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174-638: The Arab Spring ( Arabic : الربيع العربي , romanized :  ar-rabīʻ al-ʻarabī ) or the First Arab Spring (to distinguish from the Second Arab Spring ) was a series of anti-government protests , uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation . From Tunisia,

348-626: A presidential election in 2012 regarded as free and fair by election observers, and was subsequently sworn in before judges at the Supreme Constitutional Court . Fresh protests against Morsi erupted in Egypt on 22 November 2012. More protests against Morsi's rule occurred one year into Morsi's presidency in June 2013, and on 3 July 2013, the military overthrew Morsi's government , thus removing him from office. The Arab Spring

522-508: A "campaign of intimidation". More than 2,929 people have been arrested, and at least five people died due to torture while in police custody. On 23 November 2011, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry released its report on its investigation of the events, finding that the government had systematically tortured prisoners and committed other human rights violations. It also rejected the government's claims that

696-507: A "day of rage", usually Friday afternoon prayers. The protests also triggered similar unrest outside the region . Contrary to expectations the revolutions were not led by Islamists: Even though the Islamists were certainly present during the uprisings, they never determined the directions of these movements—after all, there was hardly any central leadership in any of the uprisings. Some Islamist groups initially were even reluctant to join in

870-562: A 22% unemployment rate. The economic disparity and inequality between social classes in Morocco worsened further as a result of the impact of COVID-19 , and have generated more social unrest among the poor. One such series of protests started in late 2017 and continued into 2018 over the lack of food and water. During this period, a stampede occurred in Sidi Boulaalam , a small village outside Essaouira , when supplies arrived to

1044-530: A civilian democracy. In August and September 2019, the TMC formally transferred executive power to a mixed military–civilian collective head of state, the Sovereignty Council of Sudan , and to a civilian prime minister ( Abdalla Hamdok ) and a mostly civilian cabinet , while judicial power was transferred to Nemat Abdullah Khair , Sudan's first female Chief Justice . Street protests continued during

1218-575: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as

1392-461: A collective action—such as foment a political change. As of 5 April 2011, the number of Facebook users in the Arab world surpassed 27.7 million people. Some critics have argued that digital technologies and other forms of communication—videos, cellular phones, blogs, photos, emails, and text messages—have brought about the concept of a "digital democracy" in parts of North Africa affected by

1566-572: A continuation of the Arab Spring. As of 2021, multiple conflicts are still continuing that might be seen as a result of the Arab Spring. The Syrian Civil War has caused massive political instability and economic hardship in Syria, with the Syrian pound plunging to new lows. In Libya, a major civil war recently concluded, with foreign powers intervening. In Yemen, a civil war continues to affect

1740-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By

1914-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to

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2088-714: A fifth presidential term in a signed statement. These protests, without precedent since the Algerian Civil War , have been peaceful and led the military to insist on Bouteflika's immediate resignation, which took place on 2 April 2019. By early May, a significant number of power-brokers close to the deposed administration, including the former president's younger brother Saïd , had been arrested. The 2019 Egyptian protests consisted of protests by thousands of people in Cairo , Alexandria , Damietta and five other Egyptian cities starting on 20 and 21 September 2019 in which

2262-470: A food cart belonging to a 25-year-old man, Yassine Lekhmidi, as he wasn't wearing a face mask. Lekhmidi paid a fine, but the police did not return his cart. As a result, he self-immolated in an act of protest and eventually died of his injuries on 6 August. Lekhmidi's death led to demonstrations in Sidi Bennour which garnered nationwide attention, but otherwise failed to make any significant changes in

2436-413: A gory image of a headless 6-year-old girl on your Facebook news feed." In the months leading up to events in Tunisia, Department of Homeland Security , Customs and Border Protection , Communications Program Manager Jonathan Stevens predicted the use of "collaborative Internet utilities" to effect governmental change. In his thesis, Webeaucracy: The Collaborative Revolution Archived 28 February 2019 at

2610-402: A larger demonstration than the protests in 2019. The Lebanese protests were a series of protests that constitute a reaction against sectarian rule, stagnant economy, unemployment, endemic corruption in the public sector, legislation (such as banking secrecy) that is perceived to shield the ruling class from accountability. It is suspected that the direct trigger to the protests were due to

2784-436: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic

2958-460: A major Arab movement towards democratization . The term "Arab Spring" is thus contested as it signifies an expectation that the events would replicate the example of democratic revolutions set by the West. Lastly, the term “Arab” is contested as well as it homogenises the region’s cultural specificities and oversimplifies the nature of its diverse histories and cultures. The world watched the events of

3132-663: A marketplace, resulting in the trampling and deaths of at least 15 people. The situation was worse in the country's interior in places like Zagora , a small village in Drâa-Tafilalet , where for years people have been surviving off drinking imported bottled water. While the country was mainly spared from the violence seen in other Arab countries, it still occasionally sees protests over economic and social conditions. Methods of protesting against corruption and poor standards of living included singing political chants at soccer stadiums, with mostly young football fans gathering in

3306-690: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb  [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak

3480-411: A number of demographic structural factors, such as a large percentage of educated but dissatisfied youth within the entire population. Catalysts for the revolts in all Northern African and Persian Gulf countries included the concentration of wealth in the hands of monarchs in power for decades, insufficient transparency of its redistribution, corruption, and especially the refusal of the youth to accept

3654-541: A number of issues. In February 2008, US Ambassador Robert Ford wrote in a leaked diplomatic cable that Algeria is "unhappy" with long-standing political alienation; that social discontent persisted throughout the country, with food strikes occurring almost every week; that there were demonstrations every day somewhere in the country; and that the Algerian government was corrupt and fragile. Some claimed that during 2010 there were as many as "9,700 riots and unrests" throughout

