Islam and the Arab Awakening

The prolific Ramadan, an Oxford University professor, assesses the Arab Spring with a multilayered approach. The iconoclastic scholar, who was refused admission to the United States under the George W. Bush administration, all but credits Bush, citing that president’s focus on the liberation of Iraq, coupled with his administration’s funding of nonviolent, social media training (often in the U.S. through NGOs) of many of the key Arab cyber-dissidents, who also received assistance from corporate giants like Google and Yahoo. As is Ramadan’s wont, he calls on Muslims, particularly those in Arab countries, to move past the repetitive justification of colonialism for their ills (which he argues results in an ill-advised favoring of Islamist parties) and rejection of all things Western. Ramadan further asserts that without robust development of Arab civil societies and unique Muslim cultural identities, and absent the liberation of Palestine and serious Muslim introspection, the Arab Spring will passively yield to essentially dictatorial governments once again. While not a light read, an armchair historian or newshound will enjoy keeping pace with Ramadan’s pinball analysis of the Arab Spring, which dings, beeps, and zings through the historic events of 2011 with fast aplomb. Ramadan’s various op-eds and writings in the Arab Spring period, some previously published only abroad, are all reprinted as appendixes. Agent: Felicity Bryan. (Oct.)