“New” nationalism in the Middle East

Inhabitants of one Aleppian
street display their teams' colours

For another year, the World Cup looks to be dominated by the teams of Europe and South America.  However, while Argentina, Brazil and Spain are favourites to win this year’s competition, its African hosts are keen to remind us that this is anything but a two-continent competition.  As the organizers work hard to insert some local flavour into the competition proceedings, it is important not to underestimate the strength of the global spectatorship, extending far beyond simply the territories of competing countries.

            Despite its limited representation (Algeria being the region’s only qualifying country), the Middle East is excitedly observing the start of the competition.  With every qualifying game having been followed closely by crowds of people in cafés, restaurants and homes, few spectators remain neutral.  Like the almost obligatory preference for one of Barcelona or Real Madrid in the Spanish League, selecting a country to support is a serious matter in the Middle East.

In the cities of Syria, flags hang from houses and cars to mark an individual’s chosen team.  Multiple flags on the same apartment are testament to the often-divided loyalties within a single family.  Various factors may inform an individual’s choice of team.  Some supporters have family (or other personal) connections to the country they follow; others admire the values and culture of a certain country.  And of course there are those whose decision is motivated by athletic evaluation alone.  The World Cup season consequently generates a more open and interesting debate in Syria than in many countries where place of birth acts as the logical pre-determiner of team affiliation. 

            By and large, Syrian support reflects the predicted favourites in the competition, with an inflated fan-base for Algeria – presumably resulting from the Arab and Muslim national character it shares with Syria.  The selection of one’s team, and subsequent display of its colours, provides an opportunity to express personal preference within the prism of Syrian national identity.  This phenomenon of foreign nationalism is little acknowledged in work on the Middle East, where society is often characterized as hermetic and closed to the wider world.

While any challenge to the integrity of Syria’s Arab Republic may be considered anti-constitutional, the current “World Cup nationalism” is tolerated by the state and presents an opportunity for legitimate identity construction (permissible) within the Republican framework.  Mohammad Hussein, an employee in an Aleppo factory, articulates the lack of conflict and compromise involved in following the World Cup as a Syrian national: ‘My country is Syria, my favourite club is Manchester Utd and my team in the World Cup is Italy.  Not until the day that these three must play against one another shall I see any contradiction in the pride I have for each of them.’ 

The apparent compatibility of Syrian Republican loyalty with support for the big teams and personalities of international football is further underlined by the incongruous placement of the Syrian national – not to mention Barcelona - flag in the line-up below.  Likewise, the foreign flags that temporarily accompany the ubiquitous images of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, on cars windows throughout the capital need not fundamentally challenge the concept of collective Syrian identity, but rather is an impetus to transform it according to popular sentiment. 

Juxtaposed identities: The Syrian Arab Republic flag 

hangs among those of the World Cup favourites. 

For World Cup fever in Syria is perhaps nothing new.  As Abu Jalal, a now retired shop-keeper from Homs recalls, there has always been a strong interest in what is happening beyond the national borders: ‘I remember watching the games on television with my father in 1962.’  What has changed, however, is the way people follow the competition.  ‘Back then’ continues Abu Jalal, ‘anyone could watch the games, but now you need to pay money for a private television licence.’  In addition to this, recent developments in Internet and mobile phone technology have revolutionized World Cup spectatorship.

Yet the most observable change in this year's World Cup is the visibility with which fans are expressing their support.  The patchwork of international flags flying in Syrian cities signifies a diversification in the homogenous state-imposed identity.  This ‘multiculturalism on the ground’ encourages the development of new ideas and less inward attitudes.  Both state and minorities within may harness these "new" national ideologies to further their own agendas.

For the multi-ethnic, religiously divided state that sees itself as a single unit, support for distant nations represents a non-confrontational expression of internal difference.  While team loyalty within Syrian sport is often strongly motivated by the religious and cultural identity-bases of local clubs, identification with World Cup nations is able to usefully transcend the fault-lines that traditionally complicate a unified Syrian identity.

Also, for the minorities whose cultural self-expression may be curtailed by the monolithic identity of Syrian Arab Republicanism, World Cup nationalism can provide an alternative expression.  Many Kurds in Syria, for example, choose to support Germany – the principal host of Kurdish diaspora in Europe.  This allegiance is both a sign of gratitude for the hospitability of the German state, and a proxy for expression of their own ethnic identity.  While display of the traditional Kurdish colours in Syria could elicit serious consequences, the hanging of a German flag is – for Kurds – an indirect, and therefore permissible, form of identity assertion.  As the Kurds represent an indigenous group of significant numbers, their nationalism is seen as a direct challenge to the Syrian state.  An identity compromise with Germany, however, is derived from the legitimate and politically safe expression of external nationalism.

            The World Cup in Syria shows how local identity is – in increasingly more conscious ways – influenced by an awareness of the wider world.  At least in football, therefore, Syrians have proven themselves to be fervent multiculturalists. It is now the turn of their political representatives to reform internal policy accordingly and re-engage foreign relations to close the saga of Syria’s international isolation.