The Six-Day War as a Turning Point in the Development of an Arab Muslim Identity

Šestodnevni rat bio je jedna od značajnih etapa u dugotrajnom arapsko-izraelskom sukobu, a nerijetko se u literaturi o Bliskom istoku navodi kao prekretnica u višegodišnjim društvenim i idejnim kretanjima u sunitskom dijelu bliskoistočne muslimanske zajednice. Iznenadan poraz arapskog vojnog saveza od strane Izraela i povećanje izraelskog teritorija naoko su uzrokovali političku, kao i vrijednosno-identitesku, krizu kod dijela arapskih muslimana, koja je dovela u pitanje opstanak panarabizma, sekularizma i drugih ,,uvezenih” ideologija. Njihovo su mjesto u sunitskoj svijesti izgledno preuzele purističke te radikalne vjerski uvjetovane ideologije – fundamentalizam i islamizam. Tema ovog rada jest tranzicija koja se je naizgled dogodila u sunitskoj zajednici od kraja 1960-ih. Sa svrhom sagledavanja njenih sastavnih elemenata, rad predstavlja svaku od ideologija koje su obilježile sunitski svijet prije te nakon 1967. Dolazi se do saznanja da su društvene, ekonomske i političke prilike u brojnim arapskim državama već i prije rata bile plodno tlo za nekakav oblik revolucionarne reforme. Neočekivani ratni fijasko sekularnih arapskih režima stvorio je gotovo savršenu priliku da se protusustavni akteri suoče sa autokratima koji su ih dugo potiskivali na društvene margine. Svrha ovoga diplomskog rada je doprinijeti razumijevanju idejnog te društvenog konteksta unutar kojega se je sunitski poraz od Židova, po svemu sudeći, duboko odrazio na daljnji razvoj njihove kolektivne misli.The Six-Day War was a significant stage in the long standing Arab-Israeli conflict, and it has often been cited in literature on the Middle East as a turning point in the yearslong social and ideological trends within the Sunni part of the Middle Eastern Muslim community. The surprise defeat of the Arab military alliance by Israel and the Israeli territorial expansion seemingly caused a political crisis, as well as a crisis of values and of identity, among one part of the Arab Muslims, which in turn also brought into doubt the survival of pan-Arabism, secularism and other ,,imported” ideologies. Their place within the Sunni consciousness appears to have been taken by puristic and radical religion-based ideologies – fundamentalism and Islamism. The topic of this degree is the transition which seems to have taken place in the Sunni community since the end of the 1960s. With the objective of observing its constituent elements, this degree presents each of the ideologies which marked the Sunni world before and after 1967. A determination is reached that the social, economic and political conditions in many Arab countries, even in the pre-war era, were already fertile ground for some form of revolutionary reform. The unexpected martial fiasco of the secular Arab regimes offered an almost perfect opportunity for anti-system actors to face up to the autocrats who had long pushed them to the margins of society. The purpose of this master's degree is to contribute to the understanding of the ideological and the social context within which the Sunni defeat by the Jews, by many accounts, left a deep mark on the further development of their collective thought