The Arab Revolutions in Context: Civil Society and Democracy in a Changing Middle East

By Melbourne University Publishing Ltd

From late 2010 a series of dramatic and unprecedented events swept across the Middle East and North Africa, toppling several autocratic regimes that had held power for decades and ushering in a new climate of dissent and democratisation. The Arab Revolutions in Context seizes a unique opportunity to reflect on these seismic events, their causes and consequences, and the core issues facing the region as it moves forward. This volume is more than a collection of detailed thematic essays.
It situates the Arab Revolutions within their broader contextual backgrounds—showing that a unique set of historical events, as well as local, regional and global dynamics, has converged to provide the catalyst that triggered the recent revolts-and also within a new conceptual framework. The argument here is that the Arab Revolutions pose a very specific challenge to conventional wisdom concerning democracy and democratisation in the Middle East. The Arab Revolutions in Context is the first volume of its kind to address the Arab Revolutions and the varying analyses, debates and discussions that they have stimulated.

Islamic Studies Series - Volume 12

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Aug 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9780522861617

Book preview

The Arab Revolutions in Context

mup islamic studies series

The Islamic Studies Series (ISS) is aimed at producing internationally competitive research manuscripts. This series will showcase the breadth of scholarship on Islam and Muslim affairs, making it available to a wide readership. Books in the ISS are based on original research and represent a number of disciplines including anthropology, cultural studies, sociology and political science. Books in the ISS are refereed publications that are committed to research excellence. Submissions on contemporary issues are strongly encouraged. Proposals should be sent to the ISS Editor.

Professor Shahram Akbarzadeh

ISS Editor ([e-mail])

Board of Advisors

Associate Professor Syed Farid Alatas

Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore

Professor Howard V. Brasted

School of Humanities, University of New England

Professor Robert E. Elson

School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics, University of Queensland

Professor John Esposito

Director, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, University Professor of Religion and International Affairs, Georgetown University

Emeritus Professor Riaz Hassan AM, FASSA

ARC Australian Professorial Fellow, Department of Sociology, Flinders University

Professor Robert Hefner

Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, Boston University

Professor Michael Humphrey

Chair, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, University of Sydney

Professor William Maley AM

Director, Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy, Australian National University

Professor James Piscatori

Head, School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University

Professor Abdullah Saeed

Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies, Director, National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies, University of Melbourne

Professor Amin Saikal AM

Director, Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (The Middle East and Central Asia), Australian National University

Professor Samina Yasmeen

Director, Centre for Muslim States and Societies, School of Social and Cultural Studies, University of Western Australia

The Arab Revolutions in Context

Civil Society and Democracy in a

Changing Middle East

Edited by Benjamin Isakhan,

Fethi Mansouri and Shahram Akbarzadeh

Contents

Acknowledgements

Contributors

Introduction

People power and the Arab Revolutions: Towards a new conceptual framework of democracy in the Middle East

Benjamin Isakhan, Fethi Mansouri and Shahram Akbarzadeh

1 The Arab Spring and the coming fall of Orientalism’s Tower of Babel

Larbi Sadiki

2 Is it the end of state feminism?: Tunisian women during and after the revolution

Lamia Ben Youssef Zayzafoon

3 Reinventing wor(l)ds: The language of revolution in Tunisia

Nejet Mchala

4 Social media, social movements and the diffusion of ideas in the Arab Revolutions

Halim Rane and Sumra Salem

5 The 2011 Bahrain uprising: Its sources, impact and lessons

Matthew Gray

6 Syria: Post-Assad?

Minerva Nasser-Eddine

7 When it’s not time for change: Russia, China and the Arab Revolutions

Luca Anceschi

Conclusion: The promises and challenges of the Arab Revolutions

Shahram Akbarzadeh, Fethi Mansouri and Benjamin Isakhan

Index

Acknowledgements

This volume is based on discussions held at Australia’s first significant symposium on the popular revolts across the Middle East and North Africa of late 2010-11. The forum was entitled ‘The Arab Revolutions in Context: Socio-Political Implications for the Middle East and Beyond’ and was attended by about one hundred people in June 2011. The event was co-hosted by the Centre for Citizenship and Globalization at Deakin University and the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne. The editors would like to thank all those who participated in, attended and helped organise this event. The quality, professionalism and calibre of all the people involved are the reason why so many deemed the event such a great success. Additional thanks go to those who presented papers at the forum and then promptly made a full written version available for inclusion in this book. We are also indebted to our international contributors who could not attend the forum but who were able to supply us with quality chapters. We would also like to thank all of the anonymous referees who read earlier versions of the chapters and helped us to refine and improve each of them as well as the exceptional editorial expertise of Jennifer Kloester. We are grateful to the staff of Melbourne University Press for their acceptance of the manuscript and for turning it into this book.

