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interview with muhammad shahrur 507by the many government lies. Then I stopped believing in theSoviet system. There was something fishy about it. There is aCommunist Party slogan, which I put in my third book: The partyis the mind, heart, and conscience of the people ( al-Èizb huwa #itqwa-·amÊr wa-sharaf al-sha#b). It disgusted me, I felt sick when I readthis slogan. I put my views in my compact for national action(mith§q al-#amal al-waãanÊ). All parties and universities, scientificresearch institutions, a free press, and all organizations togetherexpress the mind, conscience, and honour of the people, but noone party. It’s impossible.Arab Nationalism and Theories of SocietySS: Let’s return to the notion of #uråba. At the time did you think that the Arabworld would unite?MS: Yes, the pan-Arab world. For instance, we supported theAlgerian revolution. For us, that was the immediate concreteapplication of #uråba, so objectively we had to support Algeria.The Algerian issue concerned all the Arab countries, as did the1958 revolution in Iraq. These events were concrete. I thoughtthat Iraq would join the United Arab Republic. These were theimmediate implications of #uråba. However, we didn’t think abouttheory at that time. Our thoughts were driven by events. Afterthe break-up of the union between Syria and Egypt, I realizedsomething was wrong with #uråba Islam, although I didn’t yetknow what it was. We had to look at where we went wrong.SS: You say that you still believe in the Arab nation. Do you mean this only inan emotional sense or do you see in pan-Arabism a practical means of unitingthe Arab world on the basis of a common culture? Do you see pan-Arabismas the basis for a political movement?MS: I believe that it could serve as the basis for a political movement,to bring Arabs together with one language, one culture, and onestate. This remains my ambition. I hope by my writing to contributesomething useful to the Arabs in their fight for unity. Wehave to give up romance. My writing doesn’t deal with romance.I call [the earlier period] the romantic one.