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  • Published: 5 April 2012
  • ISBN: 9781846146510
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288
Categories:

The Arab Awakening

Islam and the new Middle East



Across the Arab world millions of women and men have taken to the streets, showing that dictators can be overthrown without weapons. But what happens now?

Tariq Ramadan is one of the most acclaimed figures in the analysis of Islam and its political dimensions today. In The Arab Awakening he explores the opportunities and challenges across North Africa and the Middle East, as they look to create new, more open societies. He asks: can Muslim countries bring together Islam, pluralism and democracy without betraying their identity? Will the Arab world be able to reclaim its memory to reinvent education, women's rights, social justice, economic growth and the fight against corruption? Can this emancipation be envisioned with Islam, experienced not as a straitjacket, but as an ethical and cultural wealth?

Arguing that the debate cannot be reduced to a confrontation between two approaches - the modern and secular versus the traditional and Islamic - Ramadan demonstrates that not only are both of these routes in crisis, but that the Arab world has an historic opportunity: to stop blaming the West, to jettison its victim status and to create a truly new dynamic. Tariq Ramadan offers up a challenge to the Middle East: what enduring legacy will you produce, from the historic moment of the Arab Spring?

  • Published: 5 April 2012
  • ISBN: 9781846146510
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288
Categories:

About the author

Tariq Ramadan

Professor Tariq Ramadan received his doctorate in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Geneva. In Cairo, Egypt he received one-on-one intensive training in classic Islamic scholarship from scholars at the Al-Azhar University. Having taught Islamic Studies and Philosophy at Freiburg University in Switzerland for many years, he was offered the post of Professor of Islamic Studies in the Classic Department and Luce Professor of Religion Conflict and Peacebuilding at the University of Notre Dame in the United States. He had to resign the post after the US refused to allow him entry. He is currently challenging their decision with the support of the ACLU and PEN and is Senior Research Fellow at Lokahi Foundation and Visiting Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford.
Through his writings and lectures Tariq Ramadan has contributed substantially to the debate on the issues of Muslims in the West and Islamic revival in the Muslim world. He is active both at the academic and grassroots levels, lecturing extensively throughout the world on ethics of citizenship, social justice and dialogue between civilizations. A member of many international organizations and steering committees, he is President of the European think tank the European Muslim Network.

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