Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

tabatha

(18,795 posts)
4. That is a slap in the face to the people who have been rising up and being butchered.
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 04:00 PM
Feb 2012

Factless and groundless, and implying that the Arabs cannot do anything on their own.

Please read Martin Basheer's book - Invisible Arab.

"The Invisible Arab is a brilliant essay from Marwan Bishara, one of the Arab world's leading public intellectuals, on how the Arabs broke their own psychological barrier of fear to kindle the greatest revolutionary transformation in recent memory. It explains why the West was completely surprised by this and will continue to be surprised by the Arabs as long as the West is captive to the age-old stereotypes about the region and its people.

In much of the world's media, the narrative of the Arab revolutions went like this: an oppressed people who have suffered passively suddenly decided that enough was enough and, thanks to Western technology and inspiration, spontaneously rose to reclaim their freedom, inspiring the Arab Spring. But like most revolutions, this one was a long time coming.

The historic takeover of Tunis's November 7 Square, Cairo's Tahrir Square, and Manama's Pearl Square, among others, were the culmination of a long social and political struggle - countless sit-ins, strikes, pickets, and demonstrations by people who risked and suffered intimidation, torture and imprisonment. It was aided by the dramatic rise of satellite networks like Al Jazeera, which, Bishara argues, are as important to the present Arab revolution as Nasser was to the rise of pan-Arabism in the 1950s and 1960s.

In fact, Bishara argues, for decades these Arab citizens and their social and political movements and their new media have been unfairly demonised or rendered invisible in the West who saw the region through the prisms of Israel, oil, terrorism, or radical Islamism. Arab underdevelopment was blamed on cultural backwardness and dreamy pan-Arabism or insolent Islam. The events of September 11, 2001, compounded this.

But, as Bishara shows, today's Arab's are presenting a stark contrast to the distortion, disinformation and outright humiliation heaped upon them. Long characterised as unreceptive to democracy and freedom, they are now giving the world a lesson in both."

http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Arab-Promise-Peril-Revolutions/dp/1568587082

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Russia U.N. Veto On Syria...»Reply #4