Islamism

[Lebneni Murtad]

Most of the Arab world was fairly progressive from the 50s to 80s. Many Arabs used to work and study in Europe & North America, coming back to their home country with liberal and humanistic views about the world.
But after Saudi Arabia started getting rich through oil,& Iran's Islamic Revolution. We started working and studying in these countries, coming back with regressive Salafist and Khomeinist views.
Before the Lebanese Civil War, Islamists did not exist.
The left was very powerful & influencial
The Islamists started gaining popularity slowly, after the 9/11 incident. But significantly gained more after the Arab spring, they hijacked the secularist uprisings.
After the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian Armed Forces declared martial law, forcing young women with or without the hijab to undergo virginity tests, and if they weren't virgins they were tortured by being stepped on. them. The rate of sexual harassment has significantly skyrocketed, including perpetuation by police officers and military personnel. Sometimes a woman is raped and encircled by men.
Arab women back then used to wear skimpy clothes, bikinis and no one used to care about them, sexual harassment was taken much more seriously. The hijab was only popular with elderly women.
After Gaddafi's death, Islamists ruined Libya mostly Al Qaeda & Daesh.
Before the Syrian War and during it's civil uprisings phase, many people who took to the streets were secularists,liberals,socialists,communists,atheists,feminists,anarchists,centrists and anarchists, same for the Free Syrian Army, but then Islamic Terrorists hijacked the civil uprisings and armed rebellions making it become a full scale civil war.
Before the Iraq War, suicide bombers and sectarian tensions did not exist.

[Minimalist]

I'm not disagreeing with your analysis or timeline but you left out one significant factor.  The insertion of Israel into the mix in 1948.  Terribly de-stabilizing.

[brewer]

In the middle east suicide/car bombings existed prior to the US/Iraq war.

[Anomalocaris]

Most of the Arab world was fairly progressive from the 50s to 80s. Many Arabs used to work and study in Europe & North America, coming back to their home country with liberal and humanistic views about the world.
But after Saudi Arabia started getting rich through oil,& Iran's Islamic Revolution. We started working and studying in these countries, coming back with regressive Salafist and Khomeinist views.
Before the Lebanese Civil War, Islamists did not exist.
The left was very powerful & influencial
The Islamists started gaining popularity slowly, after the 9/11 incident. But significantly gained more after the Arab spring, they hijacked the secularist uprisings.
After the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian Armed Forces declared martial law, forcing young women with or without the hijab to undergo virginity tests, and if they weren't virgins they were tortured by being stepped on. them. The rate of sexual harassment has significantly skyrocketed, including perpetuation by police officers and military personnel. Sometimes a woman is raped and encircled by men.
Arab women back then used to wear skimpy clothes, bikinis and no one used to care about them, sexual harassment was taken much more seriously. The hijab was only popular with elderly women.
After Gaddafi's death, Islamists ruined Libya mostly Al Qaeda & Daesh.
Before the Syrian War and during it's civil uprisings phase, many people who took to the streets were secularists,liberals,socialists,communists,atheists,feminists,anarchists,centrists and anarchists, same for the Free Syrian Army, but then Islamic Terrorists hijacked the civil uprisings and armed rebellions making it become a full scale civil war.
Before the Iraq War, suicide bombers and sectarian tensions did not exist.

Total bullshit.

1.  In the early 1950s, the Arab world was just coming off of European colonialism.  The top end of the Arab society was populated by a thin crust of European educated privileged class that looked progressive.   The west, when looking at the Arab world, wants to see and therefore mostly only saw those same class of arabs who looked western, dressed western, did the bidding of the western colonial ruling class while the western world were still the the colonial masters, so whom the westerners in the immediate post colonial periods felt comfortable with.  Almost invisible to western eyes, and indeed would have been loathsome to the western eyes to see, were the vast majority of poor hinterland arabs whose outlook would have looked backward and primitive to the ancient romans.   You won't find any miniskirts on any live Arab women in 98% of the Arab world during those same time when the upper 2% looked so western.

2. Islamists had existed since the 18th century.  Islamism first arose as a atavistic fundamentalist reaction to the relatively progressive ottomans (ottomans looked progressive, for smooth!).  Wahabism is an early form of islamism.   Islamist suicidal assassins have plagued Dutch colonial authorities in what is now Indonesia since about 1887.   These Islamist assassins were trained in religious schools in what is now Saudi Arabia even back then.

3. Islamism was very popular well before 9-11.  What do you think overthrew the shah of Iran?  Admittedly that was Shia islamism, not Sunni islamism.  Why do you think the Soviet invaded the insignificant middle of of nowhere called Afghanistan?  Who the hell did you think our mujahadin friends,said to be fighting so heroic for "Freedom" against the invading tanks and helicopters of the "evil empire", really were?

4.  Before the iraq war, suicide bombers blew up 100+ US marines in one fell swoop in 1982, and caused the gipper to pull the entire US marine force out of Lebanon with their heroic tails between their fatigued legs, remembers?  Suicide bombing was a regular insurgent tactic and played a huge role in French colonial wars on North Africa in the 1950s.  Sectarian violence was an core of Islam as long as there had been Islam.   But then again, sectarian violence has been the core of most religions whether they admit it or not for most of each religion's existence.

