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Arab Spring Quotes

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Arab Spring Quotes

“Shrouded as he was for a decade in an apparent cloak of anonymity and obscurity, Osama bin Laden was by no means an invisible man. He was ubiquitous and palpable, both in a physical and a cyber-spectral form, to the extent that his death took on something of the feel of an exorcism. It is satisfying to know that, before the end came, he had begun at least to guess at the magnitude of his 9/11 mistake. It is essential to remember that his most fanatical and militant deputy, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, did not just leave his corpse in Iraq but was isolated and repudiated even by the minority Sunnis on whose presumed behalf he spilled so much blood and wrought such hectic destruction. It is even more gratifying that bin Laden himself was exposed as an excrescence on the putrid body of a bankrupt and brutish state machine, and that he found himself quite unable to make any coherent comment on the tide—one hopes that it is a tide, rather than a mere wave—of demand for an accountable and secular form of civil society. There could not have been a finer affirmation of the force of life, so warmly and authentically counterposed to the hysterical celebration of death, and of that death-in-life that is experienced in the stultifications of theocracy, where womanhood and music and literature are stifled and young men mutated into robotic slaughterers.”

LifeDeathLiteratureMusicFeminismIraqTerrorismPakistanSecularismAl QaedaOsama Bin LadenTheocracyExorcismArab SpringIslamism2011September 11 AttacksDeath Of Osama Bin LadenSunni IslamAbu Musab Al ZarqawiAl Qaeda In Iraq
Book:The Enemy
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“If Syria is to rise from the ashes it needs a united Arab world which has one thing on its agenda, not the falling of a dictator for we have seen many of those fall, but the reemergence of a prosperous Arab nation, one that is not reliant on foreign aid but is self-sustained and set on its way to become powerful once again.”

Middle EastSyriaRefugeesArab WorldRefugee CrisisArab SpringForeign AidSyrian Civil WarBashar Al AssadArab Nationalism
Author:Aysha Taryam
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“Our daily routines influence the lives of people and animals halfway across the world, and some personal gestures can unexpectedly set the entire world ablaze, as happened with the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia, which ignited the Arab Spring, and with the women who shared their stories of sexual harassment and sparked the #MeToo movement.”

ConsequenceArab SpringConsequences Of Our ActionsButterfly EffectMetoo Movement21st Century Quotes
Book:21 Lessons for the 21st Century
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“When an entire segment of the world is burned and reduced to a lawless battleground for thugs and mercenaries, a land where government does not exist, where the slate of history is being wiped out and hope has drowned in gallons of innocent blood, the only respite comes in the form of the open seas and what lies beyond the horizon. So ships are boarded and pain is tolerated just a little while longer.”

WarPoliticsMiddle EastAfricaRefugeeUnited NationsPolitical PhilosophyEuropean UnionArab SpringMigrant
Author:Aysha Taryam
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“في فناء السجن الواسع تجمع نزلاء الزنزانة رقم 1 فرحين بالنور يرقصون و يهتفون للحرية وللحياة بعدما حطموا الابواب الحديدية وتغلبوا علي الحراس..ولم يمر وقت طويل حتي ثار النزلاء في الزنزانة رقم 2 وبدؤا يهتفون ويدقون علي الجدران ويحطمون النوافذ ثم اشتبكوا مع الحراس ليسقط منهم قتلي وجرحي.. وفي الزنزانة رقم 3 بدأ الهتاف يعلو بينما كان المساجين في كافة أرجاء السجن العربي الكبير يسترقون السمع ويحلمون....”

RevolutionEgyptArab Spring
Author:mohamed gamal aboueid
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“Lost In black as solid as a mire In a land no one would die for In a time I was lost To anyone who ever loved me The world set itself on fire And the sky collapsed above me In a place no one could call home In a place I breathed and slept In a battle no one understood That continued all the same I sat defenseless and alone With the insignificance of my name In the midst of the Lord’s birth On a night meant to be peaceful In a country of the Prophet Where women don’t live free I spoke to God from the shaking Earth And prayed my mother would forgive me In a city without power In a desert torn by religion In a bank between two rivers We added up the decade’s cost And glorified the final hour Of a war that everyone had lost In the dust of helplessness In a concrete bunker In a fate I chose myself I waited without remorse To fight again as recompense For wasted lives and discourse -an original poem about an attack on our base in Iraq during the Arab Spring”

Iraq WarBaghdadMilitary HistoryArab SpringMilitary QuoteWar PoetryDianna SkoweraMortars
Author:Dianna Skowera
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“Freedom of the press can never be the licence to say anything one desires. Freedom of the press is not the freedom to slander and attack and must never be used to fight other people’s wars. It does not mean manipulating a story into speaking your views. One might think it common sense but in the world of journalism a lot of what makes sense is lost to the lure of favouritism, greed and fame. Sadly, in this truth-telling business truth is hard to find.”

