Final Reflection

 As the semester is coming to a close, it’s strange to think that I’m going to come back from winter break with a social movement filled Thursday. I have really enjoyed the class and I think it has certainly deepened my knowledge about the Middle East and social movements in general. The course has helped to solidify my passion for studying the Middle East further and eventually getting a job related to politics in the region. I’m really glad I chose to take the course my first semester because it was more specialized and a nice break from more general classes like World Politics and College Writing. I probably won’t miss the sometimes never-ending readings, but at the same time, I’m glad I was able to get through them and take bits and pieces out to further my understanding of civil society and the Middle East. Of everything I got out of the course, I think the most important is my understanding of orientalism. Now that I better understand the region, I can try to stop myself using an orientalist mindset when it comes to the region. When I first started in the class, I didn’t realize how much orientalism is in the back of my mind and how I accidentally use it when thinking about the Middle East. I know I’m still not perfect and orientalism creeps into my subconscious thoughts, but hopefully the knowledge I learned this semester will make me even more open-minded than when I started. 

Final Reflection

This class has really opened my mind to a lot of different things. One: I hate block classes. But in all honesty, I do feel like I learned a lot from the course. The idea of Orientalism is something I would love to study further at AU as well as the process of developing successful civil society and its effects on revolutions and mobilization. I definitely want to continue in the area of study for my major and this class really help give me a sense of where I'd like to see my career go. I think with a little organization, this class will be even more successful for the students who take it next semester. But as it stands, I did enjoy the class and felt like I learned a lot.

Final Structured Response

Throughout this class, I have learned that a social movement of this scale will not be completed in months or even years. It will take time for the Egyptian government to settle and achieve a state of peace and prosperity. Currently, the country is undergoing drastic political changes. As it does so, not all issues can be address and those that are overlooked can spark fractional protest. As Mursi increases his power and influence over the Egyptian courts, the people and even members of his government are beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable with his policies. The written-in constitution has been voted out multiple times and there is a strong sense of political and social uncertainty. As this happens, the civil society developed during the initial revolt begins to fraction and fall apart.The movement in Egypt is no longer one of unity and non-violence. Protests are no longer organized, and it is becoming difficult to tell the difference between vandalism and activism. When united and organized marches are formed, they are partisan and politically charged and segregated.

The most important factor to consider is the realignment of the existing civil society. With such a strong and high strung movement it is important that protesters assimilate back into government structured society because fraction groups in the aftermaths of revolution can become very dangerous and extremist. For the Egyptian government to find peace and consistency it needs to successfully transition from protest to governance, a task that may take years. There is hope for Egypt, however. As a country that has always possessed a strong reverence for the rule of law and a sense of national unity and pride, there is hope that the revolution was not short lived, and true change will come out of the historic revolts. 

Final Reflection- Hanna

Every day of this class is LONG.

so long.

In the end, I'm glad I took this course and I think it has really opened my eyes to a lot.

My knowledge of the middle east stretches past the headlines. Not by too much, but enough

for this course to have made an impact. The people in the middle east are more like us than not. Something I think I knew, but couldnt help but 'other' them due to the delicate situation and how much easier it is for me to just ignore it.

I didn't come into the course wanting my degree focus to be on the middle east and I am leaving it in the same manner. While I respect the people, it just isn't my passion. I strongly believe that it is important to have a depth of knowledge about all of the areas of the world in order to understand the areas that belong to your heart. 

What I would like to see in the middle east is the development of women's rights and greater education. I would like this to happen without trying to westernize the people are pull them from their culture.

In the coming years, i hope the social movements that arise in these areas are for those causes.

Structured Response- Jared

As you know by now, 'non-violent' struggle is not about sitting around in circles singing Kumbaya. Quite the contrary, it's a highly strategic enterprise that usually entails significant risks to personal safety for those who take part. Zunes gives several examples of non-violent struggle in the MENA region while Dajani discusses the effectiveness of non-violent resistance in the first Palestinian Intifada. As we know twenty-five years later, the Intifada didn't lead to a resolution of the conflict. What did it achieve, if anything? What impact did it have on both the Palestinian and Israeli societies?

The Intifida, which can be perceived as both a non-violent resistance movement and a violent resistance movement, brought both negative and positive consequences. For one, there were deaths of Israeli and Palestinian innocents as violence increased through the movement. Not only were Israelis and Palestinians killing each other, but many Palestinians were slaughtered by other Palestinians because they were thought to be Israeli collaborators (http://www.merip.org/palestine-israel_primer/intifada-87-pal-isr-primer.html). If anything, this only raised suspicious of Palestinians in Israeli society, while at the same time increasing more Liberal peace movements within Israel, against the occupation of Judea/Samaria and Gaza. While the Israeli government did not exactly ease many restrictions on Palestinians, many Israelis began to pay attention to Palestinian struggles. Palestinians, on the other hand, became more resistant to the Israeli government, and increased a sense of Palestinian nationalism.

