A symposium was held at the Janadriyah Cultural Festival in Riyadh on the emergence of Islamic political movements in the last few years in the aftermath of the “Arab Spring.”A series of speakers agreed that the Arab Spring, which brought political Islam to power, has shown weak and poor political administration and that their visions on democracy and freedom conflict with views of other political parties.They also agreed that some of the political parties in these countries are experiencing marginalisation and that the demands they made at the beginning of the revolution were ignored.
Speakers added that political Islam in Arab countries is still struggling to find its way and it is difficult to judge the results of their experience in such a short period of time. They stressed that changes would not materialize easily or instantly and that only scientists and intellectuals would bring about such changes.The speakers said the Egyptian and Tunisian experiences could not be taken as models but might give indications as to how Islamists deal with the requirements of positive change.