Change in the Arab world, Support of Western scholars

The Jasmine revolution in Tunisia has offered much hope across the Arab world. We have seen young and hopeful demonstrators in Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, calling for much-needed reform and democracy in their own countries.  We offer our support to those courageous young demonstrators. Their aspirations and hopes are legitimate and the Jasmine revolution has shown that it may be possible to achieve them. We condemn the violent repression of those demonstrations and ask western governments, especially EU members and the US, to respect the Arab world’s desire for change, and to halt their financial and military assistance to autocratic regimes in the region.

― David Held, Professor of Political Science at LSE

― Hamid Dabashi, Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University,

― Inderjeet Parmar, Professor of Government at Manchester University

― Jameson W Doig, Professor Emeritus of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University

― John Esposito, Professor of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown University

― John Sidel, Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics at LSE

― Mary Kaldor, Professor of Global Governance at LSE

― Noam Chomsky, Professor (Emeritus) of Linguistics at MIT

― Rainer Baubock, Professor of Social and Political Theory, European University Institute

― Richard Caplan, Professor of International Relations, Oxford University

― Kevin Morgan, Professor of Politics and Contemporary History at University of Manchester