EAN: 9780802148605

HOW THE WEST STOLE DEMOCRACY FROM THE ARABS - E...

The story of a pivotal moment in modern world history  when Arabs established a representative
democracy-and how the West crushed it When Europe's Great War engulfed the Ottoman Empire  Arab
nationalists rose in revolt against their Turkish rulers and allied with the British on the
promise of an independent Arab state. In October 1918  the Arabs' military leader  Prince
Faisal  victoriously entered Damascus and proclaimed a constitutional government in an
independent Greater Syria. Faisal won American support for self-determination at the Paris
Peace Conference  but other Entente powers plotted to protect their colonial interests. Under
threat of European occupation  the Syrian-Arab Congress declared independence on March 8  1920
and crowned Faisal king of a civil representative monarchy. Sheikh Rashid Rida  the most
prominent Islamic thinker of the day  became Congress president and supervised the drafting of
a constitution that established the world's first Arab democracy and guaranteed equal rights
for all citizens  including non-Muslims. But France and Britain refused to recognize the
Damascus government and instead imposed a system of mandates on the pretext that Arabs were not
yet ready for self-government. In July 1920  the French invaded and crushed the Syrian state.
The fragile coalition of secular modernizers and Islamic reformers that had established
democracy was destroyed  with profound consequences that reverberate still. Using previously
untapped primary sources  including contemporary newspaper accounts  reports of the Syrian-Arab
Congress  and letters and diaries from participants  How the West Stole Democracy from the
Arabs is a groundbreaking account of an extraordinary  brief moment of unity and hope-and of
its destruction.

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