MediaJournalismFreedom Of The PressArab SpringMedia StudiesArab Media
Author:Aysha Taryam
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“Als Präsident Obama den Aufstand als legitime Meinungsäußerung begrüßte, die von der Regierung anerkannt werden müsse, war die Verwirrung komplett. Die Massen in Kairo und Alexandria wollten keine Anerkennung ihrer Forderungen durch die Regierung, deren Rechtmäßigkeit sie rundweg ablehnten. Sie wünschten sich das Mubarak-Regime nicht als Gesprächspartner, sie wollten, dass Mubarak verschwand. Ihr Ziel war nicht nur eine neue Regierung, die ihre Meinung anhören würde, sondern eine Umgestaltung des gesamten Staates. Sie hatten keine »Meinungen «; sie waren die Wahrheit der Situation in Ägypten. (S. 55)”

RevolutionEgyptArab SpringMubarakZizekŽIžek
Book:Weniger als nichts - Hegel und der Schatten des dialektischen Materialismus
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“Before continuing further, it is important to gain an understanding of how democracy is perceived by the ordinary people of the Middle East. Democracy, as a secular entity, is unlikely t be favorably received by the vast majority of Middle Easterners who are devout followers of the Islamic faith. Traditionally, there is tension among the Muslim countries with respect to the establishment of a democratic form of government. On the one hand, there are those who believe that democratic rule can co-exist with the religious nature of the Middle Easter societies; however, on the other hand there are those who believe that the tribal structure of the Middle Eastern countries may not be suitable for democratic rule as too many factions will emerge. The result will be a "fractured" society that cannot effectively unite and there is also the risk that this could impact the cohesion produced by the Muslim faith. Although concerns exist, for the most part, the spirit of democracy, or self rule, is viewed as a positive endeavor so long as it builds up the country and sustains the religious base versus devaluing religion and creating instability. Creating this balance will be the challenge as most Western democracies have attempted to maintain a separation of church and state. What this suggests is that as democracy grows in the Middle East, it is not necessarily going to evolve upon a Western template—it will have its own shape or form coupled with stronger religious ties.”

DemocracyIslamMiddle EastArab Spring2006
Book:Democracy in the Middle East
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“There are going to be a lot of questions, not just in my country, but across the Middle East. Is Israel going to continue to be "Fortress Israel"? Or, as we all hope, become accepted into the neighborhood, which I believe is the only way we can move forward in harmony. And no matter what's happening in the Middle East - the Arab Spring, et cetera, the economic challenges, high rates of unemployment - the emotional, critical issue is always the Israeli-Palestinian one.”

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Author:Abdallah II
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“You can understand Tunisia revolution as a failure to censor the internet. And Libya had that failure too. It's very difficult for governments that are autocratic and don't have broad popular support to be in power when a lot of people have these devices. That was what Arab Spring was about, that people could express this and lead to revolution.”

PeopleGovernmentDifficultSupportRevolutionInternetSpringDevicesBroadsLibyaArab SpringTunisia
Author:Eric Schmidt
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“Ultimately, only diplomacy can bring about a durable solution to the challenge posed by Iran's nuclear program. As President and Commander in Chief, I will do what is necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. However, I have a profound responsibility to try to resolve our differences peacefully, rather than rush towards conflict.”

TryingBelieveRealWisdomRealityTodayOpportunityPoliticsI BelievePresidentCommunityChallengesLeadershipDifferencesJusticeResponsibilityHistoryTechnologyViolenceGenerationsAchievePolicyConflictWeaponsSpringSolutionsEthicsProgramTestsStrategyUnityProfoundHuman RightsNuclearPeacefulIdeologyChiefsIranResolveForeign PolicyNuclear WeaponsDiplomacyCivilityCommandersComprehensiveSettlementObtainingCommander In ChiefArab Spring
Author:Barack Obama
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“Congress needs to send a strong signal that direct communication with the leader of the free world is a privilege, particularly for a regime that has been as hostile as Iran has been towards America for more than three decades. President Rouhani needs to take these two simple steps to demonstrate good faith before any further discussions.”

