European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

262 EUROPEAN IDENTITY. INDIVIDUAL, GROUP AND SOCIETYThe downfall of the Ottoman Empire put an end to the panislamicutopia, and the abolition of the caliphate in 1924 by Kemal Atartukmarked the triumph of the “Europeist” tendency that would develop ina Nation-State setting. The influence the liberal, secular and nationalistEuropean model among the new Muslim elite gained ground amongthe ruling elite, although it found resistance and pressure on the part ofmany Muslim sectors 15 . Nevertheless, the first constitutionalist projectswere short-lived and on many occasions, the Egyptian Constitution of1879 case in point, never reached full force because of the interferencesby the French and English who saw these projects as a threat to theircontrol over Egypt.Several elements brought about the discredit of colonial Europe:the ambivalent effects of colonization, the creation of artificial stateswhose borders reflected Europe’s interests, European interference indomestic political affairs, and the contradiction between an emancipatingand rationalist discourse —freedom, equality and rationality—, and theircolonial behaviour. Said discredit would later determine the domesticevolution of the Muslim world and would cultivate a new perception ofthe European world and of Western values which would shape theimage of a hostile Europe.The origins of this image were located in the West’s inability tounderstand the effects, namely social destructurization and culturalexpropriation, that the exclusion of cultural and linguistic codes had oncolonized societies.Between the two world wars and in the presence of a loss ofEurope’s prestige, nationalism gained strength, which was favoured bythe colonizing action itself.The “Europeist” elite who established the liberal system byimitation, ignored one very crucial aspect: that the adopted Europeanpolitical system must be adjusted and respond to the socioeconomicand cultural realities of the societies to which it is applied. The lure ofthe West generated a political elite that was more and more unconcernedabout the cultural legacy of Islam The absence of socioeconomicreforms benefiting the people and the corrupt practices of itsleaders led to the discredit of the political system, and the growingunrest manifested itself in successive military attacks that would laterfavour the permanence of the Army in power.It was the distorted and incomplete nature of the capitalisttransformation of Muslim society that obstructed the path towards a15Laurens, H. (1993) L’Orient Arabe. Arabisme et Islamisme de 1798 à 1945. Paris,Armand Colin.