Arab Issues: Historical Approaches to the Arab Spring, Human Rights and Other Middle East Concerns

This book deals with several Arabic and Islamic issues, some more recent in nature, while others have been longstanding issues across the region. The first section of the book focuses on the so called Arab spring which took place in 2011 and reverberated onwards, with an emphasis on expressions, causes and the role of the pressure groups. The second part highlights Arab and Islamic issues, such as like tribes, land, and administration, democracy in the Middle East. Other topics include religion and constitution in the Arab World, Islamic values and human rights, and finally how different groups handled issues of grievances. The final section deals with the Middle Eastern international relations, with an emphasis on Europe, such as the Polish – Jordanian Relationship, Italy, and also Japan. The importance or value of this book is that it contains very important subjects for the first time in one place and in English, and fills a gap in Middle Eastern studies, while encouraging further dialogue and research.

Professor Dr. Saad Abudayeh is a Jordanian scholar. Educated at Penn State University, he first began his career as a diplomat in the Jordanian Foreign Office. Later, he became an academic and taught at several universities in Jordan, UK and Japan. Namely, he was a visiting professor at Nagoya University, Japan and in the Middle East Centre St Anthony College Oxford – UK. In addition to teaching, Dr. Abudayeh is the author of 50 books and more than 40 papers about Jordanian and Arab issues. For his work, he was a Medal of the Independence by His Majesty King Abdulla II of Jordan for his cultural role in Jordan.

He can be reached at abudayeh@hotmail.com.