That's what I'm hoping for, to be honest.
I was born in the Arabian Peninsula and I plan to die here lol. I belong to this place. I don't want this part of the world to become a 21st century de facto colony of either neo-Safavid Iran or neo-Ottoman Turkey. I want the Arab World to reassert itself in the region and free itself from the chains of neighboring non-Arab countries that want to subjugate the Arabs in the name of Islam.
There are a lot of neo-Ottoman and neo-Safavid megalomaniacs in Turkey and Iran, respectively. They're filled with delusions of grandeur and they still think they live in Ottoman and Safavid times. And the real irony is that they're using a religion that was born in Arabia to manipulate, exploit and subjugate the Arab masses.
The Arabs must regain their independence by reasserting themselves, and this can only happen through economic growth and social development. Hopefully the GCC leads the way where others have previously failed. And yes, EU-style integration is definitely needed. Hopefully Iraq joins the GCC once it becomes a stable country again.
The last time the Arabs led the Middle East, you had a golden age in the wider region. The Middle East was the center of science, literature, exploration, technology, freedom, the arts, innovation and philosophy when the Arabs last led the region. By contrast, when the non-Arab Muslims became the dominant force, you had lunatics like Ibn Taymiyyah (born in Turkey) and Al-Ghazali (born in Iran) instead.
I agree with some of your points but to be honest such delusions from those mentioned nationalities can also be found among Arabs and other people with an imperial past. Such people have no influence and tend to only be able to voice their fantasies on online forums or gatherings attended by 100 people or so.
The key here, as I told earlier, is that the problem lies within. In those war-torn Arab countries and their people. They are to be blamed first and foremost as harsh as this sounds. KSA and other influential Arab countries are to be blamed as well for not doing what was necessary. Case in point Iraq post-2003. However luckily things seem to be turning in the right direction and the natural one (Iraq returning to the Arab fold and potentially becoming a big/influential player in that very fold).
There is a lot of work but at the same time the potential of the Arab world is unmatched in the region. By far. The challenges are also bigger at the same time.
GCC or no GCC, increased political, economic, social etc. integration in the region will occur one way or the other. That's a given and I doubt that anything/anybody is able to stop that.
Well, the Islamic Golden Age was what it was. The highlight of Islamic civilization and it lasted for some 500 years but as anything good it ended. That Arabs ruled during that era, as we did for almost 1000 years of Islamic history until the rise of the Ottomans and eventually them gaining the Caliphate in 1517, is what it is, (nowhere does it state that only Arabs could/should rule the the Caliphate nor did we have such a God-given right or anyone else for that matter) but several peoples contributed to those developments as Arabs contributed to the Ottoman Empire (being the largest ethnic group) and non-Iranians did during the 200 year long Safavid rule for instance. People tend to forget that rulers are rulers but those that really mattered (as in the creators) were mostly ordinary people.
As for Ibn Taymiyyah, he was an Arab, although there are some theories of possible Kurdish origin (whether partial or fully I don't recall - if you notice there is almost different theories about the origin of almost all famous personalities during the Islamic Golden Age - of course most of the claims are baseless outside of the widely accepted ones), while Al-Ghazali was a Persian. You have to remember that the presence of Arabs in Turkey (Southern Turkey in particular) predates the Turkic migrations to Anatolia. Also significant parts of Southern Turkey were part of ancient Semitic civilizations such as the Assyrian Empire (the first real empire of such a size in the world) and other previous civilizations. To this very day 1.5-2 million Turkish citizens of Arab origin live in those regions of Southern Turkey (I am not only thinking about Hatay here). Not counting the recent Syrian refugees. Their presence even predate Islam but most came when those regions were conquered from the Byzantine Empire.
Also, believe it or not, but it is first recently that I have learned that the main Kurdish-populated city of Turkey (If I am not wrong), Diyarbakir, is named after the Arab tribe Banu Bakr that used to dominated that part of the region in the past. Quite hilarious.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diyar_Bakr
Speaking about Kurds and the complexities of the region, did you know that there is branch of the Shammar tribe in Northern Syria that is allied with Kurds of Northern Syria (they are called Al-Sanadid Forces) and they want to reestablish the Emirate of Jabal Shammar and are openly anti-KSA (House of Saud more precisely), lol.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Sanadid_Forces
You have fiercely anti-KSA (House of Saud) members of the same Arab tribe some 400 km from some of the most loyal members of the same Arab tribe (Shammar) in Northern KSA. In next door Iraq you have members of the same tribe being either Sunni or Shia and thus in general having different political beliefs and visions for the region.
In short the complexities of this region.
No wonder that I would prefer an enlightened meritocracy instead of giving the masses too much power.
Point in case is that the region needs changes whatever ideology you might have. Currently, for all I care, China should increase its influence in the GCC. Something good has to come out of this.
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