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Michel Aflaq (Arabic: ميشيل عفلق Mīšīl ʿAflaq, born Damascus 1910, died Paris June 23, 1989) was the ideological founder of Ba’athism, a form of secular Arab nationalism. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language Damascus ( دمشق,, also commonly known as الشام ash-Shām) is the capital and largest city of Syria. Year 1910 ( MCMX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city Events 1180 - First Battle of Uji, starting the Genpei War in Japan 1305 - The Flemish Year 1989 ( MCMLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar) The Arab Socialist Ba'th Party (also spelled Baath or Ba'ath; Arabic: حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي was founded in Damascus Arab nationalism ( Arabic: القومية العربية is a Nationalist ideology which rose to prominence amongst Arabs from the early 20th century onwards

Contents

Life

Painting Of Michel Aflaq
Painting Of Michel Aflaq

Born in Damascus to a middle class Greek Orthodox Christian family, Aflaq was first educated in the westernized schools of French mandate Syria, where he was considered a "brilliant student. Damascus ( دمشق,, also commonly known as الشام ash-Shām) is the capital and largest city of Syria. The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian Communion in the world A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية " He then went to university at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he first developed his Arab nationalist ideals, eventually attempting to combine socialism with the vision of a Pan-Arab nation. The historic University of Paris (Université de Paris first appeared in the second half of the 13th century Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution In his political pursuits, Aflaq became committed to Arab unity and the freeing of the Middle East from Western colonialism. Pan-Arabism is a movement for Unification among the peoples and countries of the Arab World, from the Atlantic Ocean to the

Upon returning to the Middle East, Aflaq became a school teacher and was active in political circles. The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. In September 1940, after France's defeat in World War II, Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar set up the nucleus of what was later to become the Ba’ath Party. Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Salah ad-Din al-Bitar ( صلاح الدين البيطار) (born Damascus 1912 died Paris 21 July 1980) was a Syrian The Arab Socialist Ba'th Party (also spelled Baath or Ba'ath; Arabic: حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي was founded in Damascus The first conference of the Ba’ath Party (in full, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party), was to be in 1947. Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

In 1949, Aflaq served as Syria's education minister for a short period. In 1952, he left Syria, escaping from the new regime, returning two years later in 1954. Aflaq went on to play an important role in the achievement of the unity between Syria and Egypt in 1958.

It was reportedly at this time that Aflaq first came into contact with the young Iraqi Ba’thist Saddam Hussein who had fled to Syria after participating in a failed assassination attempt on Iraqi Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim. Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti ( Arabic: ar صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي --> April 28 1937 &ndash December 30 This article is about the government position For other uses see Prime Minister (disambiguation. Abd al-Karim Qasim (عبد الكريم قاسم) (1914 – February 9 1963 was a nationalist Iraqi Military officer who seized power in a 1958 Aflaq is said to have formed a close relationship with Hussein and to have assisted him in his promotion to full party member. Aflaq later claimed that he did not meet Hussein until after 1963 [1]. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

Despite being co-founder of the Ba'ath party, Michel Aflaq had little connection to the government that took power in Syria under that name in 1963. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Eventually, the government and he had a falling out and he was forced to flee to Iraq where another Ba’ath Party had taken power. While this party also failed to follow most of ‘Aflaq's teachings, he became a symbol for the regime of Saddam Hussein according to whom Iraq was in fact the true Ba’athist country. Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti ( Arabic: ar صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي --> April 28 1937 &ndash December 30 In Iraq he was given a token position as head of the party and his objections to the regime were silenced and ignored.

In his writings Aflaq had been stridently in favor of free speech and other human rights and aid for the lower classes. Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without Censorship or Limitation. He stated that the Arab nationalist state that would be created should be a democracy. These ideals were never put in place by the regimes that used his ideology. Most scholars see the Assad regime in Syria and Saddam's regime in Iraq to have only employed Aflaq's ideology as a pretense for dictatorship. John Devlin in his "The Baath Party: Rise and Metamorphosis" outlines how the parties became dominated by minority groups who came to dominate their society. Elizabeth Picard takes a somewhat different approach, arguing both Assad and Hussein used Ba’athism as a guise to set up what were in fact military dictatorships. A military dictatorship is a Form of government wherein the political power resides with the Military; it is similar but not identical to a Stratocracy,

Though born a Christian, Aflaq believed that Islam provides Arabs with "the most brilliant picture of their language and literature, and the grandest part of their national history. " He did not see the confrontation with the West in Muslim versus Christian terms. Arguing that all three great religions originated in the Middle East, he asserted that "religion entered Europe from the outside, therefore it is alien to its character and history. " Europeans and Americans, he believed, cannot really be Christian or religious or highly spiritual in the rich way that Arabs can.

Upon his death in 1989 he was given a great muslim funeral. The government of Iraq claimed that on his death he converted to Islam. For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. They also stated that the conversion had not been made public during Aflaq's lifetime because both he and party leaders did not want it to be interpreted politically. A tomb was built for him in Baghdad designed by Chadagee and, according to propaganda that was part of the Iraqi dictator’s continuing policy of using Aflaq’s name to promote his own political purposes, paid for by Hussein personally[1]. Baghdad (بغداد) is the Capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is also coterminous The tomb, widely regarded as a work of great artistic merit, was located on the western grounds of the Ba'ath Party Pan-Arab Headquarters, at the intersection of al-Kindi Street and the Qādisiyyah Expressway overpass. That area is today at the far western end of the grounds of US military Base Union III in Baghdad's Green Zone. The Green Zone (the common name for the International Zone of Iraq is a 10 km² (4 mile² area in central Baghdad that was the center of the Coalition Provisional Although there were rumors and accusations that his tomb was destroyed during the war, the burial chamber and building above it were left completely untouched. Its blue-tiled dome can be seen peeking above the concrete T-walls surrounding the Camp's perimeter.

Quotes

"A day will come when the nationalists will find themselves the only defenders of Islam. They will have to give a special meaning to it if they want the Arab nation to have a good reason for survival. " (In memory of the Arab Prophet, 1 April 1943)

"The connection of Islam to Arabism is not, therefore, similar to that of any religion to any nationalism. The Arab Christians, when their nationalism is fully awakened and when they restore their genuine character, will recognize that Islam for them is nationalist education in which they have to be absorbed in order to understand and love it to the extent that they become concerned about Islam as about the most precious thing in their Arabism. If the actual reality is still far from this wish, the new generation of Arab Christians has a task which it should perform with daring and detachment, sacrificing for it their pride and benefits, for there is nothing that equals Arabism and the honor of belonging to it. " (In memory of the Arab Prophet -April, 1943)

Further reading

References

  1. ^ a b Karsh, Efraim; Inari Rautsi [1991]. Philip Khuri Hitti (1886 - 1978 born in Shimlan, Ottoman Syria (now Lebanon) was a scholar of Islam and introduced the field of Arab culture "The Making of a Ba’thist", in s: Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography (in English). New York: The Free Press: A Division of Macmillan, Inc. , 18-19.  

External links

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