The time magazine declared “THE PROTESTER “person of the year. No doubt 2011 was a remarkable year for many people especially those in Middle East and North Africa; it was the awakening year for a repressed and ignored Arab generation. Some called it the Arab Spring, others named as Arab revolution or simply an unexpected up- rising. After one year of captive events, the actual situation impose a critical thinking about what really happened: Was it a real revolution carry on by oppressed population? Or another complot theory leaded by western Countries to impose their economic and politic dominance over the region?
Dr.Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University, dedicated his new book to the thorny subject of Arab spring. His book called:” Islam and Arab awakening “treats the possibility of neither an Arab Spring nor Revolutions. For Dr. Ramadan the revolutions were manipulated from the beginning by western powers. A number of young Arab activists were formed by foreign agents to use peaceful slogans and manipulate the Arab youth through social networks to start a peaceful revolution. He also presented an interesting theory showing the geopolitical and economic interests of theses powers for the region. According to Pr.Tarik, the peaceful revolution was a new way to impose dominance over the region without army deploying to over throw declining regimes and to access to the second largest oil reserve in the world: Libya.
It’s
actually a fact that a number of Arab activists received training sessions on
how to use resonant slogans and spray them on the social networks to regroup a
desperate youth. The training was in the
USA with some Democratic and civil right organizations financed by Google and
US department of Defense. However, we have to come back to the origin of theses
dormant revolutions. Before the revolution, our situation was really awful. Everyone
was trying to survive because we had the most corrupt and oppressed regimes. It
was not any possibility to dream for a better future. They breastfeed us
obeisance and resignation. Arguing was a synonym of disrespect and asking was a
synonym of revolt. They tried to kill or killed the most valuable thing to an
Arab person; pride and self-esteem. They explained all this injustice by
religious reasons and created a Molotov cocktail that opened the door for
extremism and radicalism. They taught us that a good Muslim must listen to
elderly people without asking and must accept his reality because it is his
destiny. We tried to find thousands and thousands of explanations for our
situation. Some days it was our own fault because we did not understand how great
our leaders were. Other days, it was the conspiracy theory nourished by the
government propaganda. They spread in our media the detestation of Western
culture, showing us how harmful Europe and the USA were. We adhered to their
theories by blaming the West for our miserable life. Theses archaic regimes used two strategies to
disconnect us from our reality: They maintained a low
level of education within their own population and lets us dream for a better
future through internet, internet was the opium for a dormant generation. A
generation willing to immigrate elsewhere looking for a better Eldorado. The result was a paradox to their
expectations. We started to compare our situation and
western youth life’s. We developed a critical thinking and started to learn
more and more about our reality and how to change it
.The global networking and social media opened the door for an unexpected
interaction between two worlds .It was not the clash of civilizations as they
predicted. It was the fusion of civilizations. We also come back to the real
values of our religion and discovered all the lies. Our religion requires a
nation of critical thinkers, Islam tempt to improve the daily life of the group
and above all, Islam is a religion of justice and peace. Social networks did
not cause these movements, but they were a tool that unified a brave youth and
kept us connected. What really caused the revolutions it’s a young aware
generation asking for not only social and economical rights, but also for
freedom, respect and pride. In Egypt 60 % of the population is under the age of
25 and 40 % of them are employed .In Tunisia 30 % of the youth is unemployed
when 20% of the population is leaving with 1.5$ per day.
I
also don’t adhere to the complot theory because everyone knew that the rising
power in the Arab world was the conservative or as the West like to call them
the Islamic movements. The American administration under former president
George Bush Jr had a project called the new Middle East .It had for goal to
create democratic governments in the region. Yet, what happened in Palestine
when the U.N, Europe and USA called for a democratic election in Palestine
and the result was the election of HAMAS
to form a Palestinian government made them slow down the process of a large
democratization of the region.. I don’t think that any diplomat or consultant
will advise the Western countries to take this risk again especially with Egypt
the most influent Arab country in the region. Also, we should not forget that
the spark of revolution started from Tunisia the most secular country in the
Arab world, it started with a 26 year old street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi
setting himself on fire to protest against an injustice. Seriously, no one
could predict or even plan it. However, I do believe that even if the West was
exceeded by the events, they took over by imposing a huge pressure over the
Tunisians and Egyptian army to not intervene or support any side. They kept
these armies in position of “winner-winner “. It was the only way to keep a
control of the West influence over the region.
Finally,
the economic interest of Western countries especially for Libya oil theory
maybe legitimate. The obvious reason is the intervention of NATO in Libya to
protect civilians when the same situation persists in Syria and Yemen and no
one is talking about. The recent events show the veracity of this theory.
According to Cynthia McKinney colonist with the San Francisco Bay View: 12.000
US troops stationed in Malta were deployed the 16, January2012 in Libya. This
information was confirmed by the Libyan authorities. The reason is to protect
oil sites and ensure the transit to Europe.
I
do think that a year is too soon to judge these revolutions; most of the Arab
countries are struggling to form government or did not even start the election
process. The reasons are diverse. Far from the complot theories, I do think
that we have to fight against our own demons. They are the courant of
corruption and darkness. They want to keep a chaotic situation to keep their
influence over the wealth of our countries. They are the real losers if the
situation gets better. They are the one who allowed the exhaustion of our
richness. I do think that this generation defeated the psycho logic factor of
fear and will never come back to the old days.
The fear has been defeated and the pride has been regained.
Sources
Cynthia McKinney,
“12.000 US troops bound
Libya”. www.sfbayview.com. Jan
16, 2012 .The
San
Francisco Bay View.
Kurt Andersen,” The
protester”. Dec 26 ,2011.Time.
Dr.Tarik Ramadan, “
L’islam et le reveil Arabe.”Presses du chatelet.