Albara Alshammari Ms.

Kendra Andrews ENGL 1102-107 May 7, 2013

Arab Spring

Since the earliest centuries the Middle East has been a major factor changing the whole world and has and still does contain many things that are important to human history. The Middle East was one of the earliest places that people started to settle in. The Middle East contains the holiest cities in the world which are Mecca and Jerusalem. Moreover, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism were born in the Middle East and from there have spread and grown to become three of the largest religions in the world. During the spread of each of the religions, many bloody wars were fought due to the fact that each religions followers thought that they are the right ones and others were not. Because of this and other factors that play a role the Middle East has never been in peace. Bad economic situations and the spreading of religion to new uncultivated parts in the world were considered some of the main reasons to emigrate from the Middle East to new parts in the world during the establishment of each religion. In the 20th century, borders started to materialize between the countries in the Middle East which led to minimization of the immigration there. People who lacked wealth and power were not able to move to other parts of the world because it was not acceptable to do so in the new laws enacted by the governments of the countries contained within the Middle East. In the 21st century the Middle Easts economic impact in different countries had not been very successful and was causing the loss of economic confidence in many countries. The lack and restriction of freedom of expression under the rule of many dictators also led to an unhappy and unstable general

population. Many of these Dictators cared about nothing more than making themselves and their close friends and family rich and powerful, the way these dictators acted would cause unemployment, corruption, and weak political decisions among the countries and the effect of these problems caused the people to become angry and restless about the quality of life they had. After all the mistreatment the people of the Middle East endured the people could finally take no more and the revolution was now in full effect. The spark of the Arab revolution started on December 2010 in Tunisia and continued until it got seventeen other countries involved in total. Four governments have been forced from power and a civil war in Syria has manifested from the revolution. Until now, The Arab Spring as it is called by the media has become a series of major protests that grew in strength non-stop. In this research I am going to find out how the Arab Spring started and why it grew in power so rapidly.

The Arab Spring, or in other words the Arab Uprising is a revolutionary demonstration by the citizens of many countries within a part of the world called the Middle East. The origins of the start of the Arab Spring can be traced to Tunisia on the 17th of December 2010. The person was started by a man named Mohammad Albouazizi, he was a citizen of Tunisia that set himself on fire on the 17th of December in order to protest the mistreatment that he and his countrymen endured daily. The location that he chose to set himself on fire was in front of the city council, he chose this location in order to demonstrate against the City council because his fruit cart was inexplicably seized by the government and was he was also physically assaulted by a police officer. Mohammad made a claim against the abuse he suffered from the hands of the officer to the city council but his claim was ignored and thrown out, because of that he had had enough and decided to set himself on fire in order to bring attention to the mistreatment of the

people by the government. Mohammad Albouazizi was the spark of the Arab revolution and caused 50 others set themselves on fire in order to demonstrate in the same fashion Mohammad did. France made an idol in Paris representing the sacrifice Mohammad Albouazizi in order to shine light upon those who have sacrificed their lives in order to shed light upon these injustices.

Revolutions started in Tunisia when Mohammad Albouazizi set himself on fire in order to demonstrate against the mistreatments that Tunisians suffered from the government. These demonstrations eventually came to represent the combined pent up anger that the Tunisian people had against the unstable economic and unemployment conditions, and the corruption that ran rampant in the government. The Tunisian revolution stopped when the Tunisian president fled from Tunisia on the 14th of January, 2011. Nine days later another revolution had commenced in nearby Egypt after being inspired by the Tunisian revolution. The Yemenis also started demonstrating after to being inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and also hoping to get reforms in their country; eventually after one year of protests the Yemeni president left office. On the 11th of February, Mohammad Hosni Mubarak, the President of Egypt, Left the Presidency and was jailed due to the charges of killing the protesters. Due to the successful revolution in Tunisia and Egypt, the peaceful revolutions spread in Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iraq, Oman, Palestine, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Mauritania and Jepoti. On the 17th of February, The Libyans revolution started and became an armed revolution due to the mistreatment and corruption caused by Muammar Al Gaddafi, the Libyan president. The Libyan revolution made a transition from peaceful to violent because the Egyptian president started using lethal methods of suppression against the protesters. After Six months of protesting, Muammar Al Gaddafi was killed on October 20 after killing more than 50 thousands Libyans.

Syria followed Egypts example and also started their own revolution within a month after the Egyptians. To date, more than 50 thousand people in Syria have been killed and more than 200 thousands have been put into prisons. Most Arab countries have bad records regarding human rights due to the fact that rulers came into power illegitimately. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, for example, was one of the oldest dictators in Middle East who came to power in 1969 by calling his dictatorship movement the revolution. In Egypt and Yemen, Mubarak and Ali Abdullah Saleh wanted to pass power to their sons Gamal and Ahmed, respectively, but soon the revolution stopped their dreams of having the region controlled by them and their relatives.

