Dr Jasim: Revolutions are the outcome of internal failure

Writtenby: Mustafa Farahat..How times change. Less than a year ago, five men were some of themost powerful leaders in North Africa and the Middle East. Today oneis dead; one in exile and another is in jail awaiting trial. Theremaining two: one is still hesitant to quell power and the other isdefiant while is country is totally squeezed by sanctions.

Stillsome analysts are doubtful about the essence of these uprisings andview what is happening as a conspiracy against Arab World to rob itfrom its resources while others are confused to explain what hasreallyhappened.

IslamOnline approached Dr Jasim Sultan, the general supervisor of An Nahdawebsite and Chairman of the Strategic Guidance Committee of IslamOnline, to help in explaining the complex Arab scene and provideanswers to many difficult questions and exclamations raised duringand after Arab Spring.

If figuratively we name this year as an “year of revolutions” in the Arab world… what do you think triggered these uprisings?.

Asa matter of fact this year changes swept the whole world includingUS, Europe, Asia and other regions. These popular uprisings have beentriggered by a combination of deteriorating living standards andgrowing inequality, a lack of political freedoms and publicaccountability and the alienation of the demographically dominant agecohorts from the political order. This cohort simply believes theywere cheated by the politicians and hence many sectors in the societytook to the streets to change these regions.

Butwhythese uprisings began from the Arab world?.

Uprisingbegan first in the Arab world because the conditions were worse. Itbegan with a slap and an insult hurled at a vegetable seller in asmall town surrounded by scrub and cactus. It ended with a revolutionthat has shaken authoritarian leaders across the Arab world. In theabsence of clear leaders in Tunisia's uprising, Bouazizi has capturedthe imagination of millions and inspired copycat burnings inneighboring Algeria, Mauritania and Egypt. But it was his friends andfamily and the people of his hometown that turned one angry man intothousands on the street. People were fed up of failed states whichcannot provide the basis needs for them.

Butthese problems are not new and persist for decades in the Arab world,so what made a simple citizen to revolt?.

Iattribute the rapid changes to the revolution in the communicationsector. The tide of mass protests that swept throughout the MiddleEast highlighted the distinct role of moderninformation-communication technologies (ICT) and digital social mediatools and networks. The impact of these technologies was feltglobally, affecting both developed and developing nations, if not inthe same way. No region, state, or form of government can remainimmune to the impact of new information and communicationtechnologies on social and political movements. People can easilyknow what is happening around the globe and accordingly compare theirsituations.

TheArab Springs are all about connection, a horizontal connectionbetween the same generations. Youth is getting tired of the ancientrégimes (old order). Today’s world is horizontal because people inCairo know what is happening in Madrid, for example, and Arab peopleare aware that in other nations citizens have voting and otherrights.

Whileuprisings have rapidly spread into each and every single dictatorshipin the region, a question arises: what are the common causes in theserevolts?.

Themost immediate causes: political dictatorships, unemployment,repression and the wounding and killing of protestors. This explainsto us why when people revolt security head quarters were the firsttargets.

What is about the common features of the ousted regimes?.

Historically,changes do not occur voluntarily. Even where these revolts succeed,some still believe it is possible to reverse the history and time.Dictators in the Arab world have accumulated over time a huge wealthand they are afraid to be persecuted once they were toppled and thisexplains why they do want to give up.

Talkingabout conspiracy theories and its role in Arab spring, do you believethere is evidence to support such theories?.

Mostincidents refute this theory. For more than half a century, the Arabpeople were caught up between the terror of their western-sponsoreddictators and the rise of fanatics. This was actually part of acrafty system which had led the West to pillage and oppress the Arabpeople in its ongoing quest for maximum profit. The Arab peoplefinally gathered all the necessary courage and determination to takecharge of their destiny and put (or try to put) and end to thisentire charade. So changes came from within and not from outsidebecause revolutions most of the time are triggered by internalfailure rather than external force.

Somepeople see asking for external help to oust failed regimes is a sortof neocolonialism, what is your comment?.

Ithink people accept foreign help when their very existence is atstake. Human beings when faced by a multiple evils usually choose thelesser one until they get better chance reach a better position tomake total change. In Misrata city, the regime was going to commit amassacre there and that why people there choose NATO interventionbecause otherwise the whole population is going to be killed.

Again,the West itself come to a conclusion that it is no longer possible tocontinue controlling Arab world using the old means, so they arecoming up with smart ways to deal with Arab communities by focusingon the needs of these societies instead of imposing certain policieson them.

Well,what do you think happened in Bahrain then? Was it a revolution inthe full sense?.

Nodoubt the difference was huge in Bahrain. The community in Bahrainwas divided along sectarian lines. So in all revolutionary movementswhen fear prevails among the different sects in the community failurewill be the logical outcome. In Bahrain the revolution was verynational in nature before some demonstrators began to bring veryexplicit sectarian slogan to the scene.

Fromhistorical view, what happened in Bahrain can be portrayed as thefailure of Muslims throughout history to solve the sectarian andIdeological differences. History is simply repeating itself inBahrain and regrettably is a very complicated situation and it willbe a daunting task to reach to a national programme in Bahrain.

Whatis about the Gulf countries that support the uprisings…are theyimmune from Arab Spring?.

Nosingle country is immune from historical changes no matter how far itis located. For example the French revolutions had and still have itseffects on what is happening in the world. Gulf States, because oftheir peculiar characteristics do not give local communities amplespace influences the social movement. However in case of success ofrevolutions in the some countries this will constitute a real burdento GCC to continue with the old fashion of governance. So I thinkthere will be preemptive actions from GCC defuse any possibletensions, especially in areas of political freedom and may be somecosmetics changes here and there in the shape of parliaments.Fundamental changes are not expected in the near future. Hence it isstill early to talk about any constitutional monarchies in the Gulfregion. Sometimes we need to look to the future and of coursedirection of history bypass all odd social ideas and any attempt togo against the tide is doomed to fail.

Thereis the phenomenon of using religion to revolt against the rulers orto justify oppression by the rulers, how can explain the controversybetween the religion and revolutions nowadays?.

Wecan distinguish three levels here: There is the texts which labeledas ”Islam”. On the other side, there is the contemporaryreligiously and the historical religiosity. Texts can bear multipleinterpretations e.g in the issue of Shura in Islam i.e. consultancy.Some see as compulsory and others understand it at level of “beinginformed”. So it is the same when the ruler consult or not. Bothteams have their own defenders.

Inrecent history Islam presents itself to the public in a modernfashion and we remain to see if this policy will serve Islam betterand introduce an Islamic model that understands the trend of historyor it will confront the history and results in social upheavals?.

When we can say that these uprisings succeeded in realizing the setobjectives?.

Ithink the success of these revolutions can be determined by theslogans raised in the beginning. “National Unity is one of the mainslogans in all countries that witnessed mass rallies anddemonstrations and hence one of the indicators of success will be theability of thses uprising to augment national solidarity.

Alsothere is the slogan of “Justice for ALL”. So will justice prevailand all social sectors will feel they are subject to the same laws orthere will be losers? Again, “dignity and bread for all” wasraised as a main demand and it remain to see if all the society willenjoy better standard of living or it will be limited to certainpeople?.

Theseare the main indicators of the success of Arab Spring. There are somewho believe the Islamic era has arrived and it is time to liberatePalestine. However the unifying slogans for all the demonstratorswere “The Homeland, Equality and Food for all”.

Source:islamonline.net

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