Source: Huffington Post
Author: Raghida Dergham
The Arab Spring is currently suffering a setback, making it more an autumn. Yet this does not necessarily mean that winter will blow over the Arab Awakening and do away with it, before we can celebrate the Arab Spring’s first anniversary. Against the background of what is taking place in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, there are legitimate fears now, especially as Islamist movements are skillfully and craftily trying to hijack the youth’s revolution of change and their ambitions of secular constitutions that separate religion and state.
Yet the movements of modernity and enlightenment in both Egypt and Tunisia — and even in Libya to a lesser extent — are not quite on the retreat, despite the attempts by Islamist movements to exaggerate their size, and to prevent others from being given opportunities to organize themselves into political parties that would be able to compete with them.
Categories: Middle East