The failure of #Muslimrage. Last week's wave of protests and attacks on U.S. embassies launched a million op-eds (along with an instantly notorious Newsweek cover) about the return of "Muslim rage," the failure of the Arab uprisings, the collapse of Obama's foreign policy, and the inevitability of the clash of civilizations. When a satirical French newspaper leaped forward to run some more hopefully offensive cartoons, everyone braced for another round of violent protests across the region. But a funny thing happened on the way to the apocalypose: almost nothing. There were a few tiny demonstrations, but most Arab countries (in contrast to Pakistan and Lebanon) saw no mass rallies, no burning embassies, no screaming for the television cameras. The fizzling of the protests against that awful YouTube film was obvious before today, of course. First, the interests of key Islamist actors at this time pushed them toward restraint rather than escalation.
Benghazi photo found on Flickr. La révolutionnite aiguë et les hommes malades du Moyen Orient. Cette drôle de maladie, pour laquelle s’énamourent les Français et de nombreux observateurs étrangers, cette drôle de maladie disais-je a sévi en Tunisie et plus récemment en Égypte où l’on estime que les effets ont été plus modérés. Honni, Moubarak, a tiré sa révérence alors qu’il avait cru pouvoir tenir bon. Cette allergie aux autocrates qui se sont élevés en gravissant les échelons de l’armée s’est (« enfin ! » s’écrieront les plus malades) manifestée au début de l’année 2011. On remarquera une certaine inflammation pour ne pas parler d’immolation, bien que ce soit le terme correct décrivant certains individus désespérés, en guise de symptôme avant coureur de la ravageuse maladie. La pilule ne passait donc plus ; ce petit comprimé sécuritaire ne savait plus contenir cette envie irrépressible de se passer du très peu poilant État où tout a l’air d’avoir la peau lissée.
The Arab spring and the logic of force. What lessons you draw from the political unrest we are observing in the Arab world depends to a large degree on where you stand. In the West, the focus has been on the dissatisfaction of the Arab youth bulge, the power of social media to rally activists, the demands for personal and political freedom and the attraction of democratic choice. In essence, the events have strengthened the West's belief that individual political and social freedom and the free market have universal application. Among the region's rulers however, different lessons are being taken away from these events. The first is that economic dissatisfaction has played a part in at least some of the protests, so dissent can be headed off by the age-old tradition of buying off the population in return for political quiescence.
Saudi Arabia did this by allocating $35 billion to the unemployed and first home buyers in February, and another $96 billion in March. Photo by Flickr user darkroom productions. Electing Islam.