The First Arab-Islamic Conference

This conference has been in preparation for almost thirty months. Thereason for this rather long (by Middle Eastern standards) gestation periodwas the unprecedented nature of the conference, difficulties of selectingparticipants and finding a safe and available location.Since the early 1950s, Arab nationalist and Islamic relations havebeen passing through very turbulent periods. The secularization ofArabism and the rise of Arab nationalists to power in many Arab coun·tries led to frequent and bloody confrontations between the two sides overpower and legitimacy of the state. However, during the last two decades,Arab regimes have become somewhat less ideological and more tyrannical;coercive means rather than persuasion has been widely deployed topreserve the status quo. As a result, many Arab nationalist intellectuals,activists, and public leaders have dissociated themselves from the rulingelites and moved to. establish independent Arab nationalist formulae,research centers, and groupings. Parallel to this turn was the spectacularrise of Islamic political forces in almost all part of the Arab world, adevelopment that could not be ignored by the Arab nationalists.One of the main results of the Gulf War was a growing sense of rapprochementbetween the nationalist and Islamist camps. In 1993 a grouprepresenting the two sides (including Rashid al GhannOshi, Khayr al Dinijasib, Mu}:iammad Sidqi al Dajani, 'Isam Nu'man, and a representativeof ijasan al Turab1) agreed to hold an Arab-Islamic conference to markthe era of reconciliation and set an agenda for both camps. Meeting inLondon, they agreed to invite 100 representatives (approximately 50 fromeach camp), nominated a preparatory committee, and named most of thewould-be participants. For many months afterwards, the preparatorycommittee worked to surmount the many obstacles which, to a certainextent, nearly undermined the enterprise. Eventually, after the MuslimBrotherhood of Egypt had agreed to participate, the Arab nationalists hadagreed to drop their insistence on inviting members of the Sudaneseopposition, and the Lebanese government (as well as the Syrians) hadgiven permission to hold the conference in Beirut, it was decided to convenethe conference on 12 October 1994 ...