Fridays of Rage: Al Jazeera, the Arab Spring, and Political Islam

Abstract

Sam Cherribi’s Fridays of Rage tells us a story of the Arab Spring from an unusual perspective. Its analysis puts Qatari satellite network Al Jazeera at the center, situating both the network and the Arab Spring in a larger historical context. At its core, the book is about the role of Al Jazeera in shaping political discourse in the Middle East. The central claim of the book is that the symbolic power that Al Jazeera has built up since its creation has allowed the network to have a significant impact on political discourse—and through this, on political change—in the Middle East. Cherribi argues that Al Jazeera’s primary impact has been to empower the oppressed of the Arab world by providing them with an alternative to secular Westernized governments: a political Islam that liberates Arabs from their oppressors, both domestic and foreign, while it unifies them. However, at the same time, Cherribi argues that Al Jazeera has used these revolutions both to enhance its own symbolic power and to push for its own brand of political Islam—one that has reconciled its differences with civil society—across the Arab world.