ABSTRACT
The existence of civil society in the Arab Middle East has been an issue of debate between scholars and researchers. Most of the scholarly work on civil society is based on the idea as to whether this society exists in the region and whether it is defying the authority of the government, or evaluates civil society in the Middle East and its characteristics based on Western understanding of the term.
This chapter analyzes civil society in the Arab world and Islamic culture, as well as the elements that should be included and excluded from defining civil society in the Middle East. It also analyzes the political development of the Arab world and its effect on the development of civil society, and provides a theoretical background of civil society in conflicting and developing societies.
It also argues that the first step studying Arab civil society should be to be historically and culturally sensitive while defining the terms: the historical and political development of each state should be taken into consideration; importing and applying the understanding of Western liberal civil society distorts the reality.
