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Volume :42 Issue : 3 2014
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The Arab Spring and the Cultural Domino Effect Theory
Auther : Mahmoud Dhaouadi
My inventory of a long list of regular and special issues of newspapers, magazines and journals in Arabic, French and English on the 2011 Arab uprisings hardly offers an explanation to them like the one to be presented in this article. The common outlined explanation in them stresses the economic, social, political as well as corruption factors in Arab societies. In turn, I focus specifically on the phenomenon of the speedy spreading of protests, revolts and revolutions in the Arab world which started in Tunisia January 2011 and reached by now Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Syria. I wish to explain the rapid diffusion of the Arab Spring through a new intellectual framework labeled cultural domino theory. The argument of the thesis of this article emphasizes the importance of the role of cultural factors in igniting the Arab Spring uprisings. Arabic language and Islam are the leading cultural factors most Arabs share and consequently create strong solidarity among them including in revolts. In other words, the Arab Spring phenomenon is interpreted here as a sort of imitation among Arab countries because of the shared culture resulting from Islam and Arabic. The cultural factors are considered in this article as the hidden factors behind the scene. This is consistent with one sociologist's saying that hidden factors may be more telling than the obvious ones.
Keywords: Humans are Homo Culturus, Arabic , Islam, Arab Spring, Speedy Arab revolts, Culturally- induced uprisings imitation.