The Assabiyyat: Predators of Political Freedoms

Abstract

This study investigates the concept of freedom in the contemporary Arab world in light of another concept, which plays the role of a chemical reagent, namely the concept of partisanship (or Assabiyat ), since we are faced with a cognitive problem dialectically linking political freedom and partisanship. Which of them controls the other and imposes its laws on us? It would seem that the concept of freedom is autonomous and largely interprets itself. However, sociological research has constantly explained two issues in the Arab world: the fateful connection our cognitive structures have with manifold partisan feelings (religious, tribal, sectarian, ethnic, and family); and the tyranny of the partisan choice over all areas of daily and practical life (in the areas of politics, economics, education, and media). As a result of this reality, it becomes clear that it is impossible to integrate private modes of partisan thinking with the public demand for freedom, since partisan education and socialization rapidly choke off the seeds of freedom. Hence, freedom in its public sense seems impossible in societies with partisan feelings.