How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs

How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs PDF

Author: Elizabeth F. Thompson

Publisher: Grove Press

Published: 2021-04

Total Pages: 496

ISBN-13: 9781611854640

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The story of a pivotal moment in modern world history, when representative democracy became a political option for Arabs - and how the West denied the opportunity.

How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs

How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs PDF

Author: Elizabeth F. Thompson

Publisher: Atlantic Books

Published: 2020-05-07

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 161185900X

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When Europe's Great War engulfed the Ottoman Empire, Arab nationalists rose in revolt against their Turkish rulers and allied with the British on the promise of an independent Arab state. In October 1918, the Arabs' military leader, Prince Faisal, victoriously entered Damascus and proclaimed a constitutional government in an independent Greater Syria. Faisal won American support for self-determination at the Paris Peace Conference, but other Entente powers plotted to protect their colonial interests. Under threat of European occupation, the Syrian-Arab Congress declared independence on March 8, 1920 and crowned Faisal king of a 'civil representative monarchy.' Sheikh Rashid Rida, the most prominent Islamic thinker of the day, became Congress president and supervised the drafting of a constitution that established the world's first Arab democracy and guaranteed equal rights for all citizens, including non-Muslims. But France and Britain refused to recognize the Damascus government and instead imposed a system of mandates on the pretext that Arabs were not yet ready for self-government. In July 1920, the French invaded and crushed the Syrian state. The fragile coalition of secular modernizers and Islamic reformers that had established democracy was destroyed, with profound consequences that reverberate still. Using previously untapped primary sources, including contemporary newspaper accounts, reports of the Syrian-Arab Congress, and letters and diaries from participants, How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs is a groundbreaking account of an extraordinary, brief moment of unity and hope - and of its destruction.

Colonial Citizens

Colonial Citizens PDF

Author: Elizabeth Thompson

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 442

ISBN-13: 9780231106603

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First, a colonial welfare state emerged by World War II that recognized social rights of citizens to health, education, and labor protection.

The Arab Winter

The Arab Winter PDF

Author: Noah Feldman

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-08-03

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0691227934

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The Arab Spring promised to end dictatorship and bring self-government to people across the Middle East. Yet everywhere except Tunisia it led to either renewed dictatorship, civil war, extremist terror, or all three. In The Arab Winter, Noah Feldman argues that the Arab Spring was nevertheless not an unmitigated failure, much less an inevitable one. Rather, it was a noble, tragic series of events in which, for the first time in recent Middle Eastern history, Arabic-speaking peoples took free, collective political action as they sought to achieve self-determination.

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine PDF

Author: Ilan Pappe

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2007-09-01

Total Pages: 471

ISBN-13: 1780740565

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The book that is providing a storm of controversy, from ‘Israel’s bravest historian’ (John Pilger) Renowned Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe's groundbreaking work on the formation of the State of Israel. 'Along with the late Edward Said, Ilan Pappe is the most eloquent writer of Palestinian history.' NEW STATESMAN Between 1947 and 1949, over 400 Palestinian villages were deliberately destroyed, civilians were massacred and around a million men, women, and children were expelled from their homes at gunpoint. Denied for almost six decades, had it happened today it could only have been called 'ethnic cleansing'. Decisively debunking the myth that the Palestinian population left of their own accord in the course of this war, Ilan Pappe offers impressive archival evidence to demonstrate that, from its very inception, a central plank in Israel’s founding ideology was the forcible removal of the indigenous population. Indispensable for anyone interested in the current crisis in the Middle East. *** 'Ilan Pappe is Israel's bravest, most principled, most incisive historian.' JOHN PILGER 'Pappe has opened up an important new line of inquiry into the vast and fateful subject of the Palestinian refugees. His book is rewarding in other ways. It has at times an elegiac, even sentimental, character, recalling the lost, obliterated life of the Palestinian Arabs and imagining or regretting what Pappe believes could have been a better land of Palestine.' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 'A major intervention in an argument that will, and must, continue. There's no hope of lasting Middle East peace while the ghosts of 1948 still walk.' INDEPENDENT

Perceptions of Palestine

Perceptions of Palestine PDF

Author: Kathleen Christison

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 0520217187

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A controversial book arguing that popular perceptions about Israel and the Palestinians--which favor the inherent right of Jews to live in the Holy Land and ignore the Palestinian point of view--have impeded a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment

Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment PDF

Author: Ahmet T. Kuru

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-08

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1108419097

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Analyzes Muslim countries' contemporary problems, particularly violence, authoritarianism, and underdevelopment, comparing their historical levels of development with Western Europe.

