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6. The Arab National League and the Emergence of Arab American Identity
- University of Texas Press
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The Arab National League and the Emergence of Arab American Identity Chapter 6 The Arab National League disseminated hundreds of copies of an Arabiclanguage pamphlet titled “Bayān al-Jāmiah al-Arabīyah” (Statement [or pronouncement] of the Arab [National] League) in 1937. The short reader explained the organization’s principles and sought members in Michigan, home of an active constituency and the New Syria Party a decade earlier. Partial translations of the statement and other documents in this chapter present in their own voices a sense of Syrian immigrants’ developing loyalty as citizens of the United States and the external forces that shaped their choices and views. The pamphlet included an application for membership on the back page. The pamphlet suggested a coming of age for the immigrant activists regarding their aims and their recognition of the grim political reality as budding Arab Americans of Syrian, including Lebanese, ancestry. The activists posited a fresh perspective on how best to achieve political independence in Syria by forging a new emphasis on belonging to their adopted country. Proposing a role for the ANL within a framework of forging ahead as Americans, the statement presented a varied agenda that addressed social and economic concerns: Whereas the Arab National League is a free society established in New York specifically for the service of the Syrian country (al-Bilād al-Sūriyah) by drawing on its American atmosphere—the most advanced democratic atmosphere in the world—the League considers its duty to disseminate its principles and hopes so that the Arab world is aware of its true political , economic, and social aims. Thereby, all who support the goals of the League among the Arabic-speaking population in the United States, Canada , Mexico, and all Latin America can lend their support.1 Within this declaration several subheads followed the heading “Basic Principles of the Arab League.” The activists expressed their wishes of maintaining Syria’s natural boundaries and declared Palestine their new core issue. The organization called for “complete independence of the Syrian nation as a united, coherent political unit within the natural geographic The Arab National League and Arab American Identity 191 borders of Natural Syria.” The borders as spelled out correspond to previous geographic boundaries by the Faisal government and the First Arab Conference in Paris in 1913, articulated often by Rihani, Shatara, Malouf , and Kātibah, and adopted by the American Syrian Lebanese Clubs (AMSYRLUB) in 1934. The league’s principles considered the prevailing political situation of colonial encroachment as a temporary phase requiring first, “effective resistance to Zionism, the biggest threat to Syrian unity.” The remainder of the principles echoed now age-old reformist goals of compulsory education, social reforms, separation of religion and governance, and “promoting the same in all Arab countries through education, representative governments, and a coalition of Arab nations in the spirit of cooperation in intellectual and political fields . . . on the basis of justice and comprehensive peace.”2 Toward achieving the stated ends, the document suggested social reforms , beginning with forbidding political appointments and—in a clear reference to French-concocted confessional politics in Lebanon four years prior—ending elections based on sectarian affiliations, as well as allocating time for religious education outside formal class sessions. Points 3 to 7 emphasized education, including sports, in uniform and collective programs supported by Arab governments. Under “Economic Reforms,” the league called for unified tariffs; improved transportation; health codes; agricultural cooperatives technically supported free of charge as in the Egyptian model; workers unions and protection of women and child laborers; encouragement of national industries; technical and sanitary improvements in food production; large irrigation projects with the participation of the concerned Arab governments to pump water from the Euphrates River in Iraq and the Āsī (Orontes) River running through Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon; a conservation policy; low-interest agricultural and industrial lending institutions ; and cancellation of all exclusive and preferential economic contracts to foreigners. The document concluded the basic principles with an unmistakable signal that the “temporary reality” was a prelude to pan-Arab unity: In putting forth this “Announcement,” which is inspired by its democratic surroundings, the Arab League (al-Jāmiah al-Arabīyah) does not presume to be merely one that dictates conditions, rather one that expresses hopes motivated by selfless advice and sincere zeal devoid of all personal gains so that the Arab world in its budding life of independence may have ultimate success and prosperity. The Arab League is keenly interested in...