Abstract

Peoples, like individuals, can go through periods of deep change that may cause them to have doubts about themselves, their basic values, their past, and in particular their future choices. It is this experience that the countries of the Middle East and North Africa have lived through in the last decade. As the reader may be aware, the Tunisian Revolution of 2011 that started the recent momentous changes was first met with enthusiasm by the free world. Then euphoria gave way to disappointment and even abhorrence of the violence of the so-called Islamist factions. To my mind, the point here is not so much to try and understand the causes of this unfortunate turnaround. Rather, it raises the question of why people so...