Webinar – The “Arab Spring” Lives On: Uprisings in times of a pandemicFriday 12 June 2020 at 4pm (CEST, Amsterdam time).Register here: https://bit.ly/3h7zrWkTen years ago, the Arab uprisings were celebrated as world changing events. The emancipatory experience was so contagious that people were inspired all over the world. Occupiers from London to Wall Street and the Indignados were proud to “Walk like an Egyptian”.The revolutionary process that has swept North Africa and West Asia, driven by demands for bread, freedom, dignity and social justice, has seen ups and downs, gains and setbacks, which materialized in a liberal democratic transition in Tunisia and bloody counter-revolutions and imperialist interventions in other countries. This led some pundits to pronounce a death sentence on the so-called “Arab Spring”.A decade on, this protracted revolutionary process is well into the second wave of revolt, triggered by the same features of governance and political economy that shaped the first wave. This time, it started from Sudan in December 2018 and spread to Algeria, Iraq and Lebanon. 2019 saw massive popular movements erupting onto the political stage, demanding radical change and achieving some historical gains. Although these movements find themselves pitted against entrenched authoritarian and counter-revolutionary forces that do everything to crush and bury them, including in times of COVID19, they will not simply pass into history; there are already signs that protests will resume when the pandemic subsides.This webinar will attempt to shed some light on the political and socio-economic causes that led to these uprisings and on the actors involved, as well as share some insights about future perspectives beyond the pandemic.You can register here.Panellists
- Muzan Alneel – Sudanese engineer, political activist and blogger.
- Brahim Rouabah - Algerian activist, co-founder Algerian Solidarity Campaign.
- Zahra Ali - a sociologist and feminist based at Rutgers University and author of "Women and Gender in Iraq".
- Rima Majed - an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the American University of Beirut (AUB)
By Nadeem Mahjoub Documentary film-makers G. Troeller and M. C. Defarge once asked a cabinet minister in South Yemen, why socialistic ideas were so readily acceptable in that part of the Arab world. He replied: “Because we have been communists for a thousand years! My mother was Qarmatian.” Official Muslim scholars and clerics, and many so-called moderates (whether individuals or groups) oppose sedition ( fitna ). Tensions and contradictions in society should be solved peacefully and even if the ruler was unjust and impious, it is generally accepted he should still be obeyed, for any kind of order is better than anarchy and sedition. “The tyranny of a sultan for a hundred years causes less damage than one year’s tyranny exercised by the subjects against one another.” Revolt was justified only against a ruler who clearly went against the command of God and His prophet.” 1 Here we look at not what happened in the minds of people who call for calm, oppose dissent and preach the re...