[WinterHold]

No.

The Middle East (all of it; country by country) was a product of British/French imperialism.
Here:





Arabs were in the Ottoman backyard. And just like that, they had to be cut down ignorantly by the victors (i.e Britain and France). 
Israel was injected then in the region, to remind us with the size of the cock we just took up the ass. We were fucked; so bad. My ass is bleeding.

What Islam and what Islamists ? this region's only crime, was that it's in the Ottoman backyard.
Also, Saudi Arabia was created, sponsored and supported by Britain. Then America.

Forgot Saddam? when you fuck with Saudi Arabia, you'll find hordes of yanks and tea-bags invading your borders and then bribe some local Shiites or whatever to hang you to death.

Bully bastards!

The Arab governments of sykes-picot though are the filth of filth. The bottom of the barrel.
From presidents to ministers to whatever.

[Aroura]

My understanding is that radical Islam really took over in the late 80s, early 90's. I admit I'm not well versed in all the why's, i suspect its a multifauceted reason. The results are undeniably bad for everyone, though. One of the reasons for the recent rise of populism in the west is certainly the regression of the middle east, and fear of it.

I wont deny the west has some blame, though. Perhaps not as much as op suggests, perhaps he is correct. In either case, this ongoing culture war of liberalism vs concervativism....west vs east....secularism vs dogmatic extremism, etc, cost human lives. And though we've sometimes had glimpses of a more unified future, the dumb, angry extremist mobs keep yanking us all back.

I hope humans can move past it one day, but it feels like a pretty slim hope right now.

Peace.

[WinterHold]

My understanding is that radical Islam really took over in the late 80s, early 90's. I admit I'm not well versed in all the why's, i suspect its a multifauceted reason. The results are undeniably bad for everyone, though. One of the reasons for the recent rise of populism in the west is certainly the regression of the middle east, and fear of it.

I wont deny the west has some blame, though. Perhaps not as much as op suggests, perhaps he is correct. In either case, this ongoing culture war of liberalism vs concervativism....west vs east....secularism vs dogmatic extremism, etc, cost human lives.  And though we've sometimes had glimpses of a more unified future, the dumb, angry extremist mobs keep yanking us all back.

I hope humans can move past it one day, but it feels like a pretty slim hope right now.

Peace.

Yes, natives take a big portion of the blame.

But the west:

1-Put gangsters like Arab leaders in charge; read about the "Lawrence of Arabia" for example, Britain gave these gangsters generals as gifts There was no elections.
2-Is supporting these regimes with weapons, military support and intelligence reports. These weapons are solely used against the citezens.
3-The west is hiding this truth, and instead focuses on one sickness the region has and that is Islamist, 
4-Things like the Syria was proved how dangerous and vicious regimes like the Syrian regime are. BTW, The Saudi and Jordanian are even more bloody.

So the west takes a big part of the blame. If the west stopped supporting these Sykes-Picot regimes, these regimes will fall in a matter of days. Remember the 25th of Jan in Egypt?

[account_inactive]

Yes, natives take a big portion of the blame.

But the west:

1-Put gangsters like Arab leaders in charge; read about the "Lawrence of Arabia" for example, Britain gave these gangsters generals as gifts There was no elections.
2-Is supporting these regimes with weapons, military support and intelligence reports. These weapons are solely used against the citezens.
3-The west is hiding this truth, and instead focuses on one sickness the region has and that is Islamist, 
4-Things like the Syria was proved how dangerous and vicious regimes like the Syrian regime are. BTW, The Saudi and Jordanian are even more bloody.

So the west takes a big part of the blame. If the west stopped supporting these Sykes-Picot regimes, these regimes will fall in a matter of days. Remember the 25th of Jan in Egypt?

1. Would you rather we were still in charge?

2. I would love to see sanctions and diplomatic ties cut with shitholes in the Middle East, but you know, oil is important for now, unfortunately. We also need to stop funding "opposition" groups.

3. Is it though? Regimes committing atrocities and other human rights violations against their citizens are well documented and often reported on the news. Politicians have openly admitted mistakes they made with Syria and Libya.

4. The West does not support the Assad government. If you're looking to blame someone, then try Putin or Hassan Rouhani.

[Mr Greene]

We can go all the way back to Mohammed looking for the source of the 'Islamists'.
We can cite the Mahdist uprising of 1885, The depradations of the Barbary Corsaires or any number of actions along the coast of East Africa and Western India.
Colonization managed to put a lid on it for a couple of decades, but ultimately the place is returning to state it was before.
Oil money has facilitated things which might point to an eventual end as the opening of the sea route round Africa rendered the Silk Roads obsolete.

[abaris]

I'm not disagreeing with your analysis or timeline but you left out one significant factor.  The insertion of Israel into the mix in 1948.  Terribly de-stabilizing.

Of course, but it's well to remember there were two key elements leading to the actual rise of Islamism. One the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and us supporting the rebels at all cost. Regardless what they stood for. Bin Laden rose from the ruins of that war, among others, such as the Taliban. And secondly the first Intifada, which lead to Palestinians switching from being a rather leftist movement to a religious one.

You could also add the revolution in Iran, but since we're hardly faced with any Shiite terror it's secondary for that kind of evaluation.