Arab Spring

The Arab Spring was an eruption of mass protest in several Arab countries"Arab," n.: A member of an Arabic-speaking people. that drove regime changes, authoritarian government crackdowns, and sometimes a mix of both. New communications technology, manifested as social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, were credited with helping protestors organize, and some contend that the spirit of protest spread to the United States and Europe via the "Occupy" movements. 
The main cause of the mass protests was overlooked as it had nothing to do with technology or social issues or anything to do with humanity, but dumb random luck. The mideast imports a vast quantity of grain to feed its massive and growing population. Ukraine, a major supplier of this grain, suffered a 1 in 100 year drought in the summer of 2010. By the winter of 2010, a shortage began and food prices went through the roof. Come the spring of 2011, well, tensions were high and it was all but guaranteed that something bad would happen. Luckily, the world learned the lesson and The Ukraine won't ever have any further disruption in its ability to suppl… oh… well, we're just fucked, aren't we?Possible second Arab spring, AP news, april 2022
For many observers, the important questions about the Arab Spring are not about the liberal and democratic image offered up for Western consumption, but about the role played by Islamic fundamentalists. Raymond Stock, Visiting Assistant Professor of Arabic and Middle East Studies at Drew University and Guggenheim Fellow who lived in Cairo from 1990 to 2010, writes that the Arab Spring in Egypt was actually less spontaneous than it was cleverly orchestrated by the Muslim Brotherhood, who "endorsed the uprising before it began, not afterward—and clearly was in communication with its organizers then as well. And thereafter, rather than playing only a minor role, as most accounts claim, it was in fact the MB, more than any other group, that really brought the crowds into Tahrir and elsewhere. The Muslim Brotherhood was not a sheepish junior partner and Johnny-come-lately, as the media and experts portrayed it, but the most important player as of the second day of demonstrations, right through the end—and beyond."The Donkey, The Camel, and the facebook Scam: How the Muslim Brotherhood Conquered Egypt and Conned the World Raymond Stock. Foreign Policy Research Institute. July 2012.
== Reception in the West ==
With the exceptions of Tunisia and Bahrain, the liberal phase of the Arab Spring was effectively over by Spring 2012. Curiously, however, many in the West refused to recognize that the movements had been largely hijacked by illiberal Sunni Islamists funded by conservative Sunni Arab monarchies.The Arab Spring: The Saudis Hijacked It June 21, 2012.
One factor that was the topic of Western attention was the use of new communications technologies, such as social media, in coordinating the protests, which caused some of the Arab Spring uprisings to be termed the "Twitter Revolution."http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2011/01/could-tunisia-be-the-next-twitter-revolution-ctd/177225/ However, although new communications technologies have created platforms for mass participation, much of the resulting "deliberation" has not taken the form of an open exchange of ideas supportive of liberal democracy.Mohammed el-Nawawy and Sahar Khamis. 2009. Islam Dot Com: Contemporary Islamic Discoureses in Cyberspace. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-230-33815-9; Zizi Papacharissi. "The Virtual Sphere: The Internet as a Public Sphere." Media & Society, Vol. 1, No. 9 (2002): 9-27. They are more likely to result in intemperate virtual shouting matches or the isolation of the like-minded in spirals of agreement.
Some neoconservative commentators have expressed their dismay at the lack of parallels being drawn between the Arab Spring and the 1979 Iranian Revolution that brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power.http://frontpagemag.com/2012/raymond-ibrahim/parallel-betrayals-iranian-revolution-and-arab-spring/ Many people failed to see Khomeini's theocratic agenda before it was too late; for example, Richard Falk, writing in The Nation, had this to say of Khomeini at that time:
Western media has also downplayed the extent to which these movements began as labor movements.
==In specific countries==
=== Tunisia ===
The protests began in Tunisia in late 2010 when a young fruit seller named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in front of the town hall of Sidi Bouzid to protest being beaten up by the police over not being able to pay bribes so he would be ignored while working as a peddler. Within days, the protests spread throughout the country and resulted in Tunisia's dictator Ben Ali fleeing towards Saudi Arabia. The protests spread further to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Jordan.
