Mahmoud Bakir’s new book, Forging National Identity: The Future of Syria, (248 pages), published by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, argues that the national crisis ravaging Syria for more than a decade has revealed the stark absence of a project for building citizenship, leading to the erosion of the country’s national identity. Pointing the finger at the shortcomings of Syria’s state and political parties, the author uses tools such as topology to highlight the intellectual nature of this concept, as well as drawing on Islamic jurisprudence and the principle of “legitimate interest,” which seeks to prioritize the greater good and use lesser harm to mitigate greater harm.
As a fundamental pillar of the nation state, national identity is a necessary condition for good governance, but its abstract nature means that its importance often only becomes evident in its absence or disruption. Scandinavian countries have succeeded in developing mature national identities through education that promotes the values of national belonging and social responsibility, respect for diversity, and instilling pride in national heritage, history, and folklore, forming the cornerstone of this success. The Scandinavian experience has shown that understanding the relationships between different components of society is more important than merely studying their nature, a realization which strengthens the building of a cohesive society. This idea draws on philosophical and mathematical concepts such as Gestalt (the holistic form), which emphasizes that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and that multiplicity is not the same as diversity.
In the Syrian context, building a strong national identity requires major efforts and enlightened minds, far removed from ideology, something that is often lacking. The absence or fragility of national identity can lead to widespread unrest – as has been starkly evident in the Syrian crisis since 2011, which revealed a kind of illiteracy in national identity. Over the course of the crisis, most efforts to address this phenomenon have focused on the symptoms, not on their fundamental causes.
Bakir draws on the societal identity of Old Damascus as a pertinent case study of how the relationships of the city’s houses and of Damascene woman reflect a deep social and cultural awareness. The women of the ancient capital have long focused on the interior of their houses, in terms of luxury and ornamentation; house exteriors have an air of simplicity. This has contributed to maintaining social peace and cohesion. Architecture and humanity are organically linked, so that architecture can reflect identity, culture, and social awareness.
Focusing on relationships, rather than the nature of each element that they join, is similar to the concept of “structure” in mathematics and structuralist philosophy, in which the reciprocal relationships between elements determine the characteristics of the group, rather than this being determined by the nature of the elements themselves. The concept of structuralism, as Simon Blackburn explains, holds that “phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations.” Such relationships thus form the basic structure of society. The most prominent example of this is the compassion shown towards animals in Old Damascus, a phenomenon that reflects deep human values and a mature social awareness as key parts of societal identity.
The success of the Scandinavian education system stems from its departure from the mechanical thinking adopted by some philosophers in the 18th century when Kurt Gödel’s famous theorems demonstrated that the human mind is less mechanistic than previously thought. The Scandinavian system benefited from this realization, which contributed to its success in constructing concepts of national identity, while traditional Arab approaches, have remained influenced by outdated mechanistic views.
The Scandinavian model also builds on the principle of analogy between the natural and social sciences. This approach follows from the “intellectual engineering” of national identity: that is, its deconstruction and analysis according to mathematical and logical tools, which endow it with greater objective clarity. Bakir treats national identity as a fundamental pillar of the unity and political and social advancement of a nation, noting that the civil war has revealed the fragility of this pillar in the Syrian case, stemming from the state’s neglect since its inception. He presents the concept of identity using a new approach, based on cognitive and logical tools such as “topology,” interpreting this identity instead as a network of relationships connecting individuals, and emphasizing that building an effective national identity requires a modern educational system that reinforces belonging and shared responsibility while correcting common conceptual errors.
The book concludes that building a Syrian national identity will require transcending the past and studying the positions of political parties and their relationships with Islam from a jurisprudential perspective. Bakir draws on Islamic law to argue in favour of prioritizing the national interest when it conflicts with religious affiliation.
