Robyn Wright has been considered by some as one of the best journalists covering the Arab world; the opinion is based on her several decades of writing about the region. Kakutani (2011) claims Wright has an intimate knowledge of the region and has the experience to write knowledgably on the subject (para. 5). Wright has traveled throughout the regions of the world where the Islam religion is the most popularly worshipped religion. From 1973 until now she has traveled to most of the fifty seven nations to report on explosive events which she describes as “wars, military coups, revolutions, and terrorism spectaculars” (1).
In the spring of 2011 events started taking place in the Middle East and Northern Africa that surprised many people. The label ‘Arab Spring’ was given to the events although many of the people involved spoke of the careful planning that has been going on in meetings and discussions through the recent years. After all, the problems pointed out by the protests are not new. The problems have gotten to the point where people were having difficulty feeding their families and finding jobs. For example, Egypt is one of the United States’ top three countries in terms of receiving aid. Unfortunately Mubarak kept the money and the people were getting poorer and poorer.
Unfortunately guns have become part of the problems in Yemen, Tunisia and other countries. Instead of a future of jobs, security and equality the countries have become more dangerous for the citizens.
Robyn Wright’s book Rock the Casbah addresses the motive for the protests in terms of jihad, counter-jihad and the Islam religion. Wright may have an understanding about how a certain segment of the population in primarily Islamic countries think, but her historical and cultural understandings are weak and therefore her conclusions are weak.
Arab Spring in Tunisia and Onward
The tone of Wright’s book is quite breathless as she breezes through the assumptions her book is based upon in the Prologue. Her basic assumptions are that Osama bin Laden had a great influence on the whole region but she gives no examples of his impact as a terrorist leader over such a huge area of land. She says, “Muslim societies are now moving beyond jihadism” without seeming to realize that each Muslim society in the region she is discussing is unique and filled with men, women, and children with various ideas about their personal spirituality (1). To convince us of her credentials she states that “I’ve interviewed many militant ideologues, from Hamas leaders in Syria and Gaza to the Hezbollah chief in Lebanon and Saudi fighters who fought with bin Laden at Tora Bora” (1). Unfortunately, she doesn’t give years or names so the reader has an understanding of which ideologues who oppose the occupation of Palestine by Israel are so much like the Saudi originating religious extremists who were with bin Laden in Afghanistan. In other words, she has not included information that shows she has an understanding of the historical basis for the protests across going on in many Arabian countries. Her historical explanations do not improve further along in the book. She makes many general, sweeping statements.
Marwan Bishara is the senior political analyst for Aljazeera English, formerly a professor of International Relations at the American University of Paris; and highly regarded as an expert on the region by the West. As Bishara points out in his recently published book, The Invisible Arab: The promise and peril of the Arab revolution.
Contrary to the monolithic version of political Islam presented by Western media, the Islamic world and its Islamist movements have gone through a long and deep transformation over the last several decades that has involved sharp theological and political disagreements as well as friction among its various components along sectarian and generational lines (204).
What Bishara is doing is pointing out that the world of Arabs is a world of distinct individuals each with their own spiritual beliefs and their own goals for life. The idea of a stereotypical Arab steeped in conservative Islam in order to know what to do each day is a myth. To suggest that the Arab Spring was motivated by something about Islam is inaccurate.
Wright writes with excitement about the use of social media in communicating information and helping people organize. Both Twitter and Facebook were important to the beginnings, for example, of the Egyptian protests on Tahrir Square. The use of the Internet and social media were concrete examples of the youth movement. Wright (2011) explains that “Mubarak’s crackdown (Day 10, Liberation Square) actually accelerated the tectonic shift in power from elites to the streets, from the old guard to a younger generation” (34).
The use of social media was a good example of the generational divide. Bishara (2012) points out that “The information revolution and the popularization of technology have helped level the battlefield between dissidents and dictators while opening it up the rest of the world to the disadvantage of rulers that obsess about national boundaries and sovereignty” (91-92).
