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The Arab Spring Two Years On: Reflections on Dignity, Democracy, and Devotion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2013

Nader Hashemi
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Extract

The Arab Spring of 2011 is widely viewed today as one of the great historical moments of political transformation. Comparisons have been made to the European revolutions of 1848 and the post–cold war democratic transitions in Eastern Europe, while some have spoken of a possible “fourth wave” of democratization. These analogies make sense given that longstanding dictators who seemed impervious to political change, in a region known for persistent authoritarianism, were suddenly toppled by largely nonviolent protesters invoking the universal themes of political freedom, dignity, and social justice. From the outset, however, the Arab Spring was met by a small chorus of criticism and contempt from prominent intellectuals, writers, and politicians.

Type
Review Essay
Information
Ethics & International Affairs , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , Summer 2013 , pp. 207 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 2013 

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References

NOTES

1 Leon Neyfekh, “Is This 1848?: What History Can Teach Us About Arab Revolutions,” Boston Globe, March 27, 2011; Larry Diamond, “A Fourth Wave or a False Start? Democracy After the Arab Spring,” ForeignAffairs.com, May 22, 2011; www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67862/larry-diamond/a-fourth-wave-or-false-start.

2 David Horovitz, “A mass expression of outrage against injustice,” Jerusalem Post, February 25, 2011; www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=209770.

3 Barak Ravid, “Netanyahu: Arab Spring pushing Mideast East backward, not forward,” Haaretz, November 24, 2011.

4 Aaron David Miller, “The Stalled Arab Spring,” The National Interest, June 6, 2012; nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-stalled-arab-spring-7014.

5 Isaac Chotiner, “V. S. Naipaul on the Arab Spring, Authors He Loathes, and the Books He will Never Write,” The New Republic, December 7, 2012; www.newrepublic.com/article/110946/vs-naipaul-the-arab-spring-authors-he-loathes-and-the-books-he-will-never-write.

6 Pew Research Center, “On Eve of Foreign Debate, Growing Pessimism about Arab Spring Aftermath,” October 18, 2012; www.people-press.org/2012/10/18/on-eve-of-foreign-debate-growing-pessimism-about-arab-spring-aftermath/.

7 The economic and development factors that led to the Arab Spring are essential to a comprehensive understanding of the topic. In this essay I focus only on a few of the political and historical variables.

8 Kareem Fahim, “Slap to a Man's Pride Set Off Tumult in Tunisia,” New York Times, January 21, 2011. He was posthumously awarded the Sakharov Prize and the Tunisian government has honored him with a postage stamp.

9 Rana Kabbani, “From the Turks to Assad: to us Syrians it is all brutal colonialism,” The Guardian, March 29, 2011; www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/30/turks-assad-colonialism-family-mafia.

10 Liam Stack, “In Sometimes Deadly Clashes, Defiant Syrians Protest,” New York Times, April 17, 2011.

11 Ilan Pappé, interview by Frank Barat, “Reframing the Israel-Palestine Conflict,” New Internationalist, April 1, 2011; newint.org/features/web-exclusive/2011/04/01/palestine-israel-interview-pappe/. See Khouri, Rami, “The Long Revolt,” Wilson Quarterly (Summer 2011), pp. 43–46Google Scholar.

12 Mishra, Pankaj, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012), p. 8Google Scholar.

13 Hashemi, Nader, Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 1–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Stepan, Alfred, “Religion, Democracy, and the ‘Twin Tolerations,’” Journal of Democracy (October 2000), pp. 37–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Champion, Marc and AlBayrak, Ayla, “Erdoğan Gets Warm Welcome in Cairo,” Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2011Google Scholar.

16 Champion, Marc and Bradley, Matt, “Islamists Criticize Turkish Premier's ‘Secularist’ Remarks, Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2011Google Scholar and “Analysis: Erdoğan Presents Turkey as Model for Arabs,” Today's Zaman, September 14, 2011.

17 Ipek Yezdani, “No Need for Secularism in Tunisia: Ghannouchi,” Hurriyet Daily News, December 24, 2011.

18 Rashid Ghannouchi, interview by Adell Dellal, “Post Revolution Politics in Tunisia,” Euronews, January 13, 2012; www.euronews.com/2012/01/13/post-revolution-politics-in-tunisia/.

19 Tim Lister, “Gadhafi's Demise and the Arab Spring,” CNN.com, October 21, 2011; www.cnn.com/2011/10/21/world/gadhafi-arab-spring.

20 Emphasis added. Brown, L. Carl, Religion and State: The Muslim Approach to Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), p. 137Google Scholar.

21 Barber, Benjamin, Jihad vs. McWorld: Terrorism's Challenge to Democracy (New York: Ballantine Books, 1995)Google Scholar.