Unlike Egypt and Tunisia, Saudi Arabia has no civil society of any significance. As a result, online calls to protest—beloved of so many “cyber-utopians”—had no place to take root.
Boston Review - Madawi Al-Rasheed: No Saudi Spring - 0 views
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The protests reflected a growing sense of disappointment with King Abdullah, who has failed to implement a single political demand from previous petitions. However, in spite of their disappointment, reformers from a wide range of political ideologies—Islamists, nationalists, leftists, and liberals—are being cautious because the future could be worse. Many intellectuals and professionals are haunted by the prospect of losing their positions when Crown Prince Nayif becomes king. Abdullah has developed a quasi-liberal constituency and cultivated its interest in the state, business, and media. Reformers nonetheless loyal to Abdullah fear that Nayif’s iron fist will come down on them: functionaries of the ancien régime to be replaced.
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Another group, the National Coalition and Free Youth Movement, formed on Facebook and Twitter in spite of having no offline organizational presence. Their Web pages would disappear amid government censorship only to reappear at different addresses. Many pages gathered thousands of supporters, but it is difficult to claim that all were authentic. Cyber-warfare pitted activists and non-ideological young men and women against regime security, complicating the headcount.
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Rachid Ghannouchi: I Have No Wish of Running for President of Ennahda Again : Tunisia Live - 0 views
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I have no wish to stand for President of Ennahda in the next congress of the party, but the next Congress will have the final word on who will be the leader of Ennahda
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Ghannouchi also told Shems FM that he would welcome Abdelfattah Mourou, a previous leader of Ennahda back into the fold of the party
L'équation salafi - Tariq Ramadan - 0 views
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Les organisations salafi saoudiennes et qataries sont très actives sur le plan national et international
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Les Etats-Unis ainsi que les pays européens n’ont aucun problème à négocier avec la sorte d’islamisme promue par les salafi littéralistes que l’on trouve dans de nombreuses pétromonarchies : ces régimes peuvent bien s’opposer à la démocratie ainsi qu’au pluralisme, ils n’entravent néanmoins d’aucune manière les intérêts économiques et géostratégiques occidentaux dans la région, ou au niveau international. Ils comptent même sur le soutien de l’Occident pour survivre : cette dépendance utile est suffisante à l’Occident pour justifier une alliance objective - avec ou sans démocratie.
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Pourquoi, se demande-t-on, les pays occidentaux apportent-ils un soutien direct et indirect aux idéologies islamistes qui sont de toute évidence en désaccord avec les leurs ? Après près d’un siècle de présence active au Moyen Orient, et en particulier après la Première Guerre Mondiale, des administrations américaines successives, ainsi que leurs homologues européens, ont mieux compris comment elles peuvent gérer et tirer profit de la relation qu’elles entretiennent à la fois avec les pétromonarchies et avec l’idéologie salafi que ces dernières produisent et propagent
Authorities Struggle to Take Control in Tunisia - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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The security forces at first allowed the demonstrations to build for a few hours. Then military forces fired shots into the air, followed by occasional blasts from a water cannon to disperse the crowd. After the former government’s swift and ruthless attacks on any unauthorized public gathering, however, the crowd seemed to revel in the relatively gentle response. “A shower,” shrugged one man, in French, his suit and overcoat soaking wet. A man in red shoes danced in the puddles in front of the chanting crowd.
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The outlawed Communist and Islamist parties were excluded from the talks.
Après la Tunisie, quel pays arabe pourrait tomber ? - De Bagdad à Jérusalem :... - 0 views
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C’est en Egypte que l’épouvantail islamiste agité par le régime pour survivre peut encore le mieux fonctionner auprès des pays Occidentaux
Women keep wary eye on Tunisian revolt - 0 views
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It's a fear backed by little substance so far -- except for some talk on chat shows and warnings on Tunisian Facebook pages
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The worry is mainly over any changes to the Personal Status Code -- a law first approved after independence from France in 1956 which bans polygamy and gives equal rights to husbands and wives in a family. It also says divorced women and their children should receive alimony. Women's rights groups are unconvinced by the assurances of the new government, notably with some commentators in recent days using the new freedom of expression on Tunisian television to advocate conservative values.
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An incident in the streets of Tunis illustrated such concerns this weekend when a group of youths shouted crude insults at a female AFP reporter, jeering and mocking her. "Women's rights are over after the revolution!" one shouted
L'Occident et l'excuse islamiste - LeMonde.fr - 0 views
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Bientôt ils oseront l‘accusation et il sera communément admis que : « Oui, l’Occident était complice de ces dictatures
How Revolution Turned Sour in the Birthplace of the Arab Spring | Common Dreams - 1 views
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a Western instinct to personalize and, in the process, trivialize the Tunisian revolution – only to ignore it as the focus moved on to later rebellions in countries deemed more important
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"Now they are offering all kinds of help to Libya, which is already a rich country. Here, we get nothing. The economic situation just gets worse, and we wonder why we risked so much in rising up against Ben Ali and his gangsters."
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They are angry because things are not improving fast
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Youth, Waithood, and Protest Movements in Africa - By Alcinda Honwana - African Arguments - 0 views
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young Africans struggling with unemployment, the difficulty of finding sustainable livelihoods, and the absence of civil liberties
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Political instability, bad governance, and failed neo-liberal social and economic policies have exacerbated longstanding societal problems and diminished young people’s ability to support themselves and their families
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Many are unable to attain the prerequisites of full adulthood and take their place as fully-fledged members of society. The recent wave of youth protests can best be understood in the context of this generation’s struggles for economic, social, and political emancipation
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