Islam And The Arab Awakening Summary

REVIEW

Tariq Ramadan, The Arab Awakening: Islam and the New Middle East (London and New York: Penguin Group, 2012)

WEST AND EAST: NO BINARIES AFTER TODAY

ISAM M SHIHADA

Associate Professor of English Literature and Gender Studies, Department of English, Al Aqsa University, Gaza Strip

MAHMOUD EL HERTHANI

Assistant Professor of Culture and Language, Department of English, Al Aqsa University, Gaza Strip

INTRODUCTION

In “Islam and the Arab awakening" , we find that Tariq Ramdan is interested in the relationship between Islam and the West. Besides to the fact being a graduate of Geneva University of philosophy and French literature and his work as a professor of Islamic Studies at Oxford University, he has various interests. He visited

The mass movements took to the streets without them and without even the approval of their leaderships. The uprisings’ fuel was males and females indignant and very angry at the miserable conditions in their countries. Hence, we find that these uprisings are devoid of any religious or anti West slogans. Ramadan thinks that the Arab uprisings have created new image of Arab people in the Western consciousness. Put differently, Arab people were viewed by the West as an example of the Muslim who does not learn but they have proved that they are similar to the Western people, believe in values of freedom, equality and justice and long to live as human beings with dignity. One may argue that this is the first time the West doesn’t view the Arab world as the “Other” and the Muslim who rejects to be developed. But the question persists how will the West deal with the Islamists who are replacing the dictators in the Arab world? For Ramadan, the West has no slight problem in dealing with the “political Islam” on one condition as long as its economic and political interests are protected by the new Islamic regimes. The Western alliance with the Saudi regime and even Taliban regime is a testimony on

Secularism is no longer a favorable in the Arab countries since the secularists’ focus on the concept of separating religion from the state as a priority for progress is not all what Arab countries need now. It is noteworthy that many secularists have adopted the Western life style and ignored the cultural sensitivity of Arab people though there are many great Arab secularists like Edward Said who criticized the West as a colonizer but they fell miserably short in understanding their history and culture in a way that made their view towards the nation partial, reductive and sometimes