Kedourie, nationalism, Islamism, and the umma

Abstract

Sylvia Kedourie, in a 1955 piece, analysed the ideological point of contact between Arab nationalism and Islam, in so doing highlighting the distinctions between watan and umma in linguistic patterns and ideological significance. In this piece, using the starting point of Kedourie's prescient examination, I trace the ways in which such a linguistic shift from umma to watan has followed a broader pattern towards the localization of Islamist factions, perhaps best illustrated by the example of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arabian Peninsula.