Wright (2012) describes the “thirty year old computer nerd who most symbolized the generational shift” Wael Ghonim. A Google executive living in Dubai, Ghonim started a Facebook page and organized a revolution. He was kidnapped by Egyptian secret police when his identity was found out. When he was released he did and interview; where he found out about the violence. He started crying and could not carry on the interview. Wright explains that after they saw the interview the older generation became motivated and involved in the Egyptian revolution. (Wright, 2011, 34-36)
Wright has interviewed hip hop artists and comediennes famous in northern Africa and the Middle East but unknown in other parts of the world. She learned that artists in the Arabic world are using their creative energies to draw, make cartoons, write music, choreograph dances and write comedy. Each of these activities allows them to release anger and rage in their creative work. Some have become famous for their efforts and are able to make money through entertaining. A movie has been made Hip Hop in Morocco. The movie illustrates the way that hip hop is used to start a conversation about politics.
Wright discusses the three main categories of ‘uprisings’ of the Arab Spring. (a) Arab revolt as an answer to the political challenges facing twenty-two Arab countries in the region. (b).The rejection of jihadism which she terms ‘counter-jihadism.’ (c) A rebellion against Islamic ideology. (Wright, 2011, 4) Counter-jihadism seems to incorporate the political challenges and the stance against Islamic ideology according to Wright because she states that they want to be part of globalization and social justice. But they do not want to become secular and westernized. (Wright, 2011, 46-48) Bazzi (2011), also on the staff of the New York Times, explains that Wright’s claim that “To a growing number of Muslims . . .Islam is no longer about creating an ideal Islamic state or even voting for Islamic parties” (47) and many of her comments do not mirror reality. He comments that her descriptions of counter-jihadists make for a “radical claim, but it’s largely unsubstantiated. In the past given free electoral choices, Arabs have voted in large numbers – and they have voted for Islamists parties” (para. 5). Other reviewers have pointed to the same discrepancy in her logic
Wright suggests that culturally counter-jihadists are very religious, conservative and following the teachings of the Koran are very important to them (46). Their goal is to gain entrance into the modern globalization trend without losing any of their cultural values. But she also explains that there are other committed revolutionaries and these are the young people who have been the first participants in the Arab Spring. These are young educated people with no positive future before them. They live in countries with leaders who are living richly and lavishly while the situation of the population becomes more distressed.
As an example of a leader who has lost touch with the people Wright (2011) describes the excesses of the ruling Ben Ali family in Tunisia which were out-of-control, for instance a tiger for a pet, huge estates, and inappropriate ownership of banks and companies (18). Bishara (2012) also mentions the excesses and corruption of the Ben Ali regime as being too much for the Tunisian people to take anymore (14-15). The leader was totally out of touch with the people.
On December 28, 2011 Muhammad Al Bouazzi, working as a street fruit seller, started himself on fire in front of a government office. Bouazzi was a college graduate who could not find work even with his degree. In Tunisia the young graduates who can’t find work are called the “army of unemployed youth” (CNN, 2011, para. 3). CNN quoted a worker for the Paris Federation of Human Rights Leagues as explaining that Bouazizi “was a sort of catalyst for the violent demonstrations which followed” (para. 8). Bouazizi did not survive his burns and died January 4, 2011. CNN goes on to report that a little over a week later the Ben Ali family left Tunisia, fleeing to Saudi Arabia. (CNN, 2011, para. 5-9)
The people of Egypt had a similar problem, as they became poorer, Mubarak and his family became richer.
Wright does something very interesting in her book which is to interview young people involved in the revolution; some who are well known and some who had never been interviewed before. Discussions about and interviews with feminist Muslim activists are an important part of the book. Their successes are impressive in that the successes are widespread even though the successes may be smaller in some places then others, women who are tired of being “sequestered” as Wright puts it, are causing positive change (Wright, 2011, 156). Examples of the consequences of the feminine revolt are varied. Turkey was one of the first to accept women as preachers and in seminaries. The Al Azhar University in Egypt (a school of Islamic learning) granted a female authored interpretation of the Koran to be published. Wright was told that Islam accepts the equality of men and women (Wright, 2011, 1560157). Many different countries have the same positive stories about women and Islam.
