Part 4/14:
In 1947, these thinkers founded the Baath Party, meaning "Rebirth" or "Resurrection" in Arabic, with a core vision that rejected both Ottoman religious compartmentalization and European colonial mandates. They aimed to forge a unified Arab identity based on shared language, blood, and culture, emphasizing secularism and dismissing religious divides as artificial barriers. Their ideology was rooted in a desire to overturn the Ottoman system, which had organized society along religious lines, with the belief that true Arab unity could transcend sectarian and ethnic divisions.