(This is a translation from the original Arabic, offered so that my grandchildren, and others of their generation, may understand something of their history— a history they were denied when they were uprooted without choice.)
The First Inferiority Complex
The Greeks of the Mediterranean basin found neither difficulty nor embarrassment in accepting the new religion preached by the followers of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him), for they were sons of the region and heirs to its intellectual legacy and to every development and novelty that arose within it. The Romans, however, were in a different position.
The European origin may be simplified by noting that, despite the multiplicity of peoples who settled Central and Western Europe, two distinct elements can be identified: the Latin and the Germanic. The majority of the inhabitants of Central and Western Europe today are the result of intermarriage between these two peoples. This is borne out by their languages, which are largely either Latin—as in Italy, France, Portugal, and Spain—or Germanic, as in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian countries (with the exception of Finland). The English language itself is evidence of this intermingling, for it is a hybrid of Latin and Germanic elements, representing the European outcome described above. It was spoken in Britain and later came to dominate as the language of European settlements in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
The presence of other languages in Central and Western Europe whose roots differ from both Latin and Germanic does not contradict this definition of the European; on the contrary, their existence in the British Isles, Spain, Hungary, and Finland, for example, confirms the theory of European dominance and the subjugation of earlier tribes in Europe, or their uneasy coexistence with them, as in the cases of the Scots, the Basques, and the Catalans.
As for Eastern Europe, I have previously shown that its inhabitants are largely Slavs—peoples whom the European did not desire, yet was unable to enslave or cleanse from the land, despite repeated attempts throughout history.
The Greeks settled southern Italy and the island of Sicily from the eighth century BCE. Roman tribes were therefore early influenced by the Greeks, from whom they adopted the alphabet, measures, currency, gods, administration, trade, banking, and even temple architecture. Greek influence in Rome became
so pervasive that Emperor Valentinian II ordered their expulsion from the city— an edict that resulted in famine and was consequently revoked.
Latin was the language of the tribes living around Rome around 75 BCE, and it was undoubtedly influenced by Greek, from which it took its alphabet—an alphabet the Greeks themselves had earlier adopted from the Canaanites, as we have noted. The Roman kingdom then expanded into an empire that, at the height of its glory, encompassed most of Europe as we know it. The Romans adopted the gods of the Greeks, changing their names but not the purpose of their veneration.
When Christianity was born at the hands of the Greeks, a number of Romans converted through them. These converts endured severe persecution at Roman hands for two and a half centuries, as is often the fate of any new faith that challenges established beliefs. It is even said that Nero claimed the great fire of Rome in 64 CE was caused by the Christians, and many of them were executed. According to tradition, among those executed was Simon, to whom Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) said: “You are the rock, and upon you I will build my Church.” Since the word “rock” in Greek is Petros, this is how the name “Peter” came into use among Christians. For my part, I do not know why our Arab Christian brothers abandoned the Semitic name “Sem’an” used by Christ himself, in favour of the foreign name “Peter.” I must add here that there is no historical evidence that Simon/Peter ever visited Rome—but this is of little importance, for history is shaped by convictions and does not necessarily require events.
Christian thought triumphed gradually because of the lofty principles it brought—principles to which Roman paganism could offer no answer—along with the extraordinary devotion of the early Christians within the Roman state. The new religion entered the imperial household. Whether Emperor Constantine (306–337) converted first, or whether his mother Helena did and he followed her, is ultimately irrelevant. What matters is that the empire officially declared its conversion in 312, and that the emperor issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which prohibited the criminalization of Christianity.
This, then, was the year in which the first inferiority complex was born in the European psyche—a complex that persists to this day and continues to play a central role in European plans and behaviour toward our region.
The Romans, who had established an empire that ruled Europe, discovered that they were in need of a religious creed, yet were unable to produce one of their own. Instead, they adopted a faith that was born in our region, embodied in the teachings of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him). Their power and glory availed
them nothing when, in the end, they took their religion from peoples they occupied and regarded with contempt. The Roman came to worship a god born among us. That is the first inferiority complex. Despite all of Rome’s subsequent attempts, over the centuries, to control and dominate the religion— by creating a religious authority in the Vatican, convening church councils, and making Latin the language of the liturgy—the truth born in 312 remains unchanged to this day: Europe took its religion from the Semites, and its god remains Semitic in birth, origin, belonging, and thought.
To clarify the meaning of this inferiority complex that lies deep within the European psyche—whether consciously felt or not—I draw a comparison with the inferiority complex felt today by the Arab toward the European who holds the reins of science and technology. Just as this Arab feels the bitterness of his condition in having to take all science and technology from the European, so too does the European, however much he may attempt to scorn us, know inwardly that he worships our son.
The Germanic barbarians occupied Rome, and it fell in 476. Yet this did not diminish the complete entrenchment of Christianity in Europe. The Roman Empire shifted eastward, becoming the Byzantine Empire, which endured until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 at the hands of the Ottoman caliph Muhammad II.
Roman presence in the Levant until the birth of Islam further affirmed this inferiority complex, manifested in their claim to guardianship of the faith and their zeal in defending it.
When Roman presence receded from our region, this did not mark the end of anything. The first inferiority complex continued to govern European thought and behaviour toward us. All that changed was that Europe’s preoccupation with its internal problems temporarily postponed its attempts to compensate for this first inferiority complex—until the birth of the second inferiority complex, which followed the rise of the Islamic state and the spread of Greek thought at the hands of the Arabs.
This is what I shall attempt to examine next.
To be continued…