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3828-478: A rate of youth unemployment of 70 percent. Over the previous decade, Gazans were already dependent on external humanitarian aid . The already difficult situation owing to internal mismanagement also worsened due to US President Donald Trump 's "drastic cuts to US-funded Palestinian aid programme", the continued wars initiated by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad against Israel, and

4002-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from

4176-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",

4350-548: A series of conflicts during the three years leading up to the Arab Spring, the most notable occurring in the mining area of Gafsa in 2008, where protests continued for many months. These protests included rallies, sit-ins, and strikes, during which there were two fatalities, an unspecified number of wounded, and dozens of arrests. In Egypt , the labor movement had been strong for years, with more than 3000 labor actions since 2004, and provided an important venue for organizing protests and collective action. One important demonstration

4524-470: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for

4698-661: A swift response by the Omani government. On 6 January, the Omani government announced that it would establish a new body to alleviate the employment-crisis. The so-called National Center for Employment was created to help Omanis to navigate the national labor market . As a result, protests and strikes came to an end on 9 January 2019. Street protests took place in August and September 2020 over issues of poor provision of services in several cities in Libya , including both cities controlled by

4872-513: A three-month state of emergency on 15 March and asked the military to reassert its control as clashes spread across the country. On 16 March, armed soldiers and riot police cleared the protesters' camp in the Pearl Roundabout, in which 3 policemen and 3 protesters were reportedly killed. Later, on 18 March, the government tore down Pearl Roundabout monument. After the lifting of emergency law on 1 June, several large rallies were staged by

5046-507: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means

5220-507: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as

5394-462: A very high level of Internet usage (such as Bahrain with 88% of its population online in 2011) and in states with some of the lowest Internet penetration ( Yemen and Libya ). The use of social media platforms more than doubled in Arab countries during the protests, with the exception of Libya. Some researchers have shown how collective intelligence , dynamics of the crowd in participatory systems such as social media, has immense power to support

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5568-418: A voluntary evacuation near the end of January, as violence and rumors of violence escalated. On 10 February, Mubarak ceded all presidential power to Vice President Omar Suleiman , but soon thereafter announced that he would remain as president until the end of his term. However, protests continued the next day, and Suleiman quickly announced that Mubarak had resigned from the presidency and transferred power to

5742-476: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted

5916-434: Is "a strong and sincere mea culpa " and that his criticism of Middle East experts for "underestimating the hidden forces driving change ... while they worked instead to explain the unshakable stability of repressive authoritarian regimes" is well-placed. Toledano then quotes Gause saying, "As they wipe the egg off their faces," those experts "need to reconsider long-held assumptions about the Arab world." Tunisia experienced

6090-687: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic

6264-590: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak

6438-518: Is a series of anti-government protests which took place in several Arab world countries from late 2018 onwards. In Iraq , the deadliest incident of civil unrest since the fall of Saddam Hussein resulted in its Prime Minister being replaced. Sustained civil disobedience in Sudan resulted in the overthrow of president Omar al-Bashir in a military coup d'état , the Khartoum massacre , and

6612-559: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It

6786-478: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in

6960-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon

7134-472: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and

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7308-537: Is large scale unemployment specifically youth unemployment , as well as frustration towards many Arab government policies, reliance on international aid for basic necessities, corruption and reliance of hydrocarbons ( fossil fuels ) has all led to discontent towards the often cronyistic system widely in use in Middle Eastern countries. Multiple socioeconomic demonstrations occurred in Morocco during this period, mainly stemming from issues existing since

7482-574: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference

7656-800: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not

7830-572: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As

8004-590: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that

8178-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into

8352-464: Is to strengthen labour organizations to safeguard workers’ rights, ease taxes, reduce the extremely high costs of living, and establish check and balance mechanisms to contrast corruption within the private sector. The majority of the protestors were young people who cried out about the urgency of labour reforms. According to the World Bank , Gaza’s economic conditions are in decline every year, with

8526-524: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while

8700-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary

8874-621: The Western Sahara . A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām! ( Arabic : الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام , lit.   'the people want to bring down the regime'). The wave of initial revolutions and protests faded by mid to late 2012, as many Arab Spring demonstrations were met with violent responses from authorities, pro-government militias, counterdemonstrators, and militaries. These attacks were answered with violence from protesters in some cases. Multiple large-scale conflicts followed:

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9048-678: The 2019 Sudanese coup d'état deposed President Omar al-Bashir after thirty years in power, the Khartoum massacre took place under the leadership of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) that replaced al-Bashir, and in July and August 2019 the TMC and the Forces of Freedom and Change alliance (FFC) signed a Political Agreement and a Draft Constitutional Declaration legally defining a planned 39-month phase of transitional state institutions and procedures to return Sudan to

9222-460: The 39-month planned transitionary institution period . In southwest Syria in June 2020, worsening economic conditions led to rare anti-government protests in the city of Suweida , where demonstrators called for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad , as well as the withdrawal of Iran-backed militias and Russian troops from the region. The protests led Assad to dismiss Prime Minister Imad Khamis . In addition, counter-demonstrations in support of

9396-519: The Arab Spring . These issues, while exacerbated by the death of Mouhcine Fikri and the subsequent Hirak Rif Movement , were due to the lack of a suitable standard of living for the "lower middle class and the poorest segments of society" in Morocco, particularly poor quality of transportation within major cities like the bus system in Casablanca, a lack of basic access to food and water and