Fethi Mansouri, Shahram Akbarzadeh and Benjamin Isakhan

Contributors

Shahram Akbarzadeh is Professor of Asian Politics (Middle East and Central Asia) and Deputy Director of the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at Melbourne University. He has an active research profile on the politics of Islam and diasporic Muslim identity. Among his many publications are his Uzbekistan and the United States: Islamism, Authoritarianism and Washington’s Security Agenda (Zed Books, 2005), US Foreign Policy in the Middle East (Routledge, 2008) and America’s Challenge in the Greater Middle East (Palgrave, 2011).

Luca Anceschi is ARC DECRA Fellow in the School of Social Sciences, La Trobe University. A graduate of the University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’ and of La Trobe University, his principal areas of research are the politics and international relations of post-Soviet Central Asia and the Greater Middle East. His publications include Turkmenistan’s Foreign Policy: Positive Neutrality and the Consolidation of the Turkmen Regime (Routledge, 2008) and Energy Security in the Era of Climate Change – The Asia-Pacific Experience (Palgrave MacMillan, 2012, co-edited).

Nouri Gana is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature & Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has published numerous articles on modernist, postcolonial and comparative Arab literatures and cultures; Arab film; comparative ethnic, Muslim and Arab diasporas studies; narrative poetics; psychoanalysis and deconstruction. His latest book is Signifying Loss: Towards a Poetics of Narrative Mourning (Bucknell University Press, 2011).

Matthew Gray is Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al–Maktoum Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, where he researches and teaches on the politics, political economy and international relations of the Middle East. He is the author of Conspiracy Theories in the Middle East: Sources and Politics (Routledge, 2010), and of several papers and chapters on topics such as Middle Eastern political economy, tourism, political language, and oil and energy issues. He has a doctorate from the ANU and a Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts from Macquarie University, Sydney.

Benjamin Isakhan is Australian Research Council Discovery (DECRA) Research Fellow at the Centre for Citizenship and Globalization at Deakin University, Australia. Previously, he has been Research Fellow with the Centre for Dialogue at La Trobe University and Research Fellow for the Griffith Islamic Research Unit, part of the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies, Australia. He is the author of Democracy in Iraq: History, Politics and Discourse (Ashgate, 2012) and co-editor of The Secret History of Democracy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) and The Edinburgh Companion to the History of Democracy (Edinburgh University Press, 2012).

Fethi Mansouri is Director of the strategic research Centre for Citizenship and Globalisation and holds a Chair in Migration and Intercultural Relations, School of International and Political Studies, Deakin University. He is the editor of the high-ranking Journal of Intercultural Studies (Routledge). His recent publications include: Islam and Political Violence: Muslim Diaspora and Radicalism in the West (with S Akbarzadeh, IB Tauris, 2007); Identity, Education, and Belonging: Arab and Muslim Youth in Contemporary Australia (with S Percival Wood, Melbourne University Press, 2008); Youth Identity and Migration: Culture, Values and Social Connectedness (Common Ground Publishing, 2009); Australia and the Middle East: A Frontline Relationship (IB Tauris, 2011, second edition); Migration, Citizenship and Intercultural Relations: Looking Through the Lens of Social Inclusion (with M Lobo, Ashgate, 2011); Muslim Diasporas and the Challenges of Representations and National Belonging (with V Marotta, Melbourne University Press, 2012); and Reframing Multiculturalism for the 21st Century (University of Toronto Press, 2013). His 2004 book Lives in Limbo: Voices of Refugees under Temporary Protection was short-listed for the 2004 Human Rights Medals and Awards.

