Understanding Islam and The New Middle East

Tariq Ramadan is one of the most brilliant and eloquent Muslim thinkers today. He has been named one of Time’s Most Important Innovators for the 21st century. He has written more than 20 books including “Western Muslims and The Future of Islam” (2005) which attracted worldwide attention. Currently Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at the Faculty of Oriental Studies and St. Antony’s College (University of Oxford) and Director of the Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics (Doha), Tariq Ramadan takes a close look on the changes unfolding in the Middle East and North Africa in his latest book, “The Arab Awakening Islam and the New Middle East.”
The author raises many questions but makes no claim to predict the future of a region where history is still very much in the making. Looking back on the events, Tariq Ramadan analyzes the reasons behind the upheavals and wonders whether Muslim countries are ready to offer successful educational programs, implement social justice, create economic growth and eradicate corruption without betraying their Islamic nature.
Although no one could have foreseen that Mohamed Bouazizi’s suicide would trigger a chain of events, the economy had been for a number of years at the heart of the discontent raging in both Tunisia and Egypt and the elements for a social revolution were ready for use.
Interestingly enough, the Arab awakening, which took place in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Syria was not initiated by Islamist movements. Both, the Ennahda in Tunisia and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt joined the demonstrations several weeks after they had started.
In Cairo, young activists, like Asmaa Mahfouz, were spearheading the movement. On Jan. 18, 2011, she posted a YouTube video in which she blamed the passivity of the Egyptian people who did not have the will to speak out and to demonstrate. Quoting the Qur’an: “God does not change society’s conditions until they change that which is in themselves”, she urged anyone with honor, dignity and courage to join her in Tahrir Square (Liberation Square). This video had a wondrous impact and as a result, thousands of citizens heeded her advice.
However, it is the all-news channel Al-Jazeera which truly galvanized the masses. The Guardian, a British newspaper, believes that the Arab uprisings were to Al-Jazeera English what the first Gulf War in the early 1990s was to CNN. The article also reveals that President Barack Obama and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton watched Al-Jazeera regularly as a source of information.
Ramadan rightly observes that “what the right- and left-wing opposition parties and the Islamists had, for a half-century, been unable to achieve, youthful bloggers, cyber-dissidents, and ordinary women and men from all walks of life had been able to accomplish peacefully and with lightening rapidity. The strength of the mass movements, particularly in Tunisia and Egypt, lay in their capacity to unite people beyond political divisions”.
However, this unity was short-lived. When time came for concrete proposals, the consensus gave way to disagreements and divisions instead of a vision and a project. The author is particularly preoccupied with the role Islam can play in the future of the Arab world. The Arab awakening has created a momentum, a need to define a list of ethical, political and economic priorities for the future. Islam can demonstrate its universality in these challenging times.
For some years now, an increasing number of Muslim Scholars and intellectuals has been studying the legal fundamentals (Usul Al-Fiqh) of higher principles (Maqasid Ash-Shari’a), thus triggering a renewal of thought on the subject of democracy and the nature of the state. The Shariah must not be seen as merely a means to enforce prohibitive rules and sanctions. The Shari’ah calls for social justice, for the rights of children, women and men to education, for housing and employment as well as personal fulfillment and wellbeing.
Ramadan believes that democracy consists of 5 principles that are not only not in contradiction with Islam, but also in fundamental conformity with it: The rule of law, equality for all citizens, universal suffrage, accountability and the separation of powers (executive, legislative and judiciary).
Behind the celebration of the ‘Arab Spring’, the author reminds us that the West was never really concerned with the democratization of the Arab world but with economic interests which include vast oil reserves in Iraq, Libya, Algeria and the Arabian Peninsula, natural gas in Qatar, Iran and Algeria, iron and lithium in Afghanistan.
Unlike their Western counterparts, China has implemented a strikingly successful economic strategy in the region “with no ‘human rights rhetoric’ masquerading as a conscience”.
China is also seen as more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israeli and it is telling that the newly elected Egyptian president, Muhammad Morsy has chosen to visit China for his first official visit abroad.
“The facts are there for all to see: No longer is the American-European prism the only valid one. Intellectuals and the media in China, India, Russia, and Japan (and, in the Western hemisphere, Latin America) understand the Middle East, its sense of itself and its aspirations quite differently from the West” writes Tariq Ramadan who also announces that “the West versus Islam dichotomy, with all its constructs, representations and oppositions, is fading away before our eyes. In only a few decades or generations-two or three at most-it will have lost its meaning”.
The Arab world has an opportunity to build a better and more prosperous future, and create a new dynamic with Islam but will the Arab and Muslim-majority societies be equal to the task?

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