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International Affairs
Tunisia’s Democratic Transition: Open Challenges
19 May 2016

Four years after the “Jasmin Revolution” in Tunisia and in the wake of the Nobel Peace Prize 2015 awarded to the Tunisian civil society, there is still the need to understand the deep causes and challenges of this exceptional success story in the Arab world. Tunisian scholars and activists interviewed by Reset-Doc analyze the key events and features of their country democratic transition, trying to provide answers to the many questions and problems still open today with regards to economy, youth, social justice and inequalities.
Media and Communication
Al Jazeera America: no soft power, just business!
Azzurra Meringolo interviews Stan Collender, Al Jazeera America spokesperson 25 January 2013

Time Warner Cable pulled the plug on Nobel Prize winner Al Gore’s Current TV just hours after news of the cable channel’s sale to Al-Jazeera became official. After the Arab, English and Balkan channels, Al-Jazeera, which is also preparing to launch a Turkish-language channel, took a major leap into the US cable market on 2 January 2012, acquiring Current TV and announcing plans for a US based news network to be called Al-Jazeera America. Terms were undisclosed, but analysts told the deal could be worth an estimated 500 million dollars. The new channel will be headquartered in New York, but in addition to this existing bureau, others will be opened in Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago.
Political Theory
Tunisia, One Year Later
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Francesca Bellino 15 January 2012
The revolutionary atmosphere is everywhere in Tunisia. According to some, the real revolution has only just begun, and in the widespread chaos, there are many who have clear ideas both about the future and about Tunisia’s identity. It is sufficient to glance at Facebook, where on many ‘walls’ one can read messages such as: “We are Muslims not Islamists.” “We are moderates and not extremists.” “We dream of democracy.”
Political Theory
Al Jazeera’s Victory and the Shadow of a Counter-revolution
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Akeel Bilgrami 13 October 2011
One television station has transformed the Middle East over the last decade. There has been nothing like this in history. What is remarkable is not just its causal role in laying the ground over many years of what we have seen is a prodigious mobilization but of doing this by creating what are perhaps best called the cognitive conditions that make possible such changes through mobilizations.
Political Theory
Secular State and Civic Reason
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Abdullahi An-Na'im 13 October 2011
Imposing the State to be neutral about religion doesn’t take a position on religion but at the same time it does not necessarily say religion has nothing to do in the public space: I believe religion has a public role, we cannot really exclude it from politics. I simply make a distinction between State and politics: religion and State are to be separate, but religion and politics can’t and shouldn’t be separated. Believers will act politically as believers, and we have to confront with the paradox to keep State and religion separated in a reality where religion and politics are interconnected.
Political Theory
Egypt: the post-Mubarak period is a work in progress
Francesco Aloisi de Larderel, former Italian ambassador to Egypt 14 September 2011

Almost nine months after the fall of Mohamed Hosni Mubarak’s regime, the Egyptian political situation is still hostage to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), and therefore to the military leaders who have been the real holders and guarantors of political power in Egypt since the 1952 coup d’état by the Free Officers Movement. Under pressure from protesters, the SCAF decided to depose President Mubarak, appoint a new government, and is preparing to call parliamentary and presidential elections on the basis of rules it is drafting, announcing that it will soon promulgate the criteria for drafting a new constitution.
Political Theory
Al-Shorouk’s Spring
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An interview by Elisa Pierandrei 30 August 2011
“Al-Shorouk newspaper was first issued in February 2009 as an independent newspaper aimed to promote the values of liberalism and modernism…During the paper’s preparation period, which lasted about a year, the idea that objectivity, accuracy and truth in everything would be published in the newspaper was the dominant idea of each meeting.” These are the words of Ashraf Al-Barbary, News Desk Chief of Al-Shorouk newspaper. In a conversation with Elisa Pierandrei Al-Barbary, he says he is convinced that the adherence to these principles makes everyone, whether at the local, regional or even international level, deal seriously with what is published in Al-Shorouk. This newspaper is part of a company linked to Dar Al Shorouk, the largest independent publishing house in Egypt, which was established in 1968 by Mohamed El Moallem, one of the founding fathers of modern publishing in Egypt and the Arab World, who started his publishing career in 1942.
Political Theory
The Arab revolutions and nonviolence
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Amara Lakhous 14 July 2011
The young Egyptians have decided to return to Tahrir Square (Liberation) to defend the revolution. The strategy is always the same: to demonstrate peacefully in order to achieve the objectives.
Political Theory
A New Muslim Religious Establishment for a New Arab World
Brahim El Guabli 27 June 2011

“It was not Islam that bore the responsibility for the political and intellectual weaknesses afflicting Muslim societies—as many a European observer of Islam suggested— but the failure of Muslims to properly interpret their foundational texts in accordance with changing needs” (Mohammad Zaman, p.7)
Religion
Secularism and Islam: An Artificial Divide
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Abdou Filali-Ansary 13 June 2011
“It seems today that the acceptance of secularism within the Muslim world is extremely far away. It is as if, on the basis of deeply-held convictions, Muslim society were demanding a form of not exactly theocracy, but certainly a ‘moralisation’ of public life.” So says Abdou Filali-Ansary, director of the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations at the University of Aga Khan, London. The director and founder of the Moroccan literary review ‘Prologues,’ Filali-Ansary is also the author of a number of works on the reformist tradition within the Islamic world, including L’Islam est-il hostile à la laïcité? (2002) and Réformer l’Islam? – Une introduction aux débats contemporains (2003). He recently spoke at ResetDoc’s Istanbul Seminars 2011 (19-23 May).