Minerva Nasser-Eddine is Research Fellow at Flinders University, Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide, and the Director of Al Hikma Middle East Advisory Agency. Minerva’s research and teaching interests are related to contemporary socio-political and cultural issues and developments in the Middle East and among its diaspora communities in Australia. More specifically, she focuses on the connections and consequences of postcolonial, regional, transnational and global links and their impact on identity, belonging, nationalism and citizenship. She examines the role and interface of multiculturalism, racism, discrimination, sectarianism, religion and primordialism within this context. More recently Minerva has developed research interests in counter-insurgency and countering violent extremism.

Nejet Mchala is Professor of Cultural Studies and Critical Theory at the University of Carthage in Tunis. He has published widely on topics of postcolonialism, feminism, critical theory and contentious politics in the Middle East.

Halim Rane is is the Deputy Director of the Griffith Islamic Research Unit and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities at Griffith University. Dr Rane is the author of numerous articles and books concerning the Middle East, Islamic and Muslim issues including Islam and Contemporary Civilisation: Evolving Ideas, Transforming Relations (Melbourne University Press, 2010), Islam and the Australian News Media (Melbourne University Press, 2010) and Reconstructing Jihad amid Competing International Norms (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

Sumra Salem is a regular contributor to online media concerning Middle East issues. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations with Honours and wrote her Honours thesis on the Role of Egypt in US Foreign Policy in the Middle East.

Lamia Ben Youssef Zayzafoon is Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research areas include postcoloniality, African literature of the diaspora, feminist and Islamic studies, and North African film. She is author of the Production of the Muslim Woman: Negotiating Text, History and Ideology (Lexington Press, 2005). Her most recent articles are ‘Anne Frank Goes East: The Algerian Civil War and the Nausea of Postcoloniality’ (2010) and ‘Teaching about Women and Islam in North Africa: Integrating Postcolonial Feminist Theory in Foreign Culture Pedagogy’ (2011).

Introduction

People power and the Arab Revolutions

Towards a new conceptual framework of democracy in the Middle East

Benjamin Isakhan, Fethi Mansouri and Shahram Akbarzadeh

From late 2010 a series of dramatic and unprecedented events swept across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It began in the quiet Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, where a young street vendor set himself alight in response to the corruption and oppression that surrounded him. This desperate act of self-immolation resonated with a deeply disgruntled population and led to weeks of popular protests across the country. On 14 January 2011, the 23-year autocratic rule of President Ben Ali came to an end. These events led to several scattered protests in other Arab states, most notably in Egypt where tens of thousands of protestors eventually took control of Tahrir Square in Cairo. A stand-off ensued between elements loyal to the government and the popular uprising. Although he remained obstinate that he would introduce reform and see out his term, by 11 February the Arab Revolutions had claimed their second dictator in President Hosni Mubarak. These events led to free and fair elections in Tunisia (23 October 2011) and Egypt (28 November 2011 to 3 January 2012)—events international observers hailed as great successes. In both Tunisia and Egypt, Islamist parties claimed victory, amassing well over 40 per cent of the vote—the Ennahda (Renaissance) party in Tunisia and the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt. Today, while there is certainly cause for optimism in Tunisia and Egypt, turning the ideals of the revolution into a reality is proving an enormous challenge as the process of political reform encounters the many intractable problems that have plagued the region for decades.

It is also important to note that some of the Arab Revolutions have come at a very high price. Even in the successful examples of Tunisia and Egypt the toppling of tyrants was accompanied by a high body count. Elsewhere the cost has been much higher. In Libya the movement turned into a brutal civil war. While the ‘rebels’ controlled key Libyan towns, Colonel Gaddafi used his entire arsenal in an attempt to quash the resistance. With key regional and international institutions like the Arab League condemning such actions, the UN authorised the use of ‘all necessary measures’ to protect civilians in Libya. Gaddafi was eventually captured and killed on 20 October 2011 in his birth place of Sirte, paving the way for the National Transitional Council (NTC) to declare the liberation of the entire country.

