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| Islam and the Arab Awakening
ISBN: 9780199976928
Platform/Publisher: Ebook Central / Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Limited; Download: 7 Days at a Time
Subjects: Geography/ Travel; History;
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.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Tariq Ramadan is Professor of Islamic Studies at Oxford University, and is President of the European Muslim Network in Brussels. His books include What I Believe, Radical Reform: Islamic Ethics and Liberation, In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad, Western Muslims and the Future of Islam, and Islam, the West, and the Challenges of Modernity. |
