Trailblazers of the Arab Spring: Voices of Democracy in the Middle East
Before September 11, 2001 we Americans did not think much about freedom or democracy in the Middle East. U.S. policy toward the region aimed to assure a reliable flow of oil, to encourage peace between the Arabs and Israel, and above all, during the Cold War, to prevent our rival from gaining any strategic advantage over us. 9/11 impelled us to reconsider.

Now, as we are entangled in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan the Mid-East’s political and social quandaries lie at the very core of our foreign policy objectives. And yet, after years of blood and fortune spent on the democratization of the Middle East, the most identifiable personalities in the region are notorious terrorists, backwards autocrats and fanatical preachers. As Joshua Muravchik demonstrates in Trailblazers of the Arab Spring, there are in fact also heroic democrats and liberals in these lands of anti-democratic fanaticism, and the fight they are fighting is also our fight.

Muravchik brings to light the stories of seven remarkable people, six Arabs and an Iranian. Five are men; two, women. Four are Sunnis, two are Shiites, and the seventh is mixed. All are devoted passionately to a cause, and, while the angles from which they attack it are varied, the larger goal is the same for all seven—to make their countries more open and democratic. Trailblazers of the Arab Spring reminds us that freedom is a prize that must be won through struggle and sacrifice, and it introduces us to our anonymous friends who have consecrated their lives to the birth of free societies in the Middle East.
1114110064
Trailblazers of the Arab Spring: Voices of Democracy in the Middle East
Before September 11, 2001 we Americans did not think much about freedom or democracy in the Middle East. U.S. policy toward the region aimed to assure a reliable flow of oil, to encourage peace between the Arabs and Israel, and above all, during the Cold War, to prevent our rival from gaining any strategic advantage over us. 9/11 impelled us to reconsider.

Now, as we are entangled in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan the Mid-East’s political and social quandaries lie at the very core of our foreign policy objectives. And yet, after years of blood and fortune spent on the democratization of the Middle East, the most identifiable personalities in the region are notorious terrorists, backwards autocrats and fanatical preachers. As Joshua Muravchik demonstrates in Trailblazers of the Arab Spring, there are in fact also heroic democrats and liberals in these lands of anti-democratic fanaticism, and the fight they are fighting is also our fight.

Muravchik brings to light the stories of seven remarkable people, six Arabs and an Iranian. Five are men; two, women. Four are Sunnis, two are Shiites, and the seventh is mixed. All are devoted passionately to a cause, and, while the angles from which they attack it are varied, the larger goal is the same for all seven—to make their countries more open and democratic. Trailblazers of the Arab Spring reminds us that freedom is a prize that must be won through struggle and sacrifice, and it introduces us to our anonymous friends who have consecrated their lives to the birth of free societies in the Middle East.
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Trailblazers of the Arab Spring: Voices of Democracy in the Middle East

Trailblazers of the Arab Spring: Voices of Democracy in the Middle East

by Joshua Muravchik
Trailblazers of the Arab Spring: Voices of Democracy in the Middle East

Trailblazers of the Arab Spring: Voices of Democracy in the Middle East

by Joshua Muravchik

eBook

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Overview

Before September 11, 2001 we Americans did not think much about freedom or democracy in the Middle East. U.S. policy toward the region aimed to assure a reliable flow of oil, to encourage peace between the Arabs and Israel, and above all, during the Cold War, to prevent our rival from gaining any strategic advantage over us. 9/11 impelled us to reconsider.

Now, as we are entangled in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan the Mid-East’s political and social quandaries lie at the very core of our foreign policy objectives. And yet, after years of blood and fortune spent on the democratization of the Middle East, the most identifiable personalities in the region are notorious terrorists, backwards autocrats and fanatical preachers. As Joshua Muravchik demonstrates in Trailblazers of the Arab Spring, there are in fact also heroic democrats and liberals in these lands of anti-democratic fanaticism, and the fight they are fighting is also our fight.

Muravchik brings to light the stories of seven remarkable people, six Arabs and an Iranian. Five are men; two, women. Four are Sunnis, two are Shiites, and the seventh is mixed. All are devoted passionately to a cause, and, while the angles from which they attack it are varied, the larger goal is the same for all seven—to make their countries more open and democratic. Trailblazers of the Arab Spring reminds us that freedom is a prize that must be won through struggle and sacrifice, and it introduces us to our anonymous friends who have consecrated their lives to the birth of free societies in the Middle East.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781594036804
Publisher: Encounter Books
Publication date: 07/23/2013
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 480
File size: 652 KB

About the Author

Joshua Muravchik is a visiting scholar at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University. He has published eight previous books and countless articles in magazines and leading newspapers. He serves as a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Democracy and World Affairs and as an adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a member of the State Department’s Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion. He lives in Maryland with his wife with whom he has three grown children.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Preface xiii

The Protester: Wajeha Al-Huwaider of Saudi Arabia 1

The Politician: Mithal al-Alusi of Iraq 37

The Revolutionist: Mohsen Sazegara of Iran 85

The Publisher: Hisham Kassem of Egypt 143

The Activist: Bassem Eid of Palestine 187

The Feminist: Rola Dashti of Kuwait 233

The Dissident: Ammar Abdulhamid of Syria 269

Epilogue: Revolution and its Fruits 317

Endnotes 389

Index 409

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