Abstract

Ever since the Arab Spring revolutions started, numerous journalists, academics and Middle East experts have been appearing on news channels, websites and radio talk shows warning of an impending and inevitable Islamist takeover should free elections be held in the post-Arab Spring Middle East. Their winning of free elections would almost certainly be followed with the implementation of the strictest interpretations of shariah. Was it so? The aim of this article is to answer the following question: Did the ‘Arab Spring’ pave the way for shariah-based constitutions? At the time of this writing (mid-2013) certain reversals of the Arab Spring are obviously taking place, hence this article is restricted to the immediate post-Arab Spring period