Elections were held in Tunisia (for the Constituent Assembly) which the Islamist Ennahda party won the election with 41% of the vote and received 90 of the 217 seats. The largest secular party - Congress for the Republic (CPR) - won 13% of the vote and received 30 seats. The leftist Ettakatol party won 10% of the vote, and received 21 seats.Final Results of Tunisian Elections Announced Eventually, a new constitution was passed in 2014, guaranteeing equality for women and freedom of religion — including the freedom not to have a religion. You can still be jailed for posting anti-islamic cartoons on Facebook, though.Tunisia Finally Passes Progressive Constitution Also, the police state that existed under Ben Ali does not remain.
File:Caravane de la libération 4.jpg|Protesters wave the Tunisian flag
File:Ordre_Armee_tunisienne_2011.JPG|Soldiers deployed to police civilians
=== Egypt ===
:Main article: Egyptian revolution of 2011
In Egypt, which had been under martial law for many years, efforts to repress the mass protests failed, and the generals took power from the dictator (former general) Hosni Mubarak, while continuing to maneuver against their longtime opponents, the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Nevertheless, the "Brothers" performed well in the November 28, 2011 to January 11, 2012 parliamentary elections, and their presidential candidate, Mohamed Morsi, won the runoff contest on June 24, 2012.Islamist Morsy Wins Egyptian Presidency With 52 percent Yasmine Saleh and Shaimaa Fayed. Reuters. June 24, 2012. However, immediately thereafter, a military-appointed court simply dismissed the elected parliament.A decision reaffirmed by the same court on July 9, 2012 Kareem Fahim and Mayy El Sheikh. "Egyptian Court Affirms Ruling Cited to Oust Parliament" The New York Times. July 9, 2012., effectively neutering the civil government. Early pessimism about the future of liberal democracy in Egypt,Some Heretical Thoughts about the Facebook God, the Arab Spring, and the Egyptian Revolution Avi Isaacharoff. Haaretz. June 25, 2012. the country's mass poverty and illiteracy, its dependence on such sources of funding as fees from the Suez Canal and handouts from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, and the Islamist regression to popular religiosity, were confirmed by the lack of inclusiveness in Morsi's cabinet. Copts and women were largely excluded. While Islamist males and technocrats landed not only the prestige cabinet posts but most of the 35 cabinet posts, Copts and women were consigned to token positions.Women, Christians Among Groups Unhappy With Egypt's New Government Reem Abdellatif. The Los Angeles Times. August 5, 2012. Only two women were appointed, one of whom is also a Copt.
The new repression in Egypt picked up pace with the sacking of senior Egyptian Army generals and the clampdown on news media critical of the Muslim Brotherhood. The al-Dostour newspaper and editor, Islam Afifi, was spalled with a travel ban.Clampdown on Egypt’s Media Raises Fears by Heba Saleh. August 15, 2012. Seems the new powers that be want to be able to punish him easily if he steps out of line. In another sign of the new repression, female anchors on Egyptian state television appeared in headscarves for the first time on September 2, 2012.Egypt TV Unveils the Headscarf by Scott Sayare. The New York Times. September 4, 2012.
In 2013, amidst the Morsi government's refusal to propose a constitution, the military took over in coup. The martial regime has been brutal, especially to high-level opponents.
File:Tahrir_Square_during_8_February_2011.jpg|Protestors demonstrating in Tahrir Square in Cairo
File:Tahrir Square on February11.png|Protesters celebrate when Hosni Mubarak resigns from his post
File:Burning amy vehicle.png|An army truck burns after army attacks
===Yemen===
In February 2012, after a year of protesting, the people of Yemen managed to oust the Shia president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had ruled the country since 1978. In the elections immediately following, they voted in Saleh's Sunni vice president, Abd al-Rab Mansur al-Hadi. From a Western perspective, it ended up not amounting to much regime change, as the current government still supports U.S. drone strikes and the new president did whatever Obama told him. Recently, violence has flared up again and Shia Houthi rebels have now deposed the new Sunni government as well. Since then, Yemen has descended into chaos: Saudi Arabia decided it didn't want a Shia state on its border, so they started bombing Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, backed by bottomless US support. They not only bombed legitimate military targets, such as supply depots and fighting positions, but also ceramic factories and civilian neighborhoods. This bombing eventually killed thousands of civilians, although most news does not cover it. This bombing continued into the early days of the Trump administration. Unsurprisingly, Trump quickly took things too far (out of jingoism and ignorance, not over-zealotry about the mission), and Yemen's president forbade the United States from conducting any more drone strikes in the country.
