ABSTRACT

This piece engages with contemporary revolutions from the perspective of religion. Religion has played a significant role in mobilizing peoples in Turkey, Iran, and even Egypt. I examine the Arab spring by suggesting that these movements point to radical changes in the Muslim World by paying close attention to revolutions in Turkey, Iran, and Egypt. I argue that religion has acted as resource of mobilization in Muslim societies by showing that systematically through Turkey and Iran. However, with the Egyptian revolts we see a challenge to the dominance of that resource and a desire to seek other resources as forces of mobilization. The article concludes by offering a provocation to the Muslim insurgents and the entire Muslim world: to rekindle the legacy of the great Muslim philosophers and social-political thinkers, and to connect it with the aspirations of contemporary democratic thought and practice.