The Myth of Middle East Exceptionalism:  Unfinished Social Movements 

 - 356 p.,  ill.;  26 cm 
 - Contemporary Issues in the Middle East .
<br/><br/>Includes bibliographical references and index. 
<br/><br/>Introduction: The Myth of MENA Exceptionalism -- Part One: Beyond the “Middle East Exceptionalism” -- 1. Exceptions to Exceptionalisms! Or What MENA Offers to World History -- 2. Israel, Palestine, and the Politics of Race Moving from Exceptionalism to Global Context -- 3. How Applicable Are Leading Mainstream Social Movement Theories to the MENA Region? -- 4. China and Syria as an “Ideological Exception”? -- 5. The Rise of ISIS in Postinvasion Iraq A Manifestation of (Neo)Colonial Violence -- 6. Recolonizing the Arab World? -- Part Two: The Unfinished Project of the Resilient Citizenship -- 7. Arab Youth Nonmovements Resilient Citizenship in the Middle East -- 8. What Happened to “Songs of the New Arab Revolutions”? -- 9. The Future of Nonviolence in the Middle East Iran and Beyond -- 10. The Rise and Fall of the Student Movements in Postrevolutionary Iran -- 11. Finished or Unfinished? The Uncertain Future of Christians in the Middle East -- Part Three: Gendering the MENA Movements -- 12. Toward a Democratization of Authority in Islamic Thought Gender as a Category of Thought in Light of the Arab Spring -- 13. Remembering Istanbul Women and Anarchistic-Queer Openings in a Belated Modernity -- 14. Women Continue the Unfinished Project of Liberation in the MENA Region through Online Activism<br/> 
<br/><br/> "More than a decade after the birth of contemporary social movements in the Middle East and North Africa scholars are asking what these movements have achieved and how we should evaluate their lasting legacies. The quiet encroachments of MENA counterrevolutionary forces in the post-Arab Spring era have contributed to the revival of an outdated Orientalist discourse of Middle East exceptionalism, implying that the region’s culture is exceptionally immune to democratic movements, values, and institutions. This volume, inspired by critical post-colonial/decolonial studies, and interdisciplinary perspectives of social movement theories, gender studies, Islamic studies, and critical race theory, challenges and demystifies the myth of “MENA Exceptionalism”.<br/><br/>Composted of three sections, the book first places MENA in the larger global context and sheds light on the impact of geopolitics on the current crises, showing how a postcolonial critique better explains the crisis of democratic social movements and the resilience of authoritarianism. The second section focuses on the unfinished projects of contemporary MENA social movements and their quest for freedom, social justice, and human dignity. Contributors examine specific cases of post-Islamist movements, the Arab youth, student, and other popular non-violent movements.<br/><br/>In the final section, the book problematizes the exceptionalist idea of gender passivity and women’s exclusion, which reduces the reality of gender injustice to some eternal and essentialized Muslim/MENA mindset. Contributors address this theory by placing gender as an independent category of thought and action, demonstrating the quest for gender justice movements in MENA, and providing contexts to the cases of gender injustice to challenge simplistic, ahistorical and culturalist assumptions."-- 
<br/><br/><label>ISBN: </label>
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Protest movements--History--Arab countries--21st century<br/>Social movements--History--Middle East--21st century<br/>Democracy--History--Middle East--21st century
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Geographic Terms: </label><br/>Middle East--Politics and government--21st century