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The country is now split between rival eastern and western-based administrations. But with violent repression by the government, the revolt turned into civil war. More from News. Attack on Burkina Faso defence outpost kills at least For example, Tariq Ramadan conveys an Islamic connotation by choosing to use the term "Arab Awakening" instead by emphasizing "the compatibility of Islam with democratic pluralism and religious diversity.
This reduces the conditions that culminated in the spread of the movement s by assuming that an information leak from a western-hosted site may have been more important to Bouazizi than his right to make his livelihood being taken away.
The tendency to reduce complex and unique histories and situations down to one event or incident is noted by Hamid Dabashi, an Iranian-American scholar. Dabashi refers to this tendency as "annalist reductionism," seeking to point out a single point of influence. He instead argues that the 'Arab Spring' encompasses many conflicts and tensions--present and historical.
He is critical of those who conflate the movement to sectarian-politics, including a Muslim-Christian binary, Shi'a-Sunni, and Arab-Iranian, as it draws attention away from the material effects on people that economic and political conditions have created. It is important to take issue with how democratization or the need for democracy has been framed and defined by the United States and European or 'western' nations to justify intervention by promoting them as exemplary, progressive states.
The limited understanding of democracy has allowed nations with the means and power to promote their interests in the MENA region and draw attention away from their responsibility in and direct support for the rise of harmful rule and socioeconomic problems. The neoliberal restructuring of nations in the MENA region that began due to the oil crisis and debt crises that followed in the s into the s, giving opportunities for the IMF and World Bank, alongside various international financial institutions, to intervene.
The involvement of western nations or nations of the global north in coercing nations into making adjustments--including dropping trade barriers, lowering wages and the removal of social protections--had important implications on the growth of the protests. For example, in the chant " al Sha'b Yurid Isqat al-Nizam " or people demand the overthrow of the regime " nizam " has two meanings, referring to both the ruling regime and the regime du savoir--"the regime of knowledge production.
Although mainstream western news outlets brought attention to poverty and unemployment as a primary reason for the uprisings, much coverage had centered and continues to center on political conflict and the corruption of the MENA. Moreover, it is not uncommon for these outlets to define nations that overthrew their leaders as entering a stage of "post-revolution," including with regard to Tunisia after Ben Ali was sentenced to prison and the overthrowing of Mubarak in Egypt and the death of Libyan dictator Gadhafi.
For example, although a CBC article references Rami Khouri who rejects the seasonal analogies that garnered much debate in western media and by scholars about the predicted short-lived status of the 'spring', the events in the 'Arab world' are described as "a historical process that most [w]estern democracies have gone through.
The portrayal of the "Arab Spring," as a single event that had risen and has now dissipated--invoking the seasonal analogy--similarly erases the marginalized voices of those who had begun the protests and supported the movements and erases the number of local uprisings that were taking place before becoming more widespread in Gilbert Achcar, a professor of developmental studies and international relations, in an interview with Al Jazeera he argues that although political crisis and a desire for political freedom was an important dimension of the uprising, the deepest roots of the explosion were socioeconomic.
Achcar goes further to state that we must consider the how a political explosion of the magnitude--reaching across MENA--must necessarily be triggered by a convergence of factors, the one commonality throughout the region being a structural socioeconomic crisis.
He notes that there were multiple local, regional uprisings in Tunisia before the one that became nationwide. With regard to the development of widespread uprisings throughout the MENA, the Tunisian Workers' Union and relative stability as a movement and Egypt for its wave of workers' strikes from onwards, as an initial reaction served as an important basis for the growth of protest due to an accumulation of anger and struggles.
This view dangerously displaces the actors of the uprisings and obfuscates the effects of imperialism through the coerced implementation of neoliberalism, relying on binary understandings that view the MENA and its histories as having occurred in a vacuum despite the growing forced interconnectedness as a result of globalization. Some have also been critical about referring to Tunisia and occasionally Egypt as success stories.
Mather notes that official events celebrating the uprisings have been organized by military, "keen to portray themselves as the saviours of the nation[, when] in reality they are the saviours of the ruling elite" and despite their involvement in suppressing protests to maintain their influence.
