After the Arab Spring: How Islamists Hijacked The Middle East Revolts [Versión Kindle]

In this splendid book, John Bradley, an experienced foreign correspondent, shows how the media have lied to us about recent events in the Middle East. He exposes the myth of the `Arab Spring', which, like every Eastern European `colour' revolution, was not for freedom or democracy but for reaction.

He reminds us that Tunisia "was ruled by the most secular Arab regime and was the most socially liberal and progressive Muslim country in the Middle East. As such, before its revolution it had been the last bulwark against the Saudi-funded Wahhabi form of Islam that, since the oil boom of the 1970s, had spread everywhere else in the Islamic world."

Bradley points out that Tunisia was a "Muslim country where abortion was legal, where schools taught sex education, and where the veil was banned in government institutions (and severely discouraged elsewhere)." Polygamy had been outlawed for decades. The fertility rate was 2.08, down from 7.2 in the 1960s.

Schools and health care were free. More was spent on education than on the army. Its education was excellent, ranked 17th in the world, and seventh in maths and science. A third of Tunisia's young people went to university, where 60 per cent of students were women.

The army had no role in politics. The government opposed regionalism, tribalism and Islamism. "In Tunisia, there was a reason that the Islamists were not the vanguard: for decades the regime had imprisoned or exiled them."

In 2009, only 4 per cent of Tunisians were poor; after the counter-revolution, 25 per cent were poor, and 40 per cent were jobless. The Islamists won the October 2011 election. Islamist storm-troopers smashed up cinemas, TV stations, bars, synagogues and university buildings, and attacked unveiled women, artists and secularists. This was the fascist murder of Tunisia's secularism.

In Egypt a military coup ousted Mubarak. Saudi Arabia gave $4 billion in soft loans to Egypt's new military regime. The generals promised civilian rule, but reneged and have jailed even more people than Mubarak did. Bradley comments, "In 2011 the pro-democracy activists had from the outset foolishly declared their own revolution `leaderless'; they had learned nothing from history about how revolutionary movements lacking a vanguard are crushed by more entrenched and better-organized forces in the aftermath of massive social and political upheaval."

In February 2011 Saudi forces shot down Bahrain's unarmed protestors. President Obama backed the Saudi invasion. Saudi Arabia backed an Islamist revolt in the Yemen. It funds Pakistan's madrassas; in return Pakistani troops are stationed in Saudi Arabia to support the regime.

Saudi Arabia also funds madrassas in Indonesia, Malaysia, southern Thailand and Afghanistan. It is the paymaster of Islamist terrorism around the world. Its fronts include the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, the International Islamic Relief Organisation and the Muslim World League.

The USA thinks that its interests, and Israel's, are best served by a pact with Saudi Arabia. So President Obama backs all the Saudi counter-revolutions, supports the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and backed the Al-Qaeda-linked rebels in Libya.

Bradley notes, "Syria, the only ostensibly secular Arab country apart from Tunisia, was ruled by a minority Shia cult, and there, too, the Sunni fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood was ready to pounce." In this, the only remaining secular Arab country, the USA and Britain back the Islamist, Al-Qaeda-linked, Saudi-backed rebels trying to overthrow the government by force.

Bradley concludes, "Socially and economically, the Arab Spring has put back countries like Tunisia, Yemen, and Syria by decades."

The vast majority of reporting about the Arab Spring has come from journalists who just showed up for the excitement and inevitably apply their own Western filters onto the events that've transpired since the Arab Spring's first fiery flickerings. Bradley has been living and reporting in the area for decades, and this book reflects that: it smashes the rosy-colored glasses the media at large has been reporting about the Arab Spring through firmly underfoot.

Bradley reminds us that democracy alone is not enough for the Arab World to begin to reflect Western mores and ideals - indispensable from our culture and system of government is the idea of liberalism: that people should be free to live their lives in whatever manner they please so long as it does not impinge on others' rights.

The Arab Spring may have lead to more democracy in the Arab World, but it has not lead to liberalism - wherever there's been revolt it's been the supremely well-organized Islamists who have gained the most power, not the sparse handful of moderates. And these Islamists don't seek to bring the Arab World into the 21st century, but instead drag it even further back into the days when honor killings and judicial amputation first began.

Bradley writes with a thoroughly literate journalistic flair that makes the book a fun and engaging read, even if you're already well-versed in the history and culture of the Muslim World you'll still find plenty of new information from his on the ground experiences and interviews. His section on Islamism within Southeast Asia is especially interesting, considering how little reporting comes from Islam's less-sexy island outposts. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in knowing the true story behind the Arab Spring, it's a soundly historical guide to the region and its analysis of what may come next is already proving to be spot on.

For a more general guide to Middle Eastern history, see: Tremble the Devil: "the story of terrorism as Jesus Christ, James Bond, and Osama bin Ladin would tell it."

The existing reviews about this book are excellent and I find it difficult to add anything more of value. However here's my attempt as I think John Bradley deserves to be better known, especially to lay persons like myself.

Whether or not you share Bradleys view that the Moslem Brotherhood and Salafis could very likely take control of the Middle East, this book is essential reading if you want a better understanding of the unique make up and mentality of each country affected by the Arab Spring. e.g. why Tunisian's don't relate to Egyptians, and why they have even less use for Libyans.

I live in Egypt, and as much as I try to stay informed about the Middle East, until I read this book I found the underlying reasons for events, the relationship of one country or group to another, "Is a friend or foe?", very confusing.

Bradley provided me with the clarity I have been lacking. He goes into detail that the average person would never have access to and other writers are not interested in covering - and none of this detail is at all 'dry' reading. The opening chapter on Tunisia alone is worth the price of the book. And this detail makes all the difference in understanding events in the region (and Washington's foreign policy). I am now much much better informed when I watch or read the daily news.

Thank you John R. Bradley! I can hardly wait to read your other books.