The majority of people of North Africa, the levant and the Gulf share a common language (Arabic), religion ( Islam) culture, history and racial stock. However, a search for identity is on in the Arab World from the Atlantic Ocean (Morocco) to the Arab Gulf. Disillusioned with the leaders and movements of the past 50 years, many Arabs, including Palestinians, have delved farther back into the past for answers while others are trying to avoid the question in preoccupation with the present.

This position paper raises three questions: Has the concept of an Arab nation been consigned to the shelves of the sixty-year-old Arab League? Has Arab nationalism been overtaken by local nationalist, regionalism or Islamic revival? Who consider themselves the Arabs today, and what are their dreams and aspirations? These questions and many others border on the sacrilegious. Based on survey of relevant literature, and questionnaire, it was found that these issues are on every mind and even spoken aloud. There was a very strong reaction to these questions by those interviewed. Some feel, especially the new generations, that they have found a powerful ideology enough to sustain them while the old generations and numerous minorities feel they are starved of a real identity. These include the Copts, Berbers, Kurds, Assyrians, Southerners, Christians, and the Shiites. This has resulted in clash between Arab cultures and subcultures and has led to bloody confrontations over the decades. The Lebanese civil war was a case in point. In the Palestinian case, the Palestinian nationalism has, since 1970s replaced the Arab nationalism after feeling they have been abandoned and used by the Arabs. This also applies to other countries. In a questionnaire administered to students (14-18), it was also found that identity for the majority was a struggle. The subjects rejected being absorbed into the Arab whole. To them, Arab nationalism has become a myth. The crisis of identity in the Arab World will continue as long as the elements for unity haven’t coalesced.