Wright’s interviews are the best part of the book when the voices of the people who are actively protesting and experiencing the process. Their hopes and dreams don’t seem outrageous at all. They are young people who want decent jobs matching their talents and education. They want to have enough money in order to marry and raise children. They want to bring up their children in a safe, nice home without having to worry about their children having to go to bed hungry. The goals are very practical and reasonable. The people Wright interviewed do not want to have their bodies mutilated or tortured. They want to be treated with respect. Wright interviewed comediennes who are part of the ‘Axis of Evil’ comedy troop. They actively use humor to make the point that they are not evil; that the description is an incorrect exaggeration. They also want to be treated with respect. They want to live in a country which honors equality and justice. They take it as their civil responsibility to vote in elections and become involved in their communities and organizations of the society.
Although Wright argues throughout the book that populations in Arabic countries with mostly Islamic populations are moving away from extreme conservative religious beliefs she does not make a good case for that scenario. The people she interviewed don’t seem to have started out as extremely religious or conservative. They are people who want the same things Americans and Canadians want: a good education, a good job and a way to raise a happy, healthy family.
The consequences of the Arab Spring have not all been positive. Many people have died and many more will die. Governments have yet to commit themselves to their responsibility to make sure that there are jobs available for their young, educated population and others who are in need of good, decent jobs. Food prices are high. In some places weapons are flowing into countries which are turning the Arab Spring into an Arab nightmare of civil wars (Nikolaidis, 2012, para. 3). The people of Bahrain, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya and other areas have suffered great losses due to the violent reprisals of their governments. Activists have learned that street protests are only a small step to a just society. Wright (2012) has a very optimistic view of the future consequences of the revolutions’ “swift and tangible steps to a real political reform process” have been accomplished in her view (37).
Conclusion
The author Robyn Wright has written an exciting and positive book about Arab Spring. Unfortunately she has not been careful to review her history before she started writing her breathless account. She does not take into account that the United States has been highly involved in promoting and supporting the dictators that the young people and others are trying to depose. Without taking into account all the players and the impacts of their money and influence it is impossible to really understand the difficulties of the people.
But she wasn’t aware that there would be a war against Libya or that the leaders would be entrenched in their positions. So as that part of the world fills up with guns and young men to do the success of the revolution seems to be for the gun makers around the world and for arms trafficking. The military is in charge in Egypt. The Syrian army is at war with Syrian rebels. In Bahrain the protestors are being killed and tortured. Since this is all Arabs know this trend will no doubt continue for many years to come.
References
Bazzi, Mohammad. (2011). Arab Springs. Welcome to the Counter-Jihad. Sunday Book Review. New York Times. 9 September. Web. Accessed 6 April 2012 from www.nytimes.com.
Bishara, Marwan. (2012). The Invisible Arab: The Promise and Peril of the Arab Revolutions. New York, NY: Nation Books. Print.
CNN Arabic Staff. (2011). How a fruit seller caused revolution in Tunisia. CNN Online. 16 January. Web. Accessed 6 April from http://articles.cnn.com/
Kakutani, Michiko. (2011). Upheaval and Hope in a Land of Turmoil. Book Review. New York Times. 1 August. Web. Accessed 6 April 2012 from www.nytimes.com.
Nikolaidis, Vicki. (2012). Leaky Libya border and gun running in Tunisia. Yahoo.news. 8 March. Web. Accessed 6 April 2012 from http://news.yahoo.com/leaky-libya-border-gun-running-tunisia-184100982.html
Wright, Robin. (2011). Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion across the Islamic world. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Print.
