ABSTRACT
A wave of democratization pulsed through the Arab world in the 1980s. The peoples of the Arab world are struggling to arrive at a minimal consensus over collective identity. The cohesion of collective identity in the Arab world was damaged by the invasive presence of European powers beginning in the eighteenth century. In Egypt and Tunisia, Islamist parties were targeted for exclusion from elections by being denied legal status; the state clamped down its repressive apparatus, harassing and arresting Islamist opposition members. The new emphasis on Islam, with its universalism and models for the accommodation of diverse religious and ethnic groups, has added to the strength and richness of that sense of Arab identity. The main question posed in the Arab world today is about the role of Islam in collective identity. Overall in the Arab world, there are encouraging developments on the question of collective identity.
