The Arab Spring Muslim Movement: Authoritarian Regimes

Name Instructor Course Date The Arab Spring The Arab Spring is a Muslim Movement, it involves the democratic uprisings which spread across the Arab world in 2011. This movement begun in Tunisia and involved other Muslim countries which included Libya, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, and Yemen. The Arab spring involved the pro-democracy uprisings and protests which happened in 2010 to 2011 in the north and Middle East of Africa (Kaucsh 773). The aim of these protest was t entrench the authoritarian regimes. The demonstrators were expressing their economic and political griverncies. The movement started with the death of Mohamed Bouazzi. The Arab spring in all the country had the main goal of changing their ruling government. The aim of this discussion is to discuss the role of Islamist in Tunisia and Egypt during and after the Arab Spring. In Tunisia the Arab spring happened on December 2010. This happened when a vendor known as Bouazizi Mohammand came up with an act of self-immolation when a Tunisian police officer took his fruits and restricted him from selling at his location. Following this action by the vendor and death, many citizens went to the street and protested against the government led by Ben Ali. Bouazizi’s act is seen as the spark of revolution. There was frustration in Tunisia society which had existed for many years before this event took place. In the terms of religious role in the initial protest in Tunisia, many of the protest and organized rallies were being carried out by secular organizations. The major Islamist political organization that existed in Tunisia was Ennahda (Lesch 11). During this period this organization was limited in carrying out its activities. Due to the absence of the strong Islamist presence there was an aggressive attempt by the Tunisian regimes to have the Islamists eliminated from the public life. Ben Ali took an action where in the 1990s he kept hundreds of the member of the main Islamist Movement in Tunisia on trial accusing them of many allegations of torture and some of the party leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment. The Tunisia Islamist groups faced a lot of restrictions based on their political activities. During the rule of Bourguiba many leaders of the Islamist party went to jail or were forced to leave Tunisia. This happened when the Islamist Tendency Movement voiced the criticisms which they had against Bourguiba and his party. After this action many of the Islamist party members were arrested for what referred to as defaming the president. The arrest of the Islamist leaders led to minimized role of Islamists in the Tunisian politics thus reducing the presence of the Islamist. In 1984 the government went after MTI again since they felt that the organization could be behind the antigovernment protest which were happening in the country at that time. The government also refused MTI to form as a political party. Despite these actions by the government, MTI still continued to raise their voices against the government particularly against the economic policies mainly which seemed to be affecting the low class. Again, Bourguiba arrested other MTI prominent figures and charged them with having plotted to overthrow his government and thus they wanted to create an Islamic State (Kaucsh 773). Ghounnochi who was one of the core founders of the Islamist party thus ended up staying in Britain up to when Ben Ali failed and that is the time when he returned to Tunisia. When Ben was in power he distanced himself from various authoritarian policies of the previous regime. He attempted to reverse the negative policies towards the Islamist. Ben Ali also abolished the Security Courts which were applied by Bourguiba in trying the Islamist and the other forces that opposed his government. Many prisoners were also realized which included around 500MTI members and also he pardoned the prominent leader Rachid and allowed the secretary general of the group Mourou to get back home from exile. Also other symbolic measures were instituted such as launching of Islamic ethics campaign that increased the surveillance of the malls and public places so as to prevent those people who were practicing unislamic behaviors. At this point, island was given a more visible presence by broadcasting the call to prayer and the religious programs and also there was an increase in the use of Islamic references. There were also symbolic changes of the Qur; anic Presidential prize and also Ben publicized pilgrimage to Mecca since his trip as a president was part of the drive for the re-islamisition of the Tunisia community. Despite this changes, again Ben Ali also led to increased authoritarianism with the attempts of reducing the role of the Islam when he saw the increased effect of such [parties. This was during the 1989 elections whereby Ennahda got the most votes of the nongovernmental parties. Due to this Ben Ali banned religious organizations and also went after the members of the Islamist who were seen as a threat by the government.an antiterrorism law was also passed in Tunisia whereby the government was to...