In January, less than a month after fruit vendor Mohammed Bouazizi lit himself on fire, nationwide protests in Tunisia forced out President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.

by Kyle Almond | CNN



It all happened so fast.  In January, less than a month after fruit vendor Mohammed Bouazizi lit himself on fire, nationwide protests in Tunisia forced out President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.

CNN.com reached out to five experts for opinion and analysis. More specifically, we posed the following question: How do you see the "Arab Spring" playing out as we move toward the summer months?


Julie Taylor, a Middle East specialist who lived in Egypt for four years, is a political scientist at the RAND Corp.
Ibrahim Sharqieh is deputy director of the Brookings Doha Center.
Parag Khanna, author of "How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance," is a senior research fellow with the New America Foundation.
Feryal Cherif is an assistant professor for the political science department at the University of California, Riverside.
Nader Hashemi teaches Middle East politics at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, and he is author of "The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran's Future."

Moreover, the nature and character of the forms of authoritarian rule in the Arab world -- and the devastation they have wrought -- pose different challenges for democrats moving forward. There is cause for optimism even if we assume a worst-case scenario where democratic forces are crushed in Libya, Syria, Yemen and beyond.  Were this to happen, these revolts would still leave behind a powerful legacy that future democratic forces can build upon, buttressed by the successful examples of Tunisia and Egypt, where the prospects for democracy appear to be the greatest.

Regardless of how many democratic transitions we witness this year, the tide of history has turned. The days are numbered for Arab authoritarian regimes, and those who argue that Islam/Arab culture is incompatible with democracy are left scrambling.



  

From CSID (Center for the Study of Islam and Development)
For more on what they Say about CSID please visit our website:  www.csidonline.org