Unpredictable events are important turning points in History. Through an astounding chock the contained mix of contradictions and paradoxes burst into popular rebellion that overcomes all fears.

Such is the determination of the masses acting as historical subjects that one could think that instead of people making history it is history that takes masses by the hand and dictates rulers to leave.

However, sudden as it may be the rebellion of the peoples in North Africa has deep and long persisted reasons. Poverty and oppression are certainly most important motivating factors.

The enormous social gap between rich countries and their extremely poor citizens was certainly aggravating the oppressive and irresponsible policies of theses regimes.

Demographic developments in the last three decades are a pressing factor as well. But the question remains as to how and why this is being possible now. Has globalization or Islam something to do with this?

Considering the first we have to acknowledge how the technologies of the communications era contributed the rebellion. By providing instant gathering facilities through the technology of the social networking people could overcome the oppressive barriers of the security forces.

The advantage of their number and swift coordination made traditional anti-mob repression actions unusable. Confrontation had to be taken in a greater and more deadly manner and this would automatically have ruined any attempt to compromise in the future. Precisely, what happened already in Libya, where no point of retreat from either side seems possible.

Referring to Islam on has equally to accept that, although nothing corroborates the western fears of Islamic fundamentalism in these primary political and social revolutions, it signified a rather preparatory stage in the search of an alternative perspective to the authoritarian regimes.

If the religious turn is actually seen as a quest for identity then we can better comprehend the predominantly political-secular character of the rebellions.

Casting my personal experience I remember admiring two years ago in the library of Alexandria the discreetly veiled young Egyptian students doing research. The lust of Knowledge of these young women seemed contradictory with their veiled faces at the moment. We could hardly make sense between research and veil, Islam and enlightenment. The answer came when the same women courageously filled Tahrir square.

Each case in the Middle Eastern popular explosion is defined in politically different terms. From Morocco to Oman the analysis is confronted with an extreme variety of social and political factors. There are, however some points that all rebellions, protests and revolutionary movements convergent. And these points associated to their extended regional character make these movements even more contagious.

The most important uniting elements, in our view, are their consistence and their demands. Using only one phrase we could suggest that these are “People taking their lives in hand and looking to the future”.

The analogies of western revolutions are not negligible. The historian of French revolution Michelet defined the notion of “People”. It is astonishing that after Nationalism, Islamism and the destructive forces of globalized capitalism Peoples are back in center stage in the Middle East.

People that are not mobs manipulated by western agencies or local clergy but autonomous, imaginative masses organized only by the force of their common demands.

A life and a future in dignity.