ety as a whole. Michael `Aflaq, one of the principal founders of the Ba'ath party, explained that Ba'ath socialism differed from communist socialism. While communism aimed its efforts at world revolution, Arab Ba'ath socialism was concerned solely with the redistribution of wealth within the Arab world in order to achieve social justice amongst all Arabs. `Aflaq criticized communism for being materialistic and ignoring the spiritual aspect of history. He also said that communism had gone too far in abolishing property rights and destroying individual initiative; Ba'ath socialism, on the other hand, recognized that individual initiative provides the strength of a nation. Ba'ath socialism was flexible, claimed `Aflaq, and was not tied to any artificial economic system; thus it corresponded better to reality than communist socialism (1982, pp. 144-46).
Ba'ath socialism also recognized the place of religion, particularly Islam, in Arab society. While communist socialism rejected religion, Ba'ath socialism accepted Islam as a fundamental characteristic of Arab society. In fact, `Aflaq referred to Islam as a revolution which must be accepted by Arab revolutionaries if they are to gain the leadership of the Arab world (1982, pp. 149-50). On the other hand, the Ba'athist embrace of socialism did not allow an acceptance of what would later be known as fundamentalist Islam. The conflict between the two would eventually erupt into fundamentalist revolutionary movements and outright war between a Ba'ath state (Iraq) and a fundamentalist Islamic state (Iran) in the 1980s.
While rejecting the hardline communist view, the Ba'ath founders also rejected the laissez-faire capitalist outlook. Capitalism was a surrender of men to the objects they created or produced. At the same time, they rejected the idea of universal class struggle. They said that Marxism ignored the importance of nationalism in dividing men. Ba'ath socialism, on th...