Tunisia The main reason for the revolution in Tunisia was to speak up and show support of Mohamed Bouazizi actions, a man who set his body on fire as an expression of anger against the government's rules. This led to a big revolution of thousands of people who considered the situation of unemployment, lack of social justice and corruption within the ruling regime to be unacceptable. This resulted in demonstrations, which included several cities in Tunisia. This caused there to be numerous deaths and injuries of protesters caused by the security forces who were ordered to quell the uprising. All these events forced President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to make a decision of firing a number of ministers. The firing of ministers included the termination of the Interior Minister and also caused the president to make promises to address the problems unemployment. The president also promised his people that he would not run for the presidential elections in 2014. Right after his speech, the government reduced the prices of certain products.

By that time, the revolution had expanded and reached the point of no return, because of this President had no choice but to step down from power and flee the country to Saudi Arabia.

Egypt The Egyptian revolution was a popular uprising that erupted on January 25, 2011 and was specified to have started in that date by several organizations and important people in Egypt. 25 of January was also the date that the police force collapsed in Egypt. Demonstrators were protesting against the bad treatment from police especially after the emergence of many videos showing the police violating human rights. The police did not respect the rights of protesters and abused and assaulted them relentlessly. The police used live ammunition against to try and disperse the protests. What caused the revolution to go into full effect were actually the actions of a police force in the province of Suez. More than 20 young men from Suez were executed by the police force which outraged the people the people of Egypt and turned the demonstration of protest against only police in Suez to protest in all Egypt against poor living conditions, unemployment and political, economic and anything can be considered corrupt under the rule of President Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak promised not to run for reelection in September, but the protesters distrusted his pledges. Growing numbers continued to gather in Cairos Tahrir Square, demanding that he step down immediately. The Obama administration found itself in a difficult position: Mubarak was our strongest ally in the Arab world, but he ruled repressively, and the protesters represented a genuinely democratic movement. After 18 days of protests. President Hosni Mubarak stepped down from power on February 11, 2011 and left the presidency to the army until the new elections were held (news-basics).

Libya The Revolution in Libya was also a popular revolution which erupted on Thursday February 17, 2011. Protests quickly reached most of the Libyan cities and the areas surrounding them. This revolution had been influenced by protests that erupted in the Arab world and especially the Tunisian revolution and the Egyptian revolution. Both revolutions had forced the Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to leave their respective presidencies and flee their countries. The Revolution in Libya was led by young Libyans who demanded political and economic reforms. The Revolution was initially comprised of peaceful demonstrations and protests, but in a now predictable turn of of events Muammar Gaddafi used firearms and heavy aerial bombardment to suppress unarmed demonstrators. After the slaying of unarmed protesters by military weaponry the revolution transitioned into an armed revolution that wanted to overthrow the president Muammar Gaddafi at any cost. Muammar Gaddafi was strong at first when he had control of the air and the ground but when the NATO forces got involved in the game, Muammar Gaddafi could not a single plane against his people and even NATO bombed Muammar Gaddafis palaces and strategic buildings. During August 2011, Muammar Gaddafi ran away with his family to different locations. His daughter and his wife went to Algeria while his other sons escaped to different places inside Libya. On Thursday, October 20, 2011 Muammar Gaddafi died in Sirte, the last stronghold he had, and was buried later in a secret grave. The National Transitional Council of Libya killed Colonel Muammar Gaddafi after raids by NATO aircraft that were then followed by attacks led by the forces of the Council of the city of Sirte which also happened to be Muammar Gadaffis hometown. Muammar Gaddafi revolutionary leader of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya was assassinated on Thursday 20 October, 2011, in the Libyan city of Sirte. The precise circumstances surrounding

his death have been clouded with mystery and contradicting reports, but the media consensus is that NATOs rebel stooges captured and killed him. This has lent the unelected and universally despised NTC occupation government a decisive propaganda victory in the war on Libya. However, a picture is emerging as to the actual circumstances of his death, one that puts NATO special forces likely the British SAS in the center of the frame.(Iqbal, Martin)

Social Media Being capable of sharing an immense amount of uncensored and accurate information throughout social networking sites has contributed to the cause of many Arab Spring activists. Through social networking sites, Arab Spring activists have not only gained the power to overthrow powerful dictatorship, but also helped Arab civilians become aware of the underground communities that exist and are made up of their brothers, and others willing to listen to their stories. Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube spread in the Middle East before the Arab Spring We use Facebook to schedule the protests an Arab Spring activist from Egypt announced and [we use] Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world. (Howard, Philip)

References Basics, News. "Egypt and the Arab Uprisings." NewsBasics RSS. NewsBasics, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.

Iqbal, Martin. "The 'rebel' Assassination of Muammar Gaddafi: A NATO Operation from A to Z | Empirestrikesblack." Empirestrikesblack. Empirestrikesblack, 24 Oct. 2011. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. Howard, Philip N. "The Arab Springs Cascading Effects." Pacific Standard. Pacific Standard, 23 Feb. 2011. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.