The Context of "Arab Spring"

Submitted by Ludvikus (United States), Dec 10, 2021 at 11:21

Islamist is essentially an a-historical term from the outside (West) and does not therefore provide sufficient precision and accuracy on how people in Muslim-majority countries think and act. On the other hand, although Arab Spring itself originated also from the West - its root is the the 1848 Revolutions of Europe - it does name a precise event in the Spring of 2011 more or less when Islam-majority countries took to the streets and rebelled against the Established Order.

Just as 1848 did not bring about "Democracy," merely the fall of Metternich and the order he established, Arab Spring is still unfolding, and "Democracy" is not the relevant Islamic or Arab notion which moves or drives the process. How these COUNTRIES adopt and change takes generations, just as 1848 led to WWI and WWII before Europe emerged as the European Union living at peace among Britain, France and Germany (etc.).

Religion is not the way we explain European countries behavior - how Christianity evolved; it's true that the Protestant Revolution stripped the Pope and the Vatican of their hold on the Princes of Europe. But that happened hundreds of years before Europe solved its essentially economic, political and warring problems.

What makes the issue of Islam vs.Islamism vital essentially involves the examples of the roles played by their fundamental profits: Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. Abraham and Moses brought their People to the Promised Land (now known as Israel). Jesus expounded Non-Violence and submission to the lawful authority (Rome at the time). Mohammed, on other hand, gave the world War and rule by the Sword thru Conquest.

These are legacies which most likely play out unconsciously in the Countries of the world where the relevant Religions dominate. But the issues underneath are Economic and political, and the effects on the People within each Country with its unique Islamic history and tradition.

You, Dr. Daniel Pipes, are uniquely qualified to lecture us on the history of each country affected by the major historical even popularly known as the Arab Spring. How Islam, or its alleged aberration, Political Islam or Islamism influenced or evolved, is what you can inform us about. Unfortunately, this Narrative is much longer and more complex than that involving the relatively simple term "ISLAMISM. But in brief, we have the historical fact that in each instance of Islamism we merely have some movement in which the conduct of Prophet Mohammad is emulated.

So, therefore, my request, is that you, or your co-workers, do that difficult work and translate how each Arab-Spring Country evolved. It may very well be that this is a work-in-progress. 11 years later we are not yet even half-way through the effects of the self-emulation of the Tunisian vendor (Mohamed Bouazizi) who lost his pushcart (and livelihood) to the police confiscation. In brief, it seems easy to focus on this single specific even which is Human - a man looses his means of earning a living by an act of a Muslim police officer in an Arab majority country. But one cannot explain events a-historically for each Arab or Muslim Majority country without understanding the specifics of each; but that requires work.

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