In short, the Houthi advance was halted, driven out of Aden and other southern Sunni areas, but thousands of Saudi and other foreign troops were sent to the country to militarily conquer it. The Saudis and their allies have besieged the country, stopping anyone from getting in or out, and effectively guaranteeing massive civilian casualties due to food and water shortages.
=== Libya ===
Libya experienced a civil war that started on February 18 with Gaddafi government forces shooting dead unarmed protesters in the streets, and ended on October 23 2011, after Muammar Gaddafi was captured and killed by a crazed mob on October 20th. Following the initial state terrorism, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1970http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/sc10187.doc.htm was passed on 26 February 2011, deploring what it called “the gross and systematic violation of human rights” and “rejecting unequivocally the incitement to hostility and violence against the civilian population made from the highest level of the Libyan government”. It was also the first time a country was unanimously referred to the International Criminal Court by the council.http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2011/02/20112271959190839.html Similar statements came from the Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of the Islamic Conference. Subsequently, the Libyan rebels were supported by Western air power and special forces on the ground, under the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1973.Resolution 1973 Victory against Gaddafi left the country with political chaos and security problems posed by the myriads of armed groups that formed to overthrow the Gaddafi government. Gaddafi's Jamahiriya government was replaced by a parliamentary republic headed by a President and a Prime Minister, but the once prosperous and stable Libya is now a failed state and a hotbed for terrorism.Libya’s political instability makes room for ISIS to regroup. PBS. March 2, 2019. There are still militias and tribes clashing with their rivals in different bases of the country, and are yet to be unified under a common national army.
An often-overlooked aspect of the Libyan civil war is the rebels' killing and enslavement of African migrants with impunity. In the town of Sirte, there was a mass murder of migrants, and in the town of Tawergha, migrants were hunted by groups of rebels, one of which proclaims itself the "brigade for the purging of black skins."Libya: The Ongoing Disaster Dan Glazebrook. al-Ahram. May 31-June 6 2012. In spite of ongoing human rights violations, Human Rights Watch has stated that “Libya has made notable advances and has committed itself to promote human rights”.http://www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=9878 http://www.webcitation.org/6EqeZ9oB2
On September 11, 2012, armed Islamists attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. One staffer was killed and several others wounded. It was originally believed'US Consulate Staffer Dies in Libya Mission Clash' The Jerusalem Post September 12, 2012. that this was the result of the release of an anti-Islamic propaganda film, Innocence of Muslims, produced by an Egyptian-American of Coptic extraction who was later sentenced to death in absentia by an Egyptian court for defamation of religion.http://www.wellandtribune.ca/2012/11/28/egyptian-christians-sentenced-to-death-for-islam-film However, it was later discovered that this was a planned terrorist attack and that the terrorists in question had just used the protests over the film as cover.http://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/96-press-releases-2012/731-statement-by-the-odni-s-director-of-public-affairs-on-intelligence-related-to-the-terrorist-attack-on-the-u-s-consulate-in-benghazi Afterwards, a protest was held condemning the violence by those who had killed ambassador Chris Stevens.'This Does Not Represent Us' - The Atlantic
In early 2013, the Libyan government complained that western media were exaggerating their security problem.http://www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=9849 http://www.webcitation.org/6EqevdQDZ
File:Libyan flag above the communications tower in Al Bayda (Libya, 2011-07-17).jpg|The rebel flag is hoisted up a tower in Al Bayda
File:Palmaria bengasi 1903 0612 b1.jpg|French air force destroys howitzers in Benghazi
File:Libya rebel checkpoint by VOA.jpg|Rebel checkpoint in Tripoli
===Syria===
In March 2011, protests erupted against Bashar al-Assad of the Ba'ath Party in response to Syrian security forces arresting a group of children in Daraa for writing slogans against the government.Syria: Timeline of the civil war and US response. ABC News Australia. April 7, 2017. In May 2011, a died in the custody of the Syrian government, his body horribly mutilated.Macleod, Hugh and Flamand, Annasofie. Tortured and killed: Hamza al-Khateeb, age 13. Al Jazeera. May 31, 2011. His body bore bruises, burns consistent with the use of electric shock devices, bullet wounds, a broken neck, and his penis had been cut off. After his family distributed photos of his body to journalists and activists, protesters were galvanised across the country.Sunday, Alex. Syrian boy's brutal death rouses protesters. CBS News. May 31, 2011. In November 2011, the moved to suspend Syria's membership, accusing Assad's government of defying an agreement to stop the violent repression of demonstrators.MacFarquhar, Neil. Arab League Votes to Suspend Syria. New York Times. November 12, 2011.
