Former Iraqi PM: Islamic awakening still alive

Former Iraqi Prime Minister and leader of the country’s oldest Shiite party Ibrahim Jafari stressed that the Islamic Awakening which has swept the Middle-East and North Africa since 2011 is still alive. “Today, the Islamic Awakening movement is faced with challenges, yet it has left a major impact,” Jafari said, addressing the 6th meeting of the High Council of the Islamic Awakening World Forum in Tehran on Monday. Warning that the enemies are seeking to change this trend, he called on Muslims to insist on achievements and successes rather than problems. “We shouldn’t speak of the end of the Islamic Awakening since it is still alive and active in the Islamic Ummah, is continuing its voyage on the same boat and decides about nations’ fate,” Jafari said. In relevant remarks on Sunday, Supreme Leader’s top Advisor for International Affairs Ali Akbar Velayati called on the Muslim nations to maintain and grow the present wave of the Islamic Awakening if they intend to play an influential role in global equations in future. “The new wave created in recent years in the Middle-East region and North Africa, inspired by the discourse of the Islamic Revolution (in Iran), changed all the global equations,” Velayati said, addressing an international conference in Tehran dubbed ‘the Role of the Muslim World in the Geometry of the Global Power’ on Sunday. “The Islamic Awakening (also known by some in the West as the Arab Spring) has helped the regional revolutions find some opportunity, and the Muslim world should appreciate this opportunity and take it to influence the future global equations,” he added. Velayati also asked the Muslim elites and scholars to understand the weak and strong points of both the Islamic Awakening and the western world to prevent their countries from being sidelined on the international scene. Since the beginning of 2011, the Muslim world has witnessed popular uprisings and revolutions similar to what happened in Iran in 1979. Tunisia saw the overthrow of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in a popular revolution in January 2011, which was soon followed by a revolution which toppled Hosni Mubarak in Egypt in February. Libya was the third country touched by the Islamic Awakening. Libyans also embraced victory after months of bloody campaign against the country's dictator, Muammar al-Qaddafi. Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Yemen have since been the scene of protests against their totalitarian rulers, who have resorted to brutal crackdown on demonstrations to silence their critics.