scholarly journals ‘For the tyrant shall be no more’: Reflections on and lessons from ‘The Arab Spring’ in North Africa, the Middle East and the Civil Rights and anti-apartheid struggles

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan A. Boesak
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
The United States ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Revolutionary Change ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
Historic Significance ◽  
The Arab Spring

The revolutionary events sweeping North Africa and the Middle East, called the ‘Arab Spring’, are of great historic significance. They challenge not only political and social realities in those countries; they confront us, the spectators to these momentous events with serious questions about our own political, cultural and theological perceptions, concepts and prejudices. This article probes, from a Black Liberation theology point of view, these events at several levels: (1) what are the connections between the ‘Arab Spring’ and the two other historic movements for social change, the Civil Rights struggle in the United States of America, and the antiapartheid struggle in South Africa; (2) what lessons are to be learnt from these events?; (3) the article revisits the question of M.M. Thomas, in terms of whether God is at work in events of social upheaval and revolutionary change, and if so, ‘how?’; and (4) what is the meaning and consequences of international, and more importantly, inter-religious solidarity with the people of those regions? The article discusses the meaning, complexity and efficacy of nonviolence and choices for violence or nonviolence in such situations of conflict and the questions these raise for theological reflection, prophetic action and Christian integrity.

The meta-geography of the Middle East and North Africa in Turkey’s new geopolitical imagination

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 431-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aylin Güney ◽  
Nazif Mandacı
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Critical Geopolitics ◽  
Syrian Crisis ◽  
Security Practices ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Geopolitical Imaginations

This article critically analyses Turkish security discourses connected to the meta-geography of the Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) before and after the developments of the Arab Spring. A critical geopolitics approach and critical security theories in international relations provide the theoretical framework, as security discourses are considered to be a product of geopolitical imaginations and codes that, in turn, shape the making of foreign and security policies. First, the article examines the invention of BMENA as a meta-geography within Turkey’s new geopolitical imagination, as well as the new geopolitical codes underlying the new security discourses. Then, the article assesses the impact of the Arab Spring, which led to major changes in Turkey’s newly established geopolitical codes, formulated in the pre-Arab Spring period, and analyses the ruptures and continuities in Turkey’s security discourses in the light of those developments. Finally, the article concludes that the Arab Spring, especially the Syrian crisis, shifted the focus of Turkey’s foreign policy in BMENA from cooperation to conflict. This has led to a resecuritization of Turkey’s geopolitical codes, discourses and security practices in the region, revealing the limitation of Turkey’s current geopolitical imagination.

Geopolitics of Conflicts and Refugees in the Middle East and North Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
AKM Ahsan Ullah
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Refugee Policy ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
Border Conflicts ◽  
The Arab Spring

Geopolitically intertwined and strategically significant refugee policy in the MENA region is frequently analyzed in light of well-documented ethnic, religious, class, and border conflicts. However, the policy is also inexorably linked to the broader geopolitics of the global refugee protection regime and discourse. This article analyzes the complex relationship between geopolitics, domestic political dynamics, and their attendant crises in the MENA region. The complex set of political shockwaves of the Arab Spring induced massive mobility of people which may compound incipient political tensions between and within MENA states.

scholarly journals Arab Spring as a Factor of Emergence of Salafi Parties in the Middle East and North Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-176
Author(s):  
T. R. Khayrullin
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
New Development ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Arab Spring

The article is devoted to the analysis of Salafi Islamism. Conservative Salafi Islamism during the events of the Arab spring received a new development. In particular, the fall of authoritarian regimes and the beginning of the democratic process in the Middle East and North Africa led to the creation of Salafi political parties. The Salafi sts believed, that in a favorable political environment, they would be able to defend their legal status and gain some privileges through participating in parliamentary elections. However, the creation of parties has deepened internal divisions within the Salafi movements. In particular, there were supporters among the Salafi sts, who defended the combination of student and political activities against those who considered participation in the political struggle as a temporary tactical action. The result of the disagreement was the emergence of a reformist movement, that began to see participation in politics as a tool for strengthening the position of the Salafi st movement.

The “Arab Spring” as Seen through the Prism of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Negin Nabavi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
New Order ◽  
Iranian Revolution ◽  
The Past ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Arab Middle East

Revolutions are by nature unpredictable and unsettling. That the wave of revolutions in North Africa and the Arab Middle East began so unexpectedly and spread with such speed, leading to the fall of the governments of Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, has added to the concern regarding the “new order” that is to come after the initial euphoria. From the outset, the fear has been that these revolutions will follow the same trajectory as Iran did in 1979—in other words, that they will marginalize those who launched the revolutions and provide the grounds for the rise to power of the most savvy, purposeful, and best organized of the opposition groups, namely, the Islamists. Yet when one considers the recent uprisings in the Arab world through the prism of Iran's experiences in 1979, the parallels are not so evident. Mindful of the variations and distinctions between each of the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, it would appear that in broad terms, and beyond superficial similarities, there is little in common between the events of Iran in 1979 and what has happened in the past year in the Arab world.