9570-691: The Armed Forces of Egypt . The military immediately dissolved the Egyptian Parliament , suspended the Constitution of Egypt , and promised to lift the nation's thirty-year " emergency laws ". A civilian, Essam Sharaf , was appointed as Prime Minister of Egypt on 4 March to widespread approval among Egyptians in Tahrir Square . Violent protests, however, continued through the end of 2011 as many Egyptians expressed concern about

9744-608: The Constitution Party Khaled Dawoud and two professors of political science at Cairo University , Hazem Hosny and Hassan Nafaa . The wave of arrests was the biggest in Egypt since Sisi formally became president in 2014. Human Rights Watch called for all those arrested for peacefully expressing their opinions to be released immediately. Amnesty International described the Sisi government being "shaken to its core" by 20–21 September protests and that

9918-779: The Gaza Strip . The alternative names " New Arab Spring " and " Arab Summer " refer as well to similarity with the preceding Arab Spring wave of pro-democracy protests which took place in 2010–2013. However, in this wave of protests "the similarities and differences suggest more an upgrading than a replay of the Arab Spring." The wider call for democracy and human rights was replaced by more day-to-day demands, on issues including excessive costs of living and high unemployment rates. Tesbih Habbal and Muzna Hasnawi, Syrian editors writing in The Nation in October 2019, argued that

10092-796: The Government of National Accord (GNA) in the west ( Tripoli , Misrata , Zawiya ) and by the Libyan National Army (LNA) in the east of Libya ( Benghazi ). The de facto LNA-associated government led by Abdullah al-Thani offered its resignation on 13 September 2020 in response to the protests. Strikes against power cuts saw hundreds attend on 29–30 October. It was met with tear gas and plastic bullets and riots were met with rubber bullets. Riots occurred on 29 October by workers and ended violently with clashes. On 31 October 2020, Fayez al-Sarraj rescinded his decision to resign. Elections were scheduled to be held on 24 December 2021 but

10266-599: The Great Recession may have had a hand as well. Some activists had taken part in programs sponsored by the US-funded National Endowment for Democracy , but the US government claimed that they did not initiate the uprisings. Numerous factors led to the protests, including issues such as reform, human rights violations, political corruption , economic decline, unemployment, extreme poverty, and

10440-578: The Muslim Brotherhood or leftists but by diverse crowds from the middle and poor classes. Although some protesters set aflame tires and blocked roads multiple nights, protests were largely peaceful and few casualties were reported. They were staged after daylight hours as it was during the month of Ramadan . The 2018 Tunisian protests were a series of protests occurring throughout Tunisia . Beginning January 2018, protests erupted in multiple towns and cities across Tunisia over issues related to

10614-640: The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ' perceived sluggishness in instituting reforms and their grip on power. Hosni Mubarak and his former interior minister Habib el-Adly were sentenced to life in prison on the basis of their failure to stop the killings during the first six days of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. His successor, the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Islamist Mohamed Morsi , won

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10788-673: The Syrian civil war ; the rise of ISIL , insurgency in Iraq and the following civil war ; the Egyptian Crisis , election and removal from office of Mohamed Morsi , and subsequent unrest and insurgency ; the Libyan Crisis ; and the Yemeni crisis and subsequent civil war . Regimes that lacked major oil wealth and hereditary succession arrangements were more likely to undergo regime change. A power struggle continued after

10962-612: The Tunisian Revolution protests. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned on 11 February 2011 after 18 days of massive protests, ending his 30-year presidency. The Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown on 23 August 2011, after the National Transitional Council (NTC) took control of Bab al-Azizia . He was killed on 20 October 2011 in his hometown of Sirte after the NTC took control of

11136-506: The Wayback Machine , Stevens put forth that unlike writing, printing, and telecommunications, "collaborative Internet utilities" denote a sea-change in the ability of crowds to effect social change. People and collaborative Internet utilities can be described as actor-networks; the subitizing limit (and history) suggests people left to their own devices cannot fully harness the mental power of crowds. Metcalfe's law suggests that as

11310-568: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to

11484-568: The monarchy . Lingering frustration among the Shiite majority with being ruled by the Sunni government was a major root cause, but the protests in Tunisia and Egypt are cited as the inspiration for the demonstrations. The protests were largely peaceful until a pre-dawn raid by police on 17 February to clear protestors from Pearl Roundabout in Manama , in which police killed four protesters. Following

11658-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic

11832-542: The "biggest transformation of the Middle East since decolonization". By the end of February 2012, rulers had been forced from power in Tunisia , Egypt , Libya , and Yemen ; civil uprisings had erupted in Bahrain and Syria ; major protests had broken out in Algeria , Iraq , Jordan , Kuwait , Morocco , Oman , and Sudan ; and minor protests had occurred in Mauritania , Saudi Arabia , Djibouti , Western Sahara , and Palestine . Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on 14 January 2011 following

12006-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In

12180-734: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c.  8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Second Arab Spring The Second Arab Spring

12354-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to

12528-576: The 2018–2019 sustained street protests in the Arab world starting with Sudan in December 2018, Algeria in February 2019, Egypt and Iraq in September and October 2019, Syria and Lebanon in October 2019, constituted a second wave of the process that started with the 2010–2011 Arab Spring. Syrian protestors in October held signs stating, "Syria—Egypt—Iraq: You've revived the spirit of the Arab people, from

12702-519: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of

12876-834: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ    [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized

13050-570: The Akhannouch government "the first in Morocco's history to clash with the public during its first few weeks in office". The 2018 Jordanian protests started as a general strike organized by more than 30 trade unions on 31 May 2018 after the government of Hani Mulki submitted a new tax law to Parliament . The bill followed IMF -backed austerity measures adopted by Mulki's government since 2016 that aimed to tackle Jordan's growing public debt. Although Jordan had been relatively unscathed from