Black Wave

Black Wave PDF

Author: Kim Ghattas

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company

Published: 2020-01-28

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 1250131219

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A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 “[A] sweeping and authoritative history" (The New York Times Book Review), Black Wave is an unprecedented and ambitious examination of how the modern Middle East unraveled and why it started with the pivotal year of 1979. Kim Ghattas seamlessly weaves together history, geopolitics, and culture to deliver a gripping read of the largely unexplored story of the rivalry between between Saudi Arabia and Iran, born from the sparks of the 1979 Iranian revolution and fueled by American policy. With vivid story-telling, extensive historical research and on-the-ground reporting, Ghattas dispels accepted truths about a region she calls home. She explores how Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran, once allies and twin pillars of US strategy in the region, became mortal enemies after 1979. She shows how they used and distorted religion in a competition that went well beyond geopolitics. Feeding intolerance, suppressing cultural expression, and encouraging sectarian violence from Egypt to Pakistan, the war for cultural supremacy led to Iran’s fatwa against author Salman Rushdie, the assassination of countless intellectuals, the birth of groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon, the September 11th terrorist attacks, and the rise of ISIS. Ghattas introduces us to a riveting cast of characters whose lives were upended by the geopolitical drama over four decades: from the Pakistani television anchor who defied her country’s dictator, to the Egyptian novelist thrown in jail for indecent writings all the way to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Black Wave is both an intimate and sweeping history of the region and will significantly alter perceptions of the Middle East.

How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs

How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs PDF

Author: Elizabeth F. Thompson

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press

Published: 2020-04-21

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 0802148212

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“This expertly researched account brings to life a meaningful but underexplored chapter in world history.” —Publishers Weekly When Europe’s Great War engulfed the Ottoman Empire, Arab nationalists rose in revolt against the Turks. The British supported the Arabs’ fight for an independent state and sent an intelligence officer, T.E. Lawrence, to join Prince Faisal, leader of the Arab army and a descendant of the Prophet. In October 1918, Faisal, Lawrence, and the Arabs victoriously entered Damascus, where they declared a constitutional government in an independent Greater Syria. At the Paris Peace Conference, Faisal won the support of Woodrow Wilson, who sent an American commission to Syria to survey the political aspirations of its people. However, other Entente leaders at Paris—and later San Remo—schemed against the Arab democracy, which they saw as a threat to their colonial rule. On March 8, 1920, the Syrian-Arab Congress declared independence and crowned Faisal king of a “representative monarchy.” Rashid Rida, a leading Islamic thinker of the day, led the constituent assembly to establish equality for all citizens, including non-Muslims, under a full bill of rights. But France and Britain refused to recognize the Damascus government, instead imposing a system of mandates on the Arab provinces of the defeated Ottoman Empire, on the pretext that Arabs weren’t yet ready for self-government. Under such a mandate, the French invaded Syria in April, crushing the Arab government and sending Faisal and Congress leaders into exile. The fragile coalition of secular modernizers and Islamic reformers that might have established democracy in the Arab world was destroyed, with profound consequences that reverberate still. Using many previously untapped primary sources, including contemporary newspaper accounts and letters, minutes from the Syrian-Arab Congress, and diary and journal entries from participants, How The West Stole Democracy From The Arabs is a groundbreaking account of this extraordinary, brief moment of unity and hope—and of its destruction. “Important and fascinating.” —Amaney A. Jamal, Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Politics, Princeton University

The Universal Enemy

The Universal Enemy PDF

Author: Darryl Li

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2019-12-10

Total Pages: 398

ISBN-13: 1503610888

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Winner of the 2021 William A. Douglass Prize: A new perspective on the concept of international jihad and its connection to the 1990s Balkans crisis. No contemporary figure is more demonized than the Islamist foreign fighter who wages jihad around the world. Spreading violence, disregarding national borders, and rejecting secular norms, so-called jihadists seem opposed to universalism itself. In a radical departure from conventional wisdom on the topic, The Universal Enemy argues that transnational jihadists are engaged in their own form of universalism: These fighters struggle to realize an Islamist vision directed at all of humanity, transcending racial and cultural difference. Anthropologist and attorney Darryl Li reconceptualizes jihad as armed transnational solidarity under conditions of American empire, revisiting a pivotal moment after the Cold War when ethnic cleansing in the Balkans dominated global headlines. Muslim volunteers came from distant lands to fight in Bosnia-Herzegovina alongside their co-religionists, offering themselves as an alternative to the US-led international community. Li highlights the parallels and overlaps between transnational jihads and other universalisms such as the War on Terror, United Nations peacekeeping, and socialist Non-Alignment. Developed from more than a decade of research with former fighters in a half-dozen countries, The Universal Enemy explores the relationship between jihad and American empire to shed critical light on both. “[Li] effectively confronts the demonization of jihadists in the aftermath of 9/11, particularly in the US. . . . The author’s linguistic skills and the depth of the interviews are impressive, and the case selection is intriguing. Recommended.” —Choice “This important book offers many insights for scholars and students of political thought, anthropology, and law. Li’s breadth and acumen in navigating these different fields of study is impressive.” —Political Theory