ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the concepts of pan-Arabism and pan-Islamism. Levon Melikian and Lutfy Diab's take-off points for their Group Affiliations of University Students in the Arab Middle East, are the individual's identification and affiliations. Group affiliations of university students in the Arab Middle East, Tawfic Farah administered a 36-item forced-choice questionnaire to 420 Arab undergraduates, representing 13 Arab countries as well as Palestinians, at Kuwait University. Interestingly though, Melikian and Diab found that in the 1970-71 study, political party affiliation became significantly more important and religious affiliation became significantly less important. Stewart Reiser advanced some speculative reasons to explain the difference between the political opinions found in the Northeastern study and those found in the Kuwait University studies. Saad Eddin Ibrahim and associates, under the auspices of the Centre for Arab Unity, conducted the most comprehensive study to date on pan-Arabism. The majority of the respondents, according to Ibrahim, were political realists.
