Introduction

Abstract

Ordinary people across the Middle East, a region notorious for its many conflicts, have for decades fought for rights, freedoms, self-determination, and democracy without using violence. Khalid Kishtainy, an Iraqi intellectual, coined the term civilian jihad to describe a form of political struggle whose “weapons” include boycotts, strikes, protests, sit-downs, humor, and other acts of civil disobedience and nonviolent defiance.¹ Challenging the notion that the fight against tyranny and oppression is best left to guerillas, armed insurgents, or foreign actors, the essays and case studies that follow show how civil resistance, defined by scholars as the “widespread and sustained activities by ordinary civilians against a particular power, force, policy or regime”² can achieve remarkable results. Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization, and Governance in the Middle East examines the past, present, and future of advancing justice, rights, and democracy without the use of violence in one of the most fascinating and geopolitically important areas of the world.