The Arab ordeal : between democratization and Islamization of the region

Abstract EN

In this paper we are questioning the legitimacy of political reform in the Arab countries in the MENA region, that have been struggling between two projects; the “Creation of the New Middle East”, which represents the West hegemonic narrative, and “ Dawlat Al khilafah” which reflects the Islamic fundamentalist religious hegemonic narrative.

the hypothesis that has been examined in this paper, suggested that both projects have used the same frame of political ethics, demonstrated by the use of “hegemonic utility” ethical narrative.

this led to questioning the legitimacy of the Arab Spring phenomena, and the type of political reform that has fallen under two dynamics of conflicting power relations.

the western hegemony, that divided the world into Global North and Global South, based on a theoretical framework that supports the idea of Western centralism, and orientalism narrative about the Arabic culture.

this hegemony was depicted by the creation of democratization campaigns, the use of creative chaos strategies, and the deployment of soft power.

on the other hand was the Islamic fundamentalists hegemony, that divide the world into Muslim and non Muslim, far enemies, the West, and near enemies, Arab countries, and the formation of Dawlat Al khilafah.

this arguments is not an advocate of the conspiracy theory, it is more a way of showing that even opposite ideologies can hold the same ethics of hegemony and power, and that these concepts change their representation through history, proposing each time for a model of politics, that legitimise its power based on its own narrative and the calculation of utility behind each proposed idea.