13224-609: The Arab Spring in North Africa . During this period, several leaders announced their intentions to step down at the end of their current terms. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir announced that he would not seek reelection in 2015 (he ultimately retracted his announcement and ran anyway), as did Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki , whose term was to end in 2014, although there were violent demonstrations demanding his immediate resignation in 2011. Protests in Jordan also caused

13398-439: The Arab Spring unfold, "gripped by the narrative of a young generation peacefully rising up against oppressive authoritarianism to secure a more democratic political system and a brighter economic future". The Arab Spring is widely believed to have been instigated by dissatisfaction, particularly of youth and unions, with the rule of local governments, though some have speculated that wide gaps in income levels and pressures caused by

13572-621: The Arab Spring, people created pages on Facebook to raise awareness about alleged crimes against humanity, such as police brutality in the Egyptian Revolution (see Wael Ghonim and Death of Khaled Mohamed Saeed ). Whether the project of raising awareness was primarily pursued by Arabs themselves or simply advertised by Western social media users is a matter of debate. Jared Keller, a journalist for The Atlantic , claims that most activists and protesters used Facebook (among other social media) to organize; however, what influenced Iran

13746-573: The Egyptian ambassador and Waleed Abdelrahman Hassan was freed on 2 October 2019. On the evening of 2 October, during the lead up to the 2023 Egyptian presidential election , a Nation's Future Party rally in Mersa Matruh turned into anti-Sisi protests, with protesters burning photos of him and chanting anti-Sisi slogans. A series of economic protests in Gaza began in February 2019, and it

13920-495: The Egyptian government attempted, somewhat successfully, to eliminate the nation's Internet access, in order to inhibit the protesters' ability to use media activism to organize through social media . Later that day, as tens of thousands protested on the streets of Egypt's major cities, President Hosni Mubarak dismissed his government, later appointing a new cabinet. Mubarak also appointed the first Vice President in almost 30 years. The U.S. embassy and international students began

14094-643: The Mediterranean coast. On 17 March, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 was adopted, authorising a no-fly zone over Libya, and "all necessary measures" to protect civilians. Two days later, France, the United States and the United Kingdom intervened in Libya with a bombing campaign against pro-Gaddafi forces. A coalition of 27 states from Europe and the Middle East soon joined

14268-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around

14442-472: The Omani government announced that it would create 25 thousand public service jobs to accommodate protesters’ demands. At the end of 2018 and into January 2019, mass protests resurfaced in Oman. Thousands of protesters rallied against economic hardship and once again requested more job opportunities. Demonstrations were oppressed by riot police, causing dozens of people to be arrested. The demonstrations triggered

14616-690: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from

14790-576: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With

14964-456: The Saudi government during this time. He was murdered by the government a few years later. Inspired by the uprising in Tunisia and prior to his entry as a central figure in Egyptian politics, potential presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei warned of a "Tunisia-style explosion" in Egypt. Protests in Egypt began on 25 January 2011 and ran for 18 days. Beginning around midnight on 28 January,

15138-530: The Sunni–Shia Muslim / Christian sociological and religious divide and bypassing traditional political party alignments. The 2018–2019 Omani protests were nationwide protests and rallies in which tens of thousands of protesters marched against skyrocketing unemployment and inflation in the Sultanate of Oman . Over a 13-month period between January 2018 and January 2019, Omani citizens went out into

15312-558: The US political journal Foreign Policy . Political scientist Marc Lynch described Arab Spring as "a term I may have unintentionally coined in a 6 January 2011 article" for Foreign Policy magazine. Protestors involved in the events however described their own political actions as "uprising" ( intifada ), Arab "awakening" ( sahwa ) and Arab "renaissance" ( nahda ), using expressions like al-marar al-Arabi (the Arab bitterness), karama (dignity) and thawra (revolution). Some authors argue that western governments, scholars and media used

15486-517: The United Nations Development Program concluded that "social media in general, and Facebook in particular, provided new sources of information the regime could not easily control and were crucial in shaping how citizens made individual decisions about participating in protests, the logistics of protest, and the likelihood of success." Marc Lynch of George Washington University said, "while social media boosters envisioned

15660-796: The Year ". Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda won the 2011 World Press Photo award for his image of a Yemeni woman holding an injured family member, taken during the civil uprising in Yemen on 15 October 2011. Overthrow of Mohamed Morsi , who was convicted of espionage and inciting the killing of protestors. Yemeni crisis begins, followed by a civil war Start of War in Iraq (2014–2017) (combined estimate of events) The protests in Bahrain started on 14 February , and were initially aimed at achieving greater political freedom and respect for human rights ; they were not intended to directly threaten

15834-410: The [Atlantic] Ocean to the [Persian] Gulf!" Habbal and Hansawi described the process as having "profoundly changed the political consciousness of the region", overcoming fear of political activity and "setting a crucial precedent for challenging the persistence of authoritarianism". Habbal and Hansawi argued that the October protests in Syria "[proved] that even ruthless repression and tyranny cannot deter

16008-447: The actions of security forces "unacceptable". Some police have also been killed in the protests. The protests are the deadliest unrest in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, with the death toll reaching 511 by 2 January 2020 and 669 by 13 January 2020. The 2019 Algerian protests , also called Revolution of Smiles or Hirak Movement , began on 16 February 2019, ten days after Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced his candidacy for

16182-654: The activists regarding the protection of their whereabouts. Western countries are perceived to have generally overlooked these issues, including the United States , France , and several other European countries. The founder of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in Washington, DC believed that even ten years after the Arab Spring, Egypt was at its lowest for human rights. Anti-government protests began in Libya on 15 February 2011. By 18 February,

