Arab Spring Quotes - Page 2

• I am being very humble about the Arab Spring. There's kind of a competition out there, you might have noticed, of who can be the first to say the Arab Spring is going to fail. Everyone says, "I told you so, I told you so about the Muslim Brotherhood." I have no desire to tell anyone anything. I don't know. I'm just listening, watching. It may turn out all these people are right, they may be wrong. They may be right this year and wrong next year, by the way. I'm just trying to listen day to day, figure it out.

  Thomas Friedman

  Spring, Humble, Years

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• I don't think the Arab Spring had much to do with energy. I think it was just the opposite, in fact. I think the Arab Spring happened because particularly young people knew they were living in a context where they could not realize their full potential, that they are being kept down by their own governments.

  Thomas Friedman

  Spring, Thinking, Government

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• I am a supporter of much of the Arab Spring, as a matter of indigenous self-determination. So, I see the United States' role in Libya as an appropriately restrained one in providing some international support for the work of those trying to bring democratic change against a regime that has undoubtedly been dictatorial, particularly in the past twenty years.

  Melissa Harris-Perry

  Determination, Spring, Past

  Source: www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com

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• Some socialist movements in Egypt, Tunisia and Bahrain, for instance, were genuine. I was making films about the so-called Arab Spring, and I'm well aware of how complex the situation really was. But it goes without saying is that the West immediately infiltrated and 'derailed' the revolutions, turning them into what you have described.

  Andre Vltchek

  Spring, Egypt, Bahrain

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• I can understand the idea that there is a conspiracy. In fact, in much of the world there is a sense of an ultra-powerful CIA manipulating everything that happens, such as running the Arab Spring, running the Pakistani Taliban, etc. That is just nonsense. They [CIA] created a monster and now they are appalled by it.

  Noam Chomsky

  Running, Powerful, Spring

  Source: www.dawn.com

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• Let's look at two things real quickly: the civil rights movement in Mississippi in the Sixties and the Arab Spring starting in Tunisia and Cairo. What they had in common was people who were told, and who believed inside themselves, that they were a certain way, and the society at large believed it.

  Bill Ayers

  Spring, Real, Rights

  Source: thepointmag.com

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• The first question that I ask : do I have public support or not. That is the first question that I asked as President. If I don't have the public support, whether there's the so-called "Arab spring" - it's not spring, anyway - but whether we have this or we don't, if you don't have public support, you have to quit, you have to leave. If you have public support, in any circumstances you have to stay. That's your mission, you have to help the people, you have to serve the people.

  Bashar al-Assad

  Spring, Support You, People

  Source: legrandsoir.info

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• If democracy succeeds in Egypt, other countries will follow. Should the democratic experiment in Egypt be hijacked by the military or anti-democratic Islamist groups, the revolution will fail elsewhere.

  David Ignatius

  Country, Spring, Military

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• All the big revolutions, whether it's the Industrial Revolution, the Arab Spring, those changes happened by economic and social shifts brought about by the people's voices, and those things weren't voted for. Most of our changes today are brought about through technology, not by voting.

  Lupe Fiasco

  Spring, Technology, Voice

  "Lupe Fiasco on Freedom". Interview with Lisa Bonner, www.ebony.com. June 28, 2012.

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• Israel no longer has allies in Egypt and in Tunisia, we are saying to the Zionist enemies that times have changed and that the time of the Arab Spring, the time of the revolution, of dignity and of pride has arrived.

  Ismail Haniyeh

  Spring, Pride, Israel

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• The most striking thing is that even before Osama bin Laden was killed, he seemed largely irrelevant to the Arab Spring.

  Paul Wolfowitz

  Spring, Osama Bin Laden, Irrelevant

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• You're advised not to drink the replica Arab spring water.

  Banksy

  Spring, Water, Drink

  "Follow Along As Banksy Takes Over New York City", www.huffingtonpost.com. October 3, 2013.

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• You can understand Tunisia revolution as a failure to censor the internet. And Libya had that failure too. It's very difficult for governments that are autocratic and don't have broad popular support to be in power when a lot of people have these devices. That was what Arab Spring was about, that people could express this and lead to revolution.

