“The Muslim World” Question during the Interwar Era Global Imaginary, 1924–1945
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Cemil Aydin
Abstract
Any study of the League of Nations should pay close attention to the minimal representation of the imagined “Muslim world” in this organization during its first decade. While the Eurocentric imperial internationalism of the League was criticized by interwar Pan-Islamic internationalist networks, there were frequent attempts by Muslims to engage the League, make it hear Muslim demands and discontents, and, later on, to make it more inclusive of Muslim polities. The Muslim global imaginary of the world order then lacked any dominant unitary pattern. In this chaotic political space, subaltern Muslim networks tried to revive earlier Pan-Islamic notions of solidarity to empower the demands of weak Muslim populations. When the Axis empires of the Second World War tried to utilize some of these Pan-Islamic networks for propaganda purposes, their failures revealed the illusion of Muslim unity. It was the eventual failure of a global illusion of a Pan-Islamic alliance with an imperial sponsor during the Second World War that made the United Nations the international venue of choice for post-war global Muslim political imaginaries.
© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Editors’ Note: Situating Internationalism 1919–1940s
- Defending Turkey on Global Stages: The Young Turk Reşit Saffet’s Internationalist Strategy in 1919
- The Politics of Music in International Organizations in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
- International Experts or Fascist Envoys? Alberto Theodoli and Pietro Stoppani at the League of Nations
- Tourists at the League of Nations. Conceptions of Internationalism around the Palais des Nations, 1925–1946
- “The Muslim World” Question during the Interwar Era Global Imaginary, 1924–1945
- The Red Swastika Society’s Humanitarian Work: A Re-interpretation of the Red Cross in China
- Digesting the League of Nations: Planning the International Secretariat of the Future, 1941–1944
- Book Reviews
- Immanuel Ness: Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class
- Robert D. Kaplan: In Europe’s Shadow: Two Cold Wars and a Thirty-Year Journey Through Romania and Beyond
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Editors’ Note: Situating Internationalism 1919–1940s
- Defending Turkey on Global Stages: The Young Turk Reşit Saffet’s Internationalist Strategy in 1919
- The Politics of Music in International Organizations in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
- International Experts or Fascist Envoys? Alberto Theodoli and Pietro Stoppani at the League of Nations
- Tourists at the League of Nations. Conceptions of Internationalism around the Palais des Nations, 1925–1946
- “The Muslim World” Question during the Interwar Era Global Imaginary, 1924–1945
- The Red Swastika Society’s Humanitarian Work: A Re-interpretation of the Red Cross in China
- Digesting the League of Nations: Planning the International Secretariat of the Future, 1941–1944
- Book Reviews
- Immanuel Ness: Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class
- Robert D. Kaplan: In Europe’s Shadow: Two Cold Wars and a Thirty-Year Journey Through Romania and Beyond