16356-484: The aegis of the National Transitional Council seized Sirte, killing Gaddafi in the process. However, after Gaddafi was killed, the Civil War continued. Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized :  al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )

16530-615: The authorities had "launched a full-throttle clampdown to crush demonstrations and intimidate activists, journalists and others into silence". Two thousand people, including Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) representatives, protested in Khartoum on 26 September in support of Waleed Abdelrahman Hassan, a Sudanese anti-Islamist student detained by Egyptian authorities, who gave a forced confession on MBC Masr television. The SPA stated, "the era when Sudanese citizens were humiliated inside or outside their country has gone and will never return". The Sudanese Foreign Ministry summoned

16704-537: The city. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed the GCC power-transfer deal in which a presidential election was held, resulting in his successor Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi formally replacing him as president on 27 February 2012 in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Weapons and Tuareg fighters returning from the Libyan Civil War stoked a simmering conflict in Mali that has been described as 'fallout' from

16878-574: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after

17052-473: The cost of living and taxes . As of 9 January, the demonstrations had claimed at least one life, and revived worries about the fragile political situation in Tunisia. The Popular Front , an alliance of leftist opposition parties, called for continued protests against the government's "unjust" austerity measures while Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed denounced the violence and called for calm, claiming that he and his government believe 2018 "would be

17226-440: The country. In Lebanon, a major banking crisis is threatening the country's economy as well as that of neighboring Syria. The denomination “Arab Spring” is contested by some scholars and observers claiming that the term is problematic for several reasons. First, it was coined by Western commentators, not those involved in the events. The first specific use of the term Arab Spring as used to denote these events may have started with

17400-557: The country. Many protests focused on issues such as education and health care, while others cited rampant corruption. In Western Sahara, the Gdeim Izik protest camp was erected 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southeast of El Aaiún by a group of young Sahrawis on 9 October 2010. Their intention was to demonstrate against labor discrimination, unemployment, looting of resources, and human rights abuses. The camp contained between 12 000 and 20 000 inhabitants, but on 8 November 2010 it

17574-516: The creation of a new public sphere based on dialogue and mutual respect, the reality is that Islamists and their adversaries retreat to their respective camps, reinforcing each other's prejudices while throwing the occasional rhetorical bomb across the no-man's land that the center has become." Lynch also stated in a Foreign Policy article, "There is something very different about scrolling through pictures and videos of unified, chanting Yemeni or Egyptian crowds demanding democratic change and waking up to

17748-473: The demonstrations, the Bahraini authorities are known to have accelerated their crackdown. They have been targeting human rights defenders, journalists, Shiite political groups and social media critics. Saudi government forces quashed protests in the country and assisted Bahraini authorities in suppressing demonstrations there. Jamal Khashoggi , a Saudi critic, covered the Arab spring and spoke out against

17922-546: The demonstrators directed attention to a number of domestic political issues that worsened since the Israeli and Egyptian blockade in 2007 and the takeover of Hamas. Among those, the rivalry between Hamas and Fatah resulted in the failure to assure stability and security, notwithstanding the financial pressure put on by the Palestinian Authority. The Hamas-led government responded with apologies on behalf of

18096-587: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of

18270-558: The end of his 42 years of power. Many institutions of the government, including Gaddafi and several top government officials, regrouped in Sirte , which Gaddafi declared to be Libya's new capital. Others fled to Sabha , Bani Walid , and remote reaches of the Libyan Desert , or to surrounding countries. However, Sabha fell in late September, Bani Walid was captured after a grueling siege weeks later, and on 20 October, fighters under

18444-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around

18618-446: The existing system, including many unemployed persons, political and human rights activists, labor and trade unionists, students, professors, lawyers, and others to begin the Tunisian Revolution . The series of protests and demonstrations across the Middle East and North Africa that commenced in 2010 became known as the "Arab Spring", and sometimes as the "Arab Spring and Winter", "Arab Awakening", or "Arab Uprisings", even though not all

18792-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From

18966-510: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and

19140-503: The freeze of the price hikes; the government acquiesced but said the decision would cost the treasury $ 20 million. The protests continued for four days until Mulki submitted his resignation to the King on the 4th of June, and Omar Razzaz , his Education Minister , became prime minister. Protests only ceased after Razzaz announced his intention of withdrawing the new tax bill. The protests have not been led by traditional opposition groups like

19314-481: The immediate response to the Arab Spring. While leadership changed and regimes were held accountable, power vacuums opened across the Arab world. Ultimately, it resulted in a contentious battle between a consolidation of power by religious elites and the growing support for democracy in many Muslim-majority states. The early hopes that these popular movements would end corruption, increase political participation, and bring about greater economic equity quickly collapsed in

19488-597: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward

19662-402: The intervention. The forces were driven back from the outskirts of Benghazi, and the rebels mounted an offensive , capturing scores of towns across the coast of Libya. The offensive stalled however, and a counter-offensive by the government retook most of the towns, until a stalemate was formed between Brega and Ajdabiya , the former being held by the government and the latter in the hands of

19836-703: The lack of support from the Palestinian Authority . The peaceful protests were brutally crushed by the ruling Hamas , which dispatched security forces to disperse people. The neutralization by Hamas saw a spillover of violence: there have been reports of armed patrols breaking into people’s homes, mass arrests and beatings in Gaza City , Jabaliya refugee camp , Deir al-Balah , Khan Yunis and Rafah . Although there are no killings recorded, over 1000 people got threatened, beaten, and detained. Journalists, photographers and activists were forbidden to cover

