Abstract:

One of the most important debate themes in the literature on democratization has been why MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, with a majority of Arab and/or Muslim population, is failing in transition to democracy. It is very often claimed that this region is an “exception” and an “anomaly”. After freedom movements named “Arab Spring” resulted with the fall of dictatorships in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, the debate took a new form, namely weather Arab Spring will lead, in the region, to decent democracies or survival of the authoritarian regimes or establishments of Islamic governments based on Sharia Law. This paper takes a brief look at the dominant discourse that tries to explain lack of democracy in MENA region with the thesis of Islam-democracy incompatibility. Then the paper examines how this is replaced with a new discourse after the Arab Spring. It aims at demonstrating how the new discourse is differentiated from the previous one in terms of 4 main topics (the image of Islam and Islamists, Western interest in the region, war on terror, relationships with Israel). It draws the conclusion that the new discourse generates a more positive image of Islam and Islamists in the West although it is not clear weather this image is frankly and permanent.

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