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Social mobilization, Collective action, and the Struggle over Libyan National Symbols after February 17, 2011 Uprising
Abstract
Social mobilization, Collective action, and the Struggle over Libyan National Symbols after February 17, 2011 Uprising This paper investigates the process of social mobilization based on Libyan historical cultural symbols before the civil war in 2014. Three symbols were used to mobilize popular support for against the regime: 1) the image of anti-colonial resistance Omar al-Mukhtar, 2) the old Libyan flag of the monarchy was adopted and viewed as the flag of independence; 3) the old national anthem was adopted after the name of the king was replaced by the name of the Libyan anti- colonial resistance hero, Omar al-Mukhtar. This is remarkable after four decades of the Qaddafi‘s regime rituals of presenting itself as the legitimate culmination of the Libyan anti-colonial movement and especially Omar al-Mukhtar. In other words, the national question, which is linked to the brutal colonial, period, is still persistent in Libyan society. Yet this successful mobilization was followed by outside NATO intervention, and a military civil war against the regime which unexpected consequences especially the spread of arms and which came to the cities of Benghazi, Misurata, and Zentan, and groups such as Jihadi and militant Libyan fighters in Afghanistan, and the previous Islamist fighters such as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. The armed militias became the power brokers in Libya despite the fact that The Libyan people participated in three impressive civil elections in 2012, and 2014.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Libya
Sub Area
Maghreb Studies