Had the rising been a popular revolution or a counterrevolution?

Even though the popular revolutions had been defeated, social change was in the air.

But does that translate into popular revolution in the name of Islam?

What followed was a genuine popular revolution that startled an entire region.

It was the prevailing wisdom that a popular revolution would occur soon.

Until recently, it had no modern record of violent or popular revolution.

We never expected that such a popular revolution could turn out to be against the will of the people.

It is historic, but also unexpected, as are all popular revolutions, I hear you say.

This would have been because it was the product of a genuine popular revolution.

We had a popular revolution, now it's time for the political revolution.