Employs bank-level data for 2000-2012 to examine the impact of Arab Spring on MENA banks. * The impact of the Arab Spring is to lower profitability and raise bank risk. * There appears to be no differential effect of the political conflict on the performance and stability of Islamic banks. * There appears to be limited evidence of any contemporaneous impact of the Arab Spring on banks. * Although the Arab Spring did not affect loan behavior, lending rates increased. Using data for 2000-2012, the article utilizes the natural experiment of the Arab Spring to examine its impact on the risk and returns of MENA banks. The analysis indicates that the Arab Spring lowered bank profitability by roughly 0.2% and raised bank risk by 0.4% points. As well, the evidence appears to suggest that there were no differential effect of the political conflict on the performance and stability of Islamic banks.