Authors:Eva Bellin First page: 1 Abstract: Source: Volume 5, Issue 1, pp 1 - 16There is no doubt that the Middle East has never been a contention-free zone; this is a region where people have suffered enormous economic, political, and social grievances often imposed upon them by the state. And yet, for years effective and credible opposition parties were rarely organized (save for Islamist ones) and protest movements remained flaccid. This failure to mobilize effective, regime-changing parties and protest movements has constituted an important puzzle for analysts. Here we will consider only one cluster of books—those that address the incidence of massive popular mobilization observed in the Arab world during 2011–2012. These books aim to achieve one of three objectives: description, explanation, and theorization—the first two largely retrospective in intent, the latter straining to distill generalizable lessons that might deliver analytic leverage on when and how mobilization might occur. PubDate: 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z
Authors:Scott Lucas; Joanna Paraszczuk First page: 17 Abstract: Source: Volume 5, Issue 1, pp 17 - 23Can the idea of space, mythologized and then re-configured on a far wider basis, be the foundation of today’s “Middle East”' Surely it is the “local,” in its complexity and variety, that deserves attention as more than a subject on which to hang a “Middle East.” Recognizing that external powers and actors have tried to create a region in their service does not preclude recognition of the peoples, communities, and institutitions within the region that have tried to create their own identities, promote their own aspirations, and establish their own ideologies. PubDate: 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z
Authors:Eyal Zisser First page: 24 Abstract: Source: Volume 5, Issue 1, pp 24 - 35The two books under review focus on Islam and state in Syria. When the revolution broke out in Syria in March 2011, the Muslim Brothers were absent from the demonstrations in town and village squares. Yet the uprising very quickly assumed an Islamist dimension. What’s more, Syria began to sink into a jihadist war in which volunteers from all over the Arab and Muslim world streamed into the country in order to take part in the holy war against what they considered to be the heretical ʿAlawi regime, and its allies, Shiʿi Iran and Hizballah. These books shed light on the story of the Muslim Brothers in Syria, its failures and missed opportunities. For indeed the movement failed in its efforts to become a leading force in Syrian society, and consequently in its efforts to make Islam a leading force in the state and society. It seems that ultimately it even failed to become a leading factor within Islamic circles in Syria. PubDate: 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z
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