Arab publics experienced Gulf War defeat as cultural humiliation

Evidence

Apart from the Kuwaitis no Islamic people were enthusiastic about the war, and most overwhelmingly opposed Western intervention. When the war ended the victory parades in London and New York were not duplicated elsewhere. The “war’s conclusion,” Sohail H. Hashmi observed, “provided no grounds for rejoicing” among Arabs. Instead the prevailing atmosphere was one of intense disappointment, dismay, humiliation, and resentment. Once again the West had won. Once again the latest Saladin who had raised Arab hopes had gone down to defeat before massive Western power that had been forcefully intruded into the community of Islam. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 694

Categorization

• XREF: The Saladin figure and Arab humiliation trope connects to contemporary framing of Arab political psychology vs. West. — connects to: Public mockery of Gaddafi’s death signaled the decline of Arab nationalist mystique. — Youssef Cherif, Neo-pan-Arabism: a renewed contract of…, 47