20010-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about

20184-425: The last difficult year for Tunisians". A new series of protests started on 15 January 2021, amidst the 10th anniversary of the Tunisian Revolution . Thousands rioted in cities and towns across Tunisia, which saw looting, arson, as well as mass deployment of police and army in several cities and the arrests of hundreds of people. After 7 months of discontinuous protests, on 25 July, President Kais Saied sacked

20358-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c.  603 –689)

20532-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA

20706-437: The limited role of social networks, such as Yemen and Libya , the role of mainstream electronic media devices—cellular phones, emails, and video clips (e.g., YouTube )—was very important to cast the light on the situation in the country and spread the word about the protests in the outside world. In Egypt , in Cairo particularly, mosques were one of the main platforms to coordinate the protest actions and raise awareness to

20880-400: The manifestation. Local correspondents who were able to document parts of the protests have been assaulted by Hamas officers. Numerous political organisations and human rights groups condemned the aggressive repression by the hand of Hamas security forces to the nonviolent demonstrations. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights denounced their actions as "a crime and violation according to

21054-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya

21228-433: The masses. Conversely, scholarship literature on the Middle East, political scientist Gregory Gause has found, had failed to predict the events of the Arab uprisings. Commenting on an early article by Gause whose review of a decade of Middle Eastern studies led him to conclude that almost no scholar foresaw what was coming, Chair of Ottoman and Turkish Studies at Tel Aviv University Ehud R. Toledano writes that Gause's finding

21402-516: The national and international laws", and urged the security forces to "respect the right to peaceful assembly and right to freedom of expression". Human Rights Watch reported that "Hamas authorities routinely arrest and torture peaceful critics and opponents with impunity." Amnesty International called for a "thorough and transparent investigation into the unnecessary and excessive use of force, arbitrary arrest and detention, and torture and other ill-treatment by security forces." Supporting groups of

21576-731: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum  [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve

21750-438: The number of nodes increases, the value of collaborative actor-networks increases quadratically; collaborative Internet utilities effectively increase the subitizing limit, and, at some macro scale, these interactive collaborative actor-networks can be described by the same rules that govern Parallel Distributed Processing , resulting in crowd sourcing that acts as a type of distributed collective consciousness. The Internet assumes

21924-540: The number of protestors at the Pearl Roundabout peaked at over 150 000 after more than 100 000 protesters marched there and were coming under fire from the Bahraini Military which killed around 20 and injured over 100 protestors. On 14 March, GCC forces (composed mainly of Saudi and UAE troops) were requested by the government and occupied the country. King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa declared

22098-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on

22272-419: The opposition controlled most of Benghazi , the country's second-largest city. The government dispatched elite troops and militia in an attempt to recapture it, but they were repelled. By 20 February, protests had spread to the capital Tripoli , leading to a television address by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi , who warned the protestors that their country could descend into civil war. The rising death toll, numbering in

22446-536: The opposition parties. Smaller-scale protests and clashes outside of the capital have continued to occur almost daily. On 9 March 2012, over 100 000 protested in what the opposition called "the biggest march in our history". The police response has been described as a "brutal" crackdown on peaceful and unarmed protestors, including doctors and bloggers. The police carried out midnight house raids in Shia neighbourhoods, beatings at checkpoints, and denial of medical care in

22620-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on

22794-661: The participants in the protests were Arab . It was sparked by the first protests that occurred in Tunisia on 18 December 2010 in Sidi Bouzid, following Mohamed Bouazizi 's self-immolation in protest of police corruption and ill treatment. With the success of the protests in Tunisia, a wave of unrest sparked by the Tunisian "Burning Man" struck Algeria , Jordan , Egypt , and Yemen , then spread to other countries. The largest, most organized demonstrations often occurred on

22968-454: The planned imposed taxes on gasoline, tobacco and online phone calls such as through WhatsApp , as protests started breaking out right after unanimous Cabinet approval of the WhatsApp taxes, due to be ratified by 22 October. In contrast to the 2005 Cedar Revolution , and similarly to a process started in the 2015–2016 Lebanese protests , the 2019 protests were non-sectarian, crossing

23142-483: The platform for sustained political action in pursuit of the "long revolution". The government mobilized to break the strike through infiltration and riot police, and while the regime was somewhat successful in forestalling a strike, dissidents formed the "6 April Committee" of youths and labor activists, which became one of the major forces calling for the anti- Mubarak demonstration on 25 January in Tahrir Square . In Algeria , discontent had been building for years over

23316-419: The political landscape. On 18 October 2021, the new government of Aziz Akhannouch announced that a COVID-19 vaccine pass would be mandatory effective 21 October to enter public facilities and enclosed locations including restaurants, cafes and shops, as well as for both international and domestic travel. While over 58% of the population had been vaccinated by this point, the decision still angered many in

23490-534: The prime minister and froze the parliament which resulted in a political crisis . The 2018–2019 Iraqi protests over deteriorating economic conditions and state corruption started in July 2018 in Baghdad and other major Iraqi cities, mainly in the central and southern provinces. During the nationwide protests erupting in October 2019 , Iraqi security forces killed over 500 people and over 27,000 have been injured, leading Iraq's president Barham Salih to call

23664-656: The problematic nature of projecting Western expectations onto non-Western actors and practices. The terminology follows the Western example of the Revolutions of 1848 referred to as “Spring of Nations” and the Prague Spring in 1968, in which a Czech student, Jan Palach , set himself on fire as Mohamed Bouazizi did. In the aftermath of the Iraq War , it was used by various commentators and bloggers who anticipated

23838-720: The protestors called for President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to be removed from power. Security forces responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and live bullets and, as of 6 October 2019 , 3000 arrests had been made, based on data from the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights , the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms and the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information . Prominent arrestees included human rights lawyer Mahienour el-Massry , journalist and former leader of

