Middle East Protests: Inside The Arab Youth Quake

Time:

At 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 15, as thousands of people gathered to protest against their ruler at a busy intersection in Manama, the capital of the small island nation of Bahrain, you could just about hear over the general hubbub the anthem of the young people who have shaken regimes from North Africa to the Arabian Gulf. It wasn't a verse from the Koran. It wasn't a traditional tune from the region. It was rap. A reedy female voice shouted out, several times, the first line of "Rais Lebled," a song written by the Tunisian rapper known as El Général. "Mr. President, your people are dying," the woman sang. Then others joined in. "Mr. President, your people are dying/ People are eating rubbish/ Look at what is happening/ Miseries everywhere, Mr. President/ I talk with no fear/ Although I know I will get only trouble/ I see injustice everywhere."

Bahrain, as it happens, doesn't have a President; it's ruled by a King, Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa. No matter. The protesters in Bahrain knew that "Rais Lebled" was the battle hymn of the Jasmine Revolution that brought down Tunisia's dictator, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, and that it was then adopted by the demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir Square who toppled Hosni Mubarak. Now it had come to Bahrain, as rage against poverty and oppression swept the Arab world from west to east. It isn't just songs that are being copied: in a nod to the Egyptians, organizers in several countries have dubbed their demonstrations Days of Rage, and the popular Tunisian chant, "The people want the regime to fall," has been taken up by protesters from Algeria to Yemen.

Read the whole story: Time

Comments

[xMoonWalkerx]

02:53 PM on 02/18/2011

A sexual revolution in these Muslim majority countries will solve the Islamist menace as people that to be happy and enjoy the pleasures of this world is not a sin

[hanoum]

06:50 PM on 02/18/2011

Your ignorance of Islam is embarassing.

[xMoonWalkerx]

01:39 AM on 02/22/2011

Your low level of comprehension is even more embarrassing. I care a f*ck about Islam or islamists but I would like islamists to rest comfortably six feet under so as to prevent these dangerous primitive fools from harming the civilized world. If you support these Islamist types, you can join them too.

[wom122]

09:59 AM on 02/20/2011

How would a sexual revolution solve the problems of poverty and overpopulation?

[xMoonWalkerx]

01:34 AM on 02/22/2011

I was talking about the islamists and not the general population.

[Derek Lantin]

07:38 PM on 02/17/2011

Sir

Your article asks “Who are the protestors?”

Well, in Bahrain they are largely Shiite Muslims who wish to take power away from the Sunni Muslims. The majority of the population are Shiite but the Monarchy and Government are Sunni. The unrest is, at it’s base, religious. Bahrain is a modern, open, developed society, - not an impoverished desert community.

In Libya there is no serious religious divide because most of the population are Sunni. In Libya is likely that the people are fed up with mismanagement, corruption and unequal distribution of wealth.

Mr. Gadaffi’s son is foreign educated and socially aware, - he should have instigated reforms long before these problems erupted.

Sincerely, Derek Lantin. http://dereklantin.booksabuzz.com

[SapientiaAudit]

07:09 PM on 02/17/2011

Well now. Seems like the Internet has finally started to live up to its real potential. I've been saying for years now that such a vast increase in communication would inevitably catalyze enormous political and social change. These revolutions in the Middle East and Africa are only the beginning of something much larger that will change the world forever.

Our species is perched on the brink of a huge leap in our social evolution for the first time in a very long time. I doubt most of us will live to see it through entirely, but it's started and these decentralized youth movements are just the tip of the iceberg.

How exciting it is to be living in such times.

[eric14]

01:06 PM on 02/17/2011

As advertised above:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd9J4O6z0-c

and influence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8txhtB2e5M

[hanoum]

06:52 PM on 02/18/2011

oooohj, English subtitles, please!!

[eric14]

06:59 PM on 02/18/2011

Couldn't find a version. It's great though.

[Smithn]

12:29 PM on 02/17/2011

. . these kids bring bring hopefu, happy tears to my old eyes. . .

[wwoody]

11:34 AM on 02/17/2011

The has changed......never to be the same.

[mnyegele]

11:31 AM on 02/17/2011

While the Muslim world is experiencing a Youth Quake, the GOP is setting up a version of the Spanish Inquisition courtesy of FOX News. What sort of message is the US sending to the young people in the Islamic world? We should be championing religious tolerance, not dragging patriotic, American Muslims before a latter-day HUAC. By re-creating the HUAC, the GOP once again is proving that GOP itself is anti-American.

P.S. I attend church regularly. My church preaches against religous intolerance.

[INDIVIDUALTERRY]

11:02 AM on 02/17/2011

They are rappin' ?......UNLEASH THE HOUNDS !