One article from The Economist, "Waking from its Sleep" is about the fact that the Arab world is oppressed, divided, and war prone. Arab nations have been involved in wars not only against Western countries, but also other Arab nations. The article goes farther to explain why the region is prone to wars. Three main reasons are discusses: 1) the large amounts of oil that are present and play a huge role in the economies of the whole world, 2) the hostility towards the state of Israel, and 3) the lack of democracy
From the same paper, the article "The world of Arabs," addresses the diversity of people and languages in the Middle East that the Western world lumps together as the Arab world. Also there is a misconception present that all Arabs are Muslim. Al-Jazeera, a popular TV channel, attempts to give Arabs a sense of unity.
The final article, "Which way will they go?," is mainly about the external influences of America, Israel, Iran and Turkey in the Middle East in an attempt to dominate the oil market. Many Arabs would like to be independent of the Western World but do not support the violence of al-Qaeda. Then in goes on to describe "the opium of the Arabs" which is Israel. Not all Arabs are concerned with the state of Israel, for example, the countries Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. These preoccupation with Israel is harmful to the Middle East because they use the country as a scapegoat and elect leaders based on resistance to Israel.
The Wikipedia page on Arab protests discussing the fact that most of these uprisings used social media sites such as facebook and youtube to gain supporters. Also protests spread from nation to nation at a rapid pace. This makes me think of the article that I found from Middle East Online titled "The Lion versus the Lion-Tamer Or People Power versus State Power" by Nizar Awad. The article focuses on the collective consciousness that the Arabs gained in Durkeimian terms. Through self-realization the citizens were able to gain the courage to rebel against the government
The Wikipedia article also focuses on the corruption that existed in many of the governments. This is also in the article "Israel: Pro-Syria fighters kill Palestinians" by Anissa Haddadi. It explores the Marxist ideology that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine of Palestine General Command (PFLP) embodied. The PFLP was part of Yasser Arafat's administration. Last week the PFLP was involved in staged distraction that killed 14 people for the benefit of President Assad. The PFLP is fighting to destroy the state of Israel to get rid of the inequality that was caused by Western presence.
The final article, "Cintra Wilson's 'The C-Word': Tariq Ali on the Arab Spring" speaks of the monopoly of force in Weberian terms. She wrote, "I was reminded of Max Weber, who defines the state as the sole political authority inside a territory that controls the monopoly of force." She argues that soldiers go against this monopoly, and if the monopolies are destroyed the wealthy will have to establish their own private military.
Looking at the protests of the Arab world is incredibly interesting because of the shear complexity of the issues. Also the modernity of these protests are fascinating, social sites are not an ordinary catalyst for revolt. It is also obvious that the citizens gained self-consciousness because nations were inspired by the success of other nations
I read an article about how women in Afghanistan felt as if life became more difficult for them post US invasion. They said that they felt as if they were more free. It really makes you think about how our troops being there is affected the image of women and others in these countries.
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