The Arab Spring has impacted the world immensely. The Arab Spring resulted in an explosion of political activity in countries which their authoritarian leaders were over thrown in the Middle East.
There was an increase in TV stations, online media usage, increase in the number of political parties and civil societies. It also resulted in the people fighting over whether Islam played a role in politics and drafting new constitutions or not.
It brought to light a lot of the issues the public was divided over, such as social, religious and political ones. There were also many rising tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, which resulted in outbursts of violence.
Armed conflict was also a result of the revolution; where old regimes did not want to submit easily to the opposition. Unemployment and poor living conditions were on the rise, especially in war torn areas.
While the Egyptians successfully overthrew President Mubarak as part of the Egyptian revolution in , statistics show that issues such as poverty remain a challenge, and it was one of the main causes of the uprisings that resulted in a revolution. There is still fear of military rule, and the charges against Hosni Mubarak, of corruption and the deaths during the Arab Spring are acquitted in This causes anger from the people and protests.
Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood however is sentenced to 20 years in prison, and in a separate trial he is sentenced to death. Currently in Egypt there are still protests, but now over a proposed sale of two islands to Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea. The government is claiming a bridge over the Red Sea will help support export between Egypt and Saudia Arabia.
However, many of the citizens fear this will make them a colony to Saudi Arabia [69]. Western-backed opposition forces captured Muammar Gaddafi, but Libya today is now an uncertain, anarchic state controlled by warring militias in different cities after a revolution which was led and supported by NATO. Since the Islamic State has gained a foothold in Libya it has become a major departure point for many migrants trying to reach Europe.
There are an estimated 2. There is current chaos through out Libya after Gaffafi was overthrown, and there is a lack of government transparency, unemployments rates are not going down, and uneven regional development [73]. Currently their legal system is barely functioning and courts have been shut down because of the dangers. Also many judges and lawyers have been the target of hate crimes and abductions [74]. Tunisia is generally the most stable and successful country to come out of the Arab Spring.
They have a new constitution, which guarantees many fundamental rights and freedoms. According to Amnesty International the constitution now includes rights to citizenship, bodily intergrity and freedom of movement, stronger protection for women's rights, and also protects rights to health, education and work [75] Tunisia is still in the works of building its fragile democracy in the aftermath of the revolution in Five years after the revolution, suicide protests persist, with another young Tunisian, Ridha Yahyaoui, electrocuting himself by climbing up a utility pole in frustration after being refused yet another job.
There are still moments of unrest, like when there was the assination of two leftists politicians: Chokri Belaid and Mhuammad Brahmi in [78].
In Tunisia was awarded with the Nobel Peace prize to commemorate how far they have come as a nation, and to congratulate them on their successes of getting through a political crisis [79]. Following protests and governmental repression in response ti wanting greater freedoms and improvements in living standards, Syria has become the site of a civil war between governmental authorities and opposing armed groups with different political aims. It has that has shattered the original democratic ambitions of protesters and caused a refugee crisis which has been credited as the gravest global humanitarian crisis since War World II [80].
In , the political power long held by the Alawite Shia Muslim elite, has been challenged and a civil conflict initially sparked by the Arab Spring.
This also led to over 11 million people to be displaced from their homes [81]. Heading into the rise of the Al-Nursa front, a radcial Islamist militia allied to Al Qaeda, led to a a period of cool, and international and regional support for their oppostion.
This resulted in Hezbollah Iranian backed Lebanese troops , to form and commit a counter offence with the new support. December 17, Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire outside a local government office in an act of protest after being arrested by police for not having a permit to run a vegetable stall.
Street protests begin soon after his death throughout the country. October 20, Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Qaddafi is captured by rebels, tortured and killed. November 23, Yemen dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh signs a power-sharing agreement. He resigns altogether in February and is later killed, in , while the country is still engulfed in a civil war. November 28, Egypt holds first democratic elections for parliament. In June , Morsi is elected president, but is removed from power by coup in July Arab Uprisings.
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