  Eric Schmidt

  Spring, Government, People

  "Google's Big Tent event: porn, copyright, Eric Schmidt and all". www.theguardian.com. May 23, 2012.

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• Odd how often blood is shed to obtain freedom from those in power. Oppressors must be the most insecure people in the world.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Leadership, Wisdom, Spring

  Twitter post from Dec 08, 2013

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• Ultimately, only diplomacy can bring about a durable solution to the challenge posed by Iran's nuclear program. As President and Commander in Chief, I will do what is necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. However, I have a profound responsibility to try to resolve our differences peacefully, rather than rush towards conflict.

  Barack Obama

  Leadership, Wisdom, Spring

  "Obama admits Israel has good reason for scepticism over Iran nuclear deal" by Dan Roberts, www.theguardian.com. November 25, 2013.

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• Look at what has occurred in history. When the Berlin Wall fell, it was not surprising, but it was unexpected. Who predicted the Arab Spring? Nobody expected it, but all the ingredients were there. I think all the ingredients are also there for Quebec to become a country. But when? That's another question.

  Gilles Duceppe

  Country, Wall, Spring

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• I think Martin Luther King would always keep track of collective insurgencies among poor and working people. He was concerned about the treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union, for example. He would have closely followed the Arab Spring. And certainly he would be very critical of the massive surveillance state that has emerged in America in the last five to 10 years. He would have approved of the movements trying to gain some accountability in U.S. foreign policy, such as drones being (used) on innocent people. I think he would march against drones.

  Cornel West

  Kings, Spring, Thinking

  Source: www.chicagotribune.com

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• We tie ourselves in knots when we act as if democracy is good for the United States and Israel but not for the Arab world. For far too long, we've treated the Arab world as just an oil field.

  Nicholas D. Kristof

  Spring, Israel, Oil

  "What Egypt Can Teach America" by Nicholas D. Kristof, www.nytimes.com. February 12, 2011.

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• The well of public opinion has been well and truly poisoned by the Iraq episode.

  David Cameron

  Spring, Iraq, History

  "MPs vote down military intervention in Syria: Politics live blog" by Andrew Sparrow, www.theguardian.com. August 29, 2013.

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• With the Arab Spring, came a great deal of hope that there would be a change towards more moderation, and opportunity for greater participation on the part of women in public life, and in economic life in the Middle East. But instead, we've seen in nation after nation, a number of disturbing events.

  Mitt Romney

  Spring, Opportunity, Numbers

  Source: genius.com

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• The end of despots is always odd?exhilarating to those who suffered their tyrannies, and to those who hold despotism in contempt, and anti-climatic at the same time, the discovery that these tyrants were petty, frightened men after all.

  Fouad Ajami

  Spring, Men, Discovery

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• What is irreversible in the Arab world is this intellectual revolution, the awakening that we can get rid of dictators. That is here, and the people have this sentiment and this political power. They feel that they can do it, and it's still there. At the same time, we don't know what is going to happen. So to be very quick by saying, "Oh, revolutions and Arab Spring," and - you know, what I'm advocating is to take a cautious optimism as the starting point of our analysis and to look at what is happening.

  Tariq Ramadan

  Spring, Optimism, People

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• But for us, in Syria, we have principles. We'll do anything to prevent the region from another crazy war. It's not only Syria. Because it will start in Syria.

  Bashar al-Assad

  Crazy, Spring, War

  "Assad and Obama on Syria's civil war". "60 Minutes" with Charlie Rose, www.cbsnews.com. September 15, 2013.

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• The Arab Spring I think we will look back whether it's two years, five years, ten or fifteen. And say it's a good thing.

  Abdallah II

  Spring, Thinking, Years

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• No one will remember that President Obama supported the Arab Spring if it eventually fails and the region collapses back into the political Dark Ages. If we actively engage these movements with advice, with money, and, when necessary, with military force, then we get a vote in how it all turns out.

  Sebastian Junger

  Spring, Military, Dark

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