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Author:Ted Cruz
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“In any conflict area, it is always the women who are the first point of attack. But I think the more they have seen of oppression and violence, they have gotten more brave, more strong, more fearless than they were. You see this refusal to just keep quiet and do as you are told.”

ThinkingFirstsWisdomStrongCommunityLeadershipHistoryViolenceGenerationsQuietConflictEqualSpringAreasBraveHuman RightsIndividualityTerrorismOppressionFearlessEqual RightsRefusalDisobedienceCivil DisobedienceArab Spring
Author:Fatima Bhutto
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“Time and again-from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the events of 9/11 to the onset of the Arab Spring-events have caught the experts, whether in government or on the outside, completely by surprise. Business owners with comparable performance records go bust. Brokers lose their clients. Physicians get sued for malpractice. Yet think-tankers and policy wonks continue to opine, never pausing to reflect on-or apologize for-their spotty records.”

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Author:Andrew Bacevich
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“In Egypt the neoliberal programs have meant statistical growth, like right before the Arab Spring, Egypt was a kind of poster child for the World Bank and the IMF [International Monetary Fund:] the marvelous economic management and great reform. The only problem was for most of the population it was a kind of like a blow in the solar plexus: wages going down, benefits being eliminated, subsidized food gone and meanwhile, high concentration of wealth and a huge amount of corruption.”

WorldKindChildrenProblemGrowthWealthGoneEconomicHugeAmountBenefitsSpringProgramManagementInternationalPopulationBlowCorruptionReformConcentrationFundMarvelousEgyptWagesMonetaryPostersArab SpringImfWorld BankConcentration Of Wealth
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“I'm optimistic, though. Now, with the Arab Spring, I think that people in the region are beginning to overturn some of these clichés, and Western editors are starting to catch up. We're seeing some exceptions to the stereotypes, like Elizabeth Rubin's great piecein Newsweek, "The Feminists in the Middle of Tahrir Square." But an article like that shouldn't be the exception. It should be the rule.”

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Author:Annia Ciezadlo
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“There is always the risk that a conflagration in the Middle East becomes larger and more dangerous. In this scenario, we discover that the Arab Spring was merely the prelude to a deeper and much farther-reaching upheaval in the region that has greater impact on countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia.”

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Author:Ian Bremmer
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“I am a supporter of much of the Arab Spring, as a matter of indigenous self-determination. So, I see the United States' role in Libya as an appropriately restrained one in providing some international support for the work of those trying to bring democratic change against a regime that has undoubtedly been dictatorial, particularly in the past twenty years.”

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Author:Melissa Harris-Perry
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“Some socialist movements in Egypt, Tunisia and Bahrain, for instance, were genuine. I was making films about the so-called Arab Spring, and I'm well aware of how complex the situation really was. But it goes without saying is that the West immediately infiltrated and 'derailed' the revolutions, turning them into what you have described.”

WellsFilmSituationMovementRevolutionSpringWestComplexesGenuineInstanceSocialistEgyptArab SpringTunisiaBahrain
Author:Andre Vltchek
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“The first question that I ask : do I have public support or not. That is the first question that I asked as President. If I don't have the public support, whether there's the so-called "Arab spring" - it's not spring, anyway - but whether we have this or we don't, if you don't have public support, you have to quit, you have to leave. If you have public support, in any circumstances you have to stay. That's your mission, you have to help the people, you have to serve the people.”

PeopleIfsFirstsHelpingAsksPresidentSupportCircumstancesSpringMissionsQuittingSupport YouArab Spring
Author:Bashar al-Assad
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“Syria is a civil war. Syria began as a popular uprising, just like the other experiences in the Arab Spring, with a repressive government that responded by basically killing the protesters. It's not a genocide, it's a war, and there's a difference. Genocide is a preplanned attack on people because of who they are. This is a interstate conflict.”

PeopleWarGovernmentDifferencesConflictSpringKillingCivil WarGenocideSyriaUprisingArab SpringInterstate
Author:Susan Rice
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