The Arab Spring and ISIS

A great article from ABC Religion and Ethics by Khaled Abou El Fadl on “The End of the Arab Spring, the Rise of ISIS, and the Future of Political Islam.”

Why was the Arab Spring aborted? Because a democratic Middle East would have been a poor habitat for the survival of the parasitical military regimes and putrid oil sheikhdoms, which relentlessly eradicate any healthy space for the development of civic institutions that can cultivate and nurture the growth of civic values. Those regimes cannot afford to rule over citizens. They can only rule over slaves.

And note this part of his conclusion:

I strongly suspect that this so-called caliphate will disappear as abruptly as it appeared when its witch doctors get tired of playing with fire. But ISIS has already achieved so much for its behind-the-scene masters. For one thing, ISIS enjoyed unmitigated success in completely aborting the Arab revolutionary fervour that once dreamed of freedom. They have also succeeded in restoring the old polarizations between Sunni and Shi’is, and Kurds, Turks, Persians and Arabs. They also succeeded in further marginalizing the Palestinians in their plight, and in helping Netanyahu get re-elected.They further anchored the old order of corrupt oil sheikhs and military dictators in power; but most of all, ISIS has deepened the breach between reasonable secularists and reasonable Islamists in the Arab world. Not until the Arab world figures out a way to mend the rupture between its rooted Islamic identity and its present highly contested sense of being will the region start to heal and advance.