The following except is taken from the article “Ibn Khaldun and The Arab Spring” by Jerry Ravetz

The moral element in political struggles, not merely expressed in fine rhetoric but worked out in practical politics and sacrifice, is the great defining difference between this age and all previous ones. Non-violence has emerged as the great guiding principle of the new politics of protest. In one way it is elementary prudence: the ruling elites can always deploy more violence than the protestors. And when that fails, as when the troops refuse to shoot at protestors in city squares, the cause is usually political and moral rather than military. But there is more: merely following orders is radically insufficient for nonviolence; it requires a deep personal commitment which, once achieved, can never be forgotten. This is why ‘Tahrir’ has become such a potent symbol of hope in the world, of a better way of bringing about change.

There are several reasons to hope that the moral ideology of non-violence will protect the ‘Arab spring’ from going through the usual cycle of degeneration. Non-violence is something much bigger and deeper than a simple abstention from violence. For it to really work, it requires activists who have thought through the issues and have been trained to control their emotions and responses. Such activists will never just ‘follow orders’; nor will they fall into aggressive sectarian dogmatism in conducting arguments with those of a different point of view.

In the practice of revolution, non-violence means a natural assumption of equality and comradeship across all differences, including gender, religion and class. In particular, women are liberated and a ‘green’ philosophy is taken for granted. Spontaneous local actions, such as for neighbourhood protection, are fostered.

Activists with a prior personal commitment to a religion take their inspiration from the humane insights of the prophetic founders rather than from the doctrines of contemporary priestly castes, and they then argue within their own communities for the new approach.

Of course there will be many confusions and setbacks; yet the process is irreversible, and partly because of the technology that has enabled this particular wave of revolution to take its special form. The interaction of information technology with politics is not a new thing. In Europe it started with the Reformation, when the invention of cheap printing enabled every man to ‘be his own priest’ (in Martin Luther’s empowering phrase), and also to read or even write a pamphlet about his views. The hegemony of the Church was shattered forever. Then in the nineteenth century, cheaper printing, the telegraph and railroads enabled the exploited urban working classes to organise, demonstrate and go on strike, gradually forcing the upper orders into a retreat that has never been fully reversed. Now, even if Twitter and Facebook are not the cure-alls for revolt, and (of course) are being combatted and co-opted by rulers, still they give an empowering ease and immediacy to communication.

These new technologies, following on from television, have created a new and potentially radical class: world citizens. Although everyone has their own language, gender, ethnicity and religion, still none are as sealed in their culture by walls of separation and ignorance as their parents were. Many millions have now shared in the ideal of a global culture. Yesterday’s strangers are seen as really like us, and increasingly we all share the same ideals, of broadening compassion extending to all humanity and beyond.

In spite of all its fantasies and hypocrisies, the post-war period in the West did give a glimpse of something better; a world where the productive process did not require the brutalisation of labour. One great prophet of technology, Norbert Wiener, said it all in the title of his book, The Human Use of Human Being. That sort of toil that ruins bodies and numbs minds is no longer necessary; there are increasingly intelligent machines to do it for us. Of course, machines are introduced in order to serve profit rather than welfare, and for many people, a dirty job is better than none at all. But the vision of work as a pleasure, even a form of worship, is now realistic. Under our new material conditions, those of good fortune do not need to justify their oppression of an underclass by dehumanising them.

Excerpted with permission from Critical Muslim (Vol. I): The Arabs Are Alive (POLITICS) Edited by Ziauddin Sardar and Robin Yassin-Kassab Oxford University Press, Karachi ISBN 978-0-19-9066193 258pp. Rs595