24012-696: The protests then spread to five other countries: Libya , Egypt , Yemen , Syria and Bahrain . Rulers were deposed ( Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia in 2011, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya in 2011, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in 2011, and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen in 2012) or major uprisings and social violence occurred including riots, civil wars, or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco , Iraq , Algeria , Lebanon , Jordan , Kuwait , Oman and Sudan . Minor protests took place in Djibouti , Mauritania , Palestine , Saudi Arabia and

24186-480: The protests were instigated by Iran . Although the report found that systematic torture had stopped, the Bahraini government has refused entry to several international human rights groups and news organizations, and delayed a visit by a UN inspector . More than 80 people had died since the start of the uprising. Even a decade after the 2011 uprisings, the situation in Bahrain remained unchanged. The regime continued suppression against all forms of dissent. Years after

24360-533: The protests, and the major religious groups in Egypt— Salafis , al-Azhar , and the Coptic Church —initially opposed the revolution. The mufti of Egypt, Ali Gomaa , proclaimed that rising against a lawful ruler—President Mubarak—was haram , not permissible. And the Muslim Brotherhood 's old guard joined in the protests reluctantly only after being pushed by the group's young people. The Arab Spring caused

24534-479: The raid, some protesters began to expand their aims to a call for the end of the monarchy. On 18 February, army forces opened fire on protesters when they tried to reenter the roundabout, fatally wounding one. The following day protesters reoccupied Pearl Roundabout after the government ordered troops and police to withdraw. Subsequent days saw large demonstrations; on 21 February a pro-government Gathering of National Unity drew tens of thousands, whilst on 22 February

24708-710: The rebels. Focus then shifted to the west of the country, where bitter fighting continued. After a three-month-long battle , a loyalist siege of rebel-held Misrata , the third largest city in Libya, was broken in large part due to coalition air strikes. The four major fronts of combat were generally considered to be the Nafusa Mountains , the Tripolitanian coast, the Gulf of Sidra , and the southern Libyan Desert . In late August, anti-Gaddafi fighters captured Tripoli , scattering Gaddafi's government and marking

24882-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within

25056-509: The region. In the wake of the Arab Spring protests, a considerable amount of attention focused on the role of social media and digital technologies in allowing citizens within areas affected by "the Arab Uprisings" as a means for collective activism to circumvent state-operated media channels. The influence of social media on political activism during the Arab Spring has, however, been much debated. Protests took place both in states with

25230-612: The report, included human rights activists of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), who were arrested in November 2020. The executive director of the Project on Middle East Democracy, Stephen McInerney, said that a majority of pro-democracy activists had escaped Egypt, while those who could not had gone into hiding. The Project on Middle East Democracy mentioned using encrypted communication channels to talk to

25404-413: The resistance." Habbal and Hansawi argued that the new wave of protests frequently included usage of the slogan " Ash-shab yurid isqat an-nizam " ( The people want the fall of the regime ) used during the 2010–2011 Arab Spring. The protests have often been described as being inherently "anti-systemic" to the entirety of the political establishment instead of opposition to a single policy , fueling this

25578-470: The role of earlier totemic religious figureheads, uniting the members of society through mechanical solidarity forming a collective consciousness. Through many-to-many collaborative Internet utilities, the Webeaucracy is empowered as never before. Social networks were not the only instrument for rebels to coordinate their efforts and communicate. In the countries with the lowest Internet penetration and

25752-556: The sacking of four successive governments by King Abdullah . The popular unrest in Kuwait also resulted in the resignation of Prime Minister Nasser Al-Sabah 's cabinet. The geopolitical implications of the protests drew global attention. Some protesters were nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize . Tawakkol Karman of Yemen was co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize due to her role organizing peaceful protests. In December 2011 Time magazine named "The Protester" its " Person of

25926-405: The same poll said that blocking Facebook greatly hindered and/or disrupted communication. Social media sites were a platform for different movements formed by many frustrated citizens, including the 2008 "April 6 Youth Movement" organized by Ahmed Mahed, which set out to organize and promote a nationwide labor strike and which inspired the later creation of the "Progressive Youth of Tunisia". During

26100-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there

26274-456: The security forces for the attacks on Palestinians and condemned their conduct. The protests were described as a moment that shook Hamas' authority since their takeover in 2007. In late July 2023, protesters against the Hamas government rose up once more, however due to the inaccessibility of the strip and the subsequent government crackdown, the scale of the protests was unknown and may have been

26448-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of

26622-563: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of

26796-418: The start of the Arab Spring. The catalyst for the escalation of protests was the self-immolation of Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi . Unable to find work and selling fruit at a roadside stand, Bouazizi had his wares confiscated by a municipal inspector on 17 December 2010. An hour later he doused himself with gasoline and set himself afire. His death on 4 January 2011 brought together various groups dissatisfied with

26970-489: The status quo. Some protesters looked to the Turkish model as an ideal (contested but peaceful elections, fast-growing but liberal economy, secular constitution but Islamist government). Other analysts blamed the rise in food prices on commodity traders and the conversion of crops to ethanol . Yet others have claimed that the context of high rates of unemployment and corrupt political regimes led to dissent movements within

27144-489: The streets on several occasions to rally against decisions made by their government , whilst demanding more employment opportunities as well as economic reforms. Protests erupted in Omani capital Muscat outside the Ministry of Manpower on 22 January 2018. Demonstrations spread rapidly across the country, reaching other major cities such as Salalah , Sohar and Sur . Numerous people were reportedly arrested. In response,