Over time, the civil uprising against Assad's rule deteriorated into armed rebellion and eventual full-scale civil war. In June 2012, according to Arab intelligence officers and American officials, a small number of CIA officers were secretly operating in southern Turkey, helping allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters would receive arms to fight the government. One senior American official said the CIA officers would help keep weapons out of the hands of fighters allied with al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups. The Obama administration said they were not providing arms to the rebels, but also acknowledged Syria's neighbours would do so.Eric Schmitt. "C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Rebels." The New York Times. June 21, 2012 By the end of 2015, according to a British think tank, about 60% of rebel fighters in Syria held an Islamist extremist ideology, and about a third held the same ideology as ISIS.60 Percent Of Syrian Rebels Are Islamist Extremists, Think Tank Finds. NPR. December 20, 2015. 
The conflict has displaced approximately 11 million people and, as of February 2016, the death toll from the conflict was 470,000.World Report 2017: Syria. Human Rights Watch. The situation is so bad that some people are even taking refuge in Iraq.https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/44011 Amnesty International stated in its 2013 annual report on Syria that the conflict was marked by gross human rights abuses, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and that government forces were responsible for the vast majority of violations.Annual Report: Syria 2013. Amnesty International. In 2014, a report by a UN-appointed commission on Syria indicated both the Syrian regime and rebel factions were guilty of war crimes. The report documented how the Assad regime has targeted civilians, reportedly used chemical weapons and conducted torture and extrajudicial killings. Many rebel factions have a record of recruiting child soldiers, shelling civilian-populated areas, taking hostages, and murdering members of religious minorities.How all sides are committing war crimes in Syria The Washington Post. August 27, 2014. 
As of October 2016, according to the Violations Documentation Centre in Syria database, Assad's government has been responsible for 90% of civilian casualties.Ahmad, Idrees. Russia Today and the post-truth virus. Pulse. December 15, 2016. UN investigators concluded in September 2017 that Syrian government forces used chemical weapons more than two dozen times.Nebehay, Stephanie. Syrian government forces used chemical weapons more than two dozen times: U.N. Reuters. September 6, 2017. UN investigators have also concluded that Syrian government troops and pro-government militia were responsible for the in 2012 where 108 people (including 49 children) died.Houla massacre: UN blames Syria troops and militia BBC News. 15 August 2012.
File:Huge demonstration in Homs against Al Assad regime.jpg|Protesters against the government in Homs
=== Other countries ===
There were also protests in Algeria, Iraq, Morocco, and Oman. Minor protests broke out in Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and the Western Sahara. Protests were ruthlessly suppressed in Bahrain with the help of the Saudi military (and its backers in the United States government, like President Obama), but the protestors fought on into the second half of 2013.Bad Double Standards, Good Double Standardshttp://www.truth-out.org/news/item/16424-arab-spring-not-over-yet-in-bahrain
== Aftermath and effect ==
Neoconservatives have been busy claiming that the 2003 U.S. Invasion of Iraq was justified by the Arab Spring.Neocons’ New Lie Jordan Michael Smith. Salon.com. April 25, 2012.
The Arab Spring ended up creating a power vacuum in Libya, Syria, Yemen, and other countries, which led to the so-called "Arab Winter" and the rise of ISIS.Did ISIS “hijack” the Arab Spring? Hannah Wallace. Arab Millennial. May 21, 2018.
==See also==
*The Egyptian uprising, in particular
==References==
Category:Civil rights
Category:Middle East