scholarly journals Why Islam (Properly Understood) Is the Solution

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 137-145
Author(s):  
Nader Hashemi
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

This paper is a provocative play on the famous Muslim Brotherhood slogan al-Islām hūwa al-ḥāl (Islam is the solution). While critics of the Muslim Brothers rightly criticized them for the simplicity of their worldview in thinking that religion was a panacea for all of the problems confronting Muslim societies during the late twentieth century, an argument can be made that religion does profoundly matter in the context of the struggle for democracy in the Arab-Islamic world. In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, democratic transitions in North Africa and the Middle East will be dependent on democratically negotiating the question of religion’s role in politics. Here I provide some reflections on this topic with a focus on Tunisia’s transition to democracy.  

scholarly journals Conflicts in the Middle East: prospects for escalation in the context of general regional instability in the 2020s

2021 ◽  
pp. 120-132
Author(s):  
A. Malashenko
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The United States ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Significant Extent ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
The Persian Gulf ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Made In

The article analyses Middle Eastern conflicts in the early 2020s. The main focus is on the situation in Syria, Libya, and Yemen, three Middle Eastern conflicts that are progressing, with no solution in sight. These conflicts motivated by social, economic and political reasons became a progression of those protests that have started in 2011 and have been called “The Arab Spring”. These “revolutions” have been promoted by Islamist movements and groups whose activity became one of key factors of perpetual tensions in the region. So far, attempts by conflict parties to find consensual solutions have remained rather unsuccessful. Positive resolution of actual and potential conflicts in the Greater Middle East to a significant extent still depends on external regional and non-regional actors, such as Russia, Turkey, Iran, and the United States. However, each actor involved in these conflicts and in conflict management pursues its own goals. These actors try to retain their positions and influence in these Middle Eastern countries and in the region as a whole. According to the forecast made in the article, more conflicts in the region may be foreseen (in Iraq, the Persian Gulf states etc.) that could form the next wave of the “Arab Spring”.

scholarly journals Middle East: The Origins of the 'Islamic State' (ISIS)

2018 ◽  
pp. 3-22
Author(s):  
Mediel Hove ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
International Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Terrorist Group ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
The Arab Spring

This article examines the origins of the ‘Islamic State’ or the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham or Levant (ISIS) in light of the contemporary political and security challenges posed by its diffusion of Islamic radicalism. The Arab Spring in 2011 ignited instability in Syria providing an operational base for the terrorist group to pursue its once abandoned Islamic state idea. Its growth and expansion has hitherto proved to be a threat not only to the Middle East but to international security given its thrust on world domination. It concludes that the United States of America’s activities in the Middle East were largely responsible for the rise of the Islamic State.

scholarly journals Al-Azhar University in the Events of the Arab Spring (Case of Egypt)

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 583-596
Author(s):  
Yurii Vitalevich Lashkhia
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Official Document ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Arab Spring

Due to the comprehensiveness of Islam, the role of the “Islamic factor” in political processes in the Middle East and North Africa is great, while the nature of the manifestations of the “Islamic factor” largely depends among other things on the current state of modern religious educational institutions, including those serving as a forge of Islamic personnel today. One of the most prestigious universities in Islamic oikumene, giving religious education for Muslims from all over the world, is AlAzhar al-Sharif (the shorter Al-Azhar is more common). It was here that some famous thinkers studied, who further significantly contributed to the development of the so-called “political Islam”. This study is an attempt to clarify the role of Al-Azhar University and related Islamic scholars in the socio-political processes of the Middle East and North Africa. Conducting the research, the author largely turned to the sources of the Islamic religion (the Qur’an, Hadith), theological texts of a number of thinkers (for example, the interpretation of the Qur’an Rashid Rida), religious polemical works (the work of Sheikh Osama al-Azhari against the “Muslim Brotherhood” and other “Islamist” trends), documents compiled by the leadership of Al-Azhar; academic literature on related issues. The author came to the conclusion that the “Islamic factor” did not play a crucial role at the beginning of events, but vividly manifested itself subsequently. The actual suppression of Islam by secular dictators created a fertile ground for the acute discontent of believing citizens and activists of various movements who uphold a particular version of the Islamic political alternative. The most influential university in the Islamic world, Al-Azhar, in an official document, “Arab Spring”, indicated the possibility of a shift in despotic power, while emphasizing at the same time the inadmissibility of violent suppression of peaceful protest. Certain Azharite theologians were directly involved in the events of the “Arab Spring”, in particular, the passionate scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi, associated with the Muslim Brotherhood movement and graduated from Al-Azhar, as well as Sheikh Emad Effat, who died during the suppression of an unarmed speech 15 December 2011. Such activity of various Islamic forces in the political sphere is primarily due to the very nature of the Islamic tradition, which does not separate the “sacred” and “profane”.

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