27318-536: The strike on the 31st of May, the government raised fuel and electricity prices responding to an increase in international oil prices. This led to crowds of protesters pouring onto the 4th circle in Amman , near the Prime Ministry's offices that night. Other Jordanians also gathered across the country in protest of the measure in unprecedented large numbers. On the 1st of June King Abdullah intervened and ordered

27492-638: The tens of thousands at Moroccan soccer club stadiums. In February 2021, protests in Fnideq against the closure of the borders with Ceuta and Melilla , which led to worsened socioeconomic conditions, were met with police repression, with authorities saying that the protests were "unauthorized" and "in violation" of the state of health emergency imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic . In July 2021, local authorities in Sidi Bennour confiscated

27666-467: The term to minimise people’s revolutionary aims and discourse. Joseph Massad on Al Jazeera said the term was "part of a US strategy of controlling the movement's aims and goals" and directing it towards Western-style liberal democracy . When Arab Spring protests in some countries were followed by electoral success for Islamist parties, some American pundits coined the terms Islamist Spring and Islamist Winter . The term “Spring” further illustrates

27840-466: The thousands, drew international condemnation and resulted in the resignation of several Libyan diplomats, along with calls for the government's dismantlement. Amidst ongoing efforts by demonstrators and rebel forces to wrest control of Tripoli from the Jamahiriya , the opposition set up an interim government in Benghazi to oppose Colonel Muammar Gaddafi 's rule. However, despite initial opposition success, government forces subsequently took back much of

28014-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to

28188-458: The transfer of power from a military junta to a combined military–civilian Sovereignty Council that is legally committed to a 39-month transition to democracy . In Algeria , a series of mass protests resulted in the resignation of president Abdelaziz Bouteflika , and the postponement of the scheduled presidential election . Other protests also took place in Egypt , Jordan , Lebanon , Morocco , and Tunisia , along with economic protests in

28362-488: The uprisings. Facebook, Twitter, and other major social media played a key role in the movement of Egyptian and Tunisian activists in particular. Nine out of ten Egyptians and Tunisians responded to a poll that they used Facebook to organize protests and spread awareness. This large population of young Egyptian men referred to themselves as "the Facebook generation", exemplifying their escape from their non-modernized past. Furthermore, 28% of Egyptians and 29% of Tunisians from

28536-405: The vaccine pass. In Rabat, police dispersed around a hundred protesters planning to hold an "unauthorized rally", while an online petition criticizing the "arbitrary" introduction of the vaccine pass received thousands of signatures. By December, most restaurants and shops had backtracked and no longer required a vaccine pass for access. A Qantara.de columnist noted that the mass protests made

28710-417: The violence that swept the region following the 2011 Arab Spring , its economy had taken a hit from the surrounding turmoil and from an influx of a large number of Syrian refugees into the country. Jordan also hosts a large contingent of Iraqi and Palestinian refugees , further straining its finances. The UNHCR places Jordan as the world's second largest host of refugees per capita. The day following

28884-631: The wake of the counter-revolutionary moves by foreign state actors in Yemen, the regional and international military interventions in Bahrain and Yemen, and the destructive civil wars in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen. Some have referred to the succeeding and still ongoing conflicts as the Arab Winter . Recent uprisings in Sudan and Algeria show that the conditions that started the Arab Spring have not faded and political movements against authoritarianism and exploitation are still occurring. Since late 2018, multiple uprisings and protest movements in Algeria, Sudan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Egypt have been seen as

29058-402: The working-class, including cafeteria and restaurant owners, as well as politicians including Nabila Mounib , head of the Unified Socialist Party (PSU), who refused to get vaccinated. The decision in particular to impose the pass requirement despite vaccination being only voluntary was also criticized. By late October and early November, hundreds were demonstrating across the country against

29232-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study

29406-431: Was "good old-fashioned word of mouth". Jared Keller argued that the sudden and anomalous social media output was caused from Westerners witnessing the situation(s), and then broadcasting them. The Middle East and North Africa used texting, emailing, and blogging only to organize and communicate information about internal local protests. A study by Zeynep Tufekci of the University of North Carolina and Christopher Wilson of

29580-412: Was an attempted workers' strike on 6 April 2008 at the state-run textile factories of al-Mahalla al-Kubra , just outside Cairo . The idea for this type of demonstration spread throughout the country, promoted by computer-literate working-class youths and their supporters among middle-class college students. A Facebook page, set up to promote the strike, attracted tens of thousands of followers and provided

29754-402: Was destroyed and its inhabitants evicted by Moroccan security forces. The security forces faced strong opposition from some young Sahrawi civilians, and rioting soon spread to El Aaiún and other towns within the territory, resulting in an unknown number of injuries and deaths. Violence against Sahrawis in the aftermath of the protests was cited as a reason for renewed protests months later, after

29928-435: Was generally considered to have been a success in Egypt, much like in Tunisia. However, a December 2020 report published by PRI's The World , a US-based public radio news magazine, suggests otherwise. The report says that the Egyptian government increased the amount of executions that it carried out by more than twofold, with the report saying that the government put to death approximately 60 people. This number, according to

30102-490: Was initiated with the popular calls "We want to live" and "Revolt of the hungry" by groups of civilians and activists. The group has been nicknamed the 14 March movement . The protests aim at the overall dire conditions of living in the Gaza Strip. Half of the 2 million residents live in poverty. Civilians claimed that the nonviolent protests were not meant to threaten the current ruling power, but rather asking to improve social and economic conditions. Among their requests, one

30276-414: Was postponed after the head of High National Election Commission (HNEC) ordered the dissolution of the electoral committees nationwide. Elections are indefinitely postponed. The Sudanese revolution was a major shift of political power in Sudan which began with street protests throughout Sudan on 19 December 2018 and continued with sustained civil disobedience for about eight months, during which

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