The "Arab Spring" was predictably hailed by seemingly clueless Western leaders as a positive development that would finally bring true Western-style democratic freedom to the masses of the Middle East. But more than one analyst warned that the Arab Spring would birth an Islamic Winter.
Israeli expert Prof. Nissim Dana told Israel Today that most Westerners misread the outcome of the Arab Spring because of an underlying misconception that Middle East Muslim society is not so very different from their own.
"The Muslims of the Middle East in general are defined by a number of important characteristics, and every attempt to analyze what is going on here will fail without recognizing and taking into account those characteristics."
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