The status quo of the Israeli occupation was probably realized by Palestinians at this point. In the Intifada, though many were killed, brought together a number of Israelis and Palestinians to attempt to solve the conflict. Even though today this bloody conflict still rages on, the post intifada period brought hope to end the conflict. 

Structured Response- Jared

In your readings for Thursday, you're introduced to the concept of 'civil society' and a case study of Palestinian civil society. What is civil society? What role can it play, if any, in broadening the space for political participation? What does the Palestinian case tell you about the challenges that MENA civil societies face?

"Civil society" is a collection of organizations outside of both government and the private sector, for instance, NGOs, interest groups and INGOs, that form a basis to a functioning society and advocate an array of issues. Civil society, however, influences both the private sector and the government. For instance, an environmental NGO that advocates solar energy may lobby congressmen/women in the U.S., causing the government to enact strict regulations on fossil fuels. This in turn, may economically force the private sector to invest more in solar energy, as it may get too pricey to afford the strictly regulated fossil fuel business. Another role civil society can play deals with revolutions, change of governments, and a change of society. For example, the Arab Spring Revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia succeeded largely because much of civil society cooperated with each other against the despots that ruled their countries. If civil society is divided among issues, a revolution may not succeed and there could indeed be conflict. Also, certain elements within civil society may want to change the mind set of society, whether it be from a traditional religious society to a Secular and/or Liberal society (or vice versa) or changing a society that represses women to one that allows women full rights. The Palestinian cause shows that civil societies within MENA have a tough road ahead of them- the civil society movements that have stayed non-violent have often succeeded. Palestinian civil society seems to have gained much more ground when using nonviolent methods against Israel. Civil societies in MENA will not only need to gain international support, as they did when ousting Mubarak in 2011, but will need to continue to be as organized as possible and make sure not to use violent methods, which will only create an excuse for oppressors to use violence against innocents and will most likely lose their international support.

Structured Response- Jared

As we finish up the semester, Egypt is undergoing serious tensions in the aftermath of last year's revolt. Drawing on what you have learned this semester, how would you explain the current situation? What would need to happen for the opposition to be successful in pushing back on President Mursi's attempts to consolidate power?

Mohamad Morsi has caused quite a stir within Egyptian civil society by- and this may be oversimplifying a bit- attempting to surpass the reach of the Egyptian Judicial branch. This, in essence, would give the Muslim Brotherhood President near absolute power, an event secular and liberal Egyptians see as a repeat of Hosni Mubarak's reign. Thousands of Egyptians have now taken to the streets in protest, and some Egyptians on both the secular/liberal side and the Islamist/Muslim Brotherhood side have been injured/killed. As some of the reports say, some of the protestors have been yelling the same slogans, like “we will not leave, let him leave,” and the “people want to topple the regime.” 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-27/egypt-anti-mursi-protesters-test-president-and-opposition-unity.html

Interestingly, most, if not all of civil society will be unified if the country is run by an autocratic leader who has stayed in power for a long time. This was demonstrated during the Arab Spring when Islamists, the Muslim Brotherhood, Secularists and Liberals were largely protesting together against Hosni Mubarak's government. Mubarak's rule, like most other autocrats in the Middle East, hindered each of these groups by imprisonment, censorship, and more, creating an equal dislike of the Mubarak Regime between the two ideological groups. Unification of much of Egyptian civil society against Mubarak was what drastically and somewhat peacefully changed their government's direction/leaders. 

However, now that Mubarak is gone and that both Conservative Islamists within and outside of the Muslim Brotherhood have gained control of much of the Egyptian government, a lot of the Egyptian civil society (namely the part seeking to add more traditional Islamic values to the country) will not mobilize protests against the government. In fact, they are currently and will continue do the opposite, countering protests by the secular and/or liberal activists. I don't like to be a pessimist, but a possible scenario could be some sort of physical conflict between the groups, one much worse than the clashes between pro-mubarak protesters and the revolutionaries. This could potentially be due to the fact that both sides have been fighting for their ideology for decades, and would most likely not be willing to give up their fight so quickly. Hopefully they can come to a somewhat satisfying compromise, giving Morsi a little more flexibility, but still allowing checks by judicial review and having more liberals/secularists help draft a constitution (many Liberals left the constitutional drafting out of protest against being outnumbered by Islamists in the Constitutional committee). 

In addition, for the Egyptian opposition to push back Morsi's attempts at consolidating more power, the opposition will need, in my opinion, to use more social media and to keep having protests to get more "neutral" Egyptians aware of what is happening. They should try to create a campaign to show Islamists that Morsi's grab for power will not only hurt Liberals, but will indeed hurt them as well- this can be done by comparing Morsi to an equally hated leader, Mubarak. This comparison should be effective knowing that Mubarak equally oppressed both Islamists and Liberals alike. If the Liberals manage to turn even a few of the Islamists against Morsi, this would put immense pressure on Morsi and force him to make a compromise.