Meanwhile, citizens across the region continued to stage (mostly) peaceful protests in their struggle against oppression and towards equality, human rights and democracy. In Algeria, Morocco, Oman, Jordan, Kuwait and Iraq, these movements have been met with a mixture of brutal suppression and modest political and economic reforms designed to placate the citizens rather than commit to genuine change. But the lethal cocktail of violence and politicking has been most potent in Syria and Yemen where President Al-Asad and President Saleh have responded to civil unrest with a series of swift and deadly military manoeuvres carried out in cities and towns across the two countries. Some of the more troubling events have occurred in the economically prosperous kingdoms of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. In Bahrain the Youth Movement and the various Shia opposition groups were quashed when King Hamad Al-Khalifa used not only his own helicopters and tanks to attack the protestors, but called on the military of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to intervene under the umbrella of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) defence agreement. For their part, the Saudis have met their own protests with a series of multibillion dollar reforms coupled with live fire on open crowds, and have run an abhorrent ideological campaign which asserts that Islam and social protests are incompatible.

This complex set of events pose a number of critical questions that need urgent and in-depth scholarly attention. This volume will be the first of its kind to address the Arab Revolutions and the varying analyses, debates and discussions that they have stimulated. It seizes a unique opportunity to reflect on these seismic events, their causes and consequences, as well as on the core issues facing the region in the future. However, this volume aims to be much more than a collection of detailed thematic essays on the Arab Revolutions. The central arguments and the key contributions of this book are twofold. Firstly, the book aims to situate the Arab Revolutions within their broader contextual background, arguing that a unique set of historical events as well as local, regional and global dynamics have converged to provide the catalyst that triggered the recent revolts. Secondly, this book will attempt to situate the events within a new conceptual framework. The argument here is that the Arab Revolutions pose a very specific challenge to conventional wisdom concerning democracy and democratisation in the Middle East.

The Contextual Background

The story of Western interference in the MENA region goes back to the very earliest days of the colonial period, beginning with Portuguese ventures into North Africa in the fifteenth century. The ensuing centuries saw the establishment of trading posts, permanent settlements and then fully occupied territories controlled by European empires across the region. As the moribund Ottoman Empire waned in power from the eighteenth century, European influence grew across the region, particularly in North Africa and the Gulf. With the help of the Arab Revolt of 1916–18, the Ottoman Empire finally fell at the end of World War I and Britain and France extended their dominion into the Levant and Syria-Mesopotamia, hastily designing nation states and installing or supporting pliant monarchs and governments to rule on their behalf.

This period of colonial control was deeply unpopular and, in the aftermath of World War II, the MENA region saw a wave of independence movements that sought to end European influence, leading to the emergence of two distinct postcolonial types of Arab regimes. The first included those in which independence was not accompanied by a movement seeking to oust the existing elites. Within this category, monarchies or governments that had been designed and propped up by Europe remained intact after formal independence. Some of these regimes remain to this day, including, for example, those of Jordan, Oman, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. In the second type of regime, calls for independence were accompanied by popular revolutions which also sought to usurp the governments put in place under colonialism. These popular upheavals led to the creation of new, independent postcolonial regimes across most of the MENA region, including those in Tunisia and Egypt, which have endured until recently. Both Ben Ali and Mubarak had been part of this postcolonial movement and each inherited their Presidency from their mentors and comrades, whereas in Libya Gaddafi came to power as the heroic champion of Libyan independence in 1969. Elsewhere, independence ushered in a tumultuous period of military coups and counter-coups that eventually saw strong centralised governments emerge in countries such as Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Despite these divisions and setbacks and despite the differences between the two types of postcolonial states, the post-independence period saw some attempts at reform and modernisation built atop a platform of oil-fuelled economic prosperity, civic strength, and the early promises of Arab political ideologies such as pan-Arabism and Arab nationalism.

However, the promises made to the Arab people by the champions of independence soon proved empty as the vast majority of political elites across the region became increasingly autocratic and entrenched. Personal liberties and freedoms were quashed, civil society, political opposition and media freedoms were curtailed or controlled by the state and, in the worst cases, coercion and oppression reached levels comparable to the most tyrannical of regimes. Power and wealth were concentrated in the hands of an elite few while economies stagnated, unemployment skyrocketed and infrastructure eroded. A sizeable and ever-widening economic gap emerged between the elite of the Arab world and the ‘Arab street’. As university graduates were left unemployed, living standards plummeted and the people became all too aware of the endemic nature of corruption in their societies, this reinforced the belief that the Arab system of governance was quickly losing legitimacy and credibility. People lost faith in their leaders and became increasingly critical of their government and its stranglehold over key institutions such as