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Democracy
The Production of Knowledge: limits and critiques
I will start a series of articles and feature extracts to highlight how think tanks get it wrong, purposefully, to push a certain agenda. Today’s post comes from: “Special Document File – “The Israeli Lobby.” Journal of Palestine Studies 35(3) (Spring 2006): 83-114.” On page 11 it reads: “The Lobby’s influence extends well beyond WINEP, … Continue reading
Mona Eltahawy sparks debate on plight of women in the Middle East
Mona Eltahawy’s piece “Why Do They Hate Us?” in Foreign Policy Magazine has sparked a debate that has shaken the social networks. Views of vitriolic dislike or profound approval of her controversial article have been expressed on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and may even be a main topic on Al Jazeera English’s “The Stream”. An ardent … Continue reading
Exploring the Muslim veil in Western art
Mona el Tahawy caused quite an uproar with her article on misogyny in the Middle East. One of the most unsettling things about the article was a series of photos depicting what appeared to be a nude model with black body paint representing a niquab. One of my co-authors on this democrati.net wrote a critique … Continue reading
Dictatorship by Liberalism
It is counter-intuitive at first to read that title. Some may even say you can’t put those two sentences together in the sentence. Liberalism is after-all antithetical to dictatorship. It is about the individual and his power and his rights. The hallmarks of liberalism include Voltaire, Locke and a whole bunch of others. The United … Continue reading
Pope Shenouda III and the Coptic Church: Sensitive Questions
Pope Shenouda III, born as Nazir Ga’yid, passed away and left his faithful on Saturday 17th 2012. I have observed the three day mourning period in respect with Church custom and refrained from posting about this. Now that it is over I intend to go back to the topic which interests me greatly and is … Continue reading
US Embassy clashes: Between Anarchy and more
Today clashes erupted around the US embassy in a very reminiscent scene of the night the Israeli embassy was “stormed” as the international press coined it. But is that scene that too reminiscent? Are they the same? True the Egyptians at the US embassy did not “storm in” rather they threw rocks, at the Egyptian … Continue reading
Engaging discourse: Between Patriarchy and Anarchy
Tamer’s article in the Guardian (Old attitudes stand in the way of a new Egypt) recently got me thinking about how the revolution was one against patriarchy and by association misogynist attitudes. The larger premise in the article is that Egyptians yearn for a fatherly figure, a leader if so to speak of the revolution. Yet this … Continue reading
NGO crackdown: operating outside the domains of the law
The loophole theory that Fouad is talking about here isn’t accurate as it doesn’t apply to the NGO incident. My argument is that the problem isn’t in Egyptian law, which is good but that Egyptian laws have too much delegative authority, giving power to by-laws. Egyptian law always includes the clause “to be applied within … Continue reading
Egypt NGO trial exposes regime’s manipulative system of legal loopholes
A lot of recent attention has been directed at the government’s blatant interference in the recent NGO trial with concerns about judiciary independence in Egypt. More important, however, is how this incident highlights Egypt’s manipulative system of legal loopholes. Over the years Mubarak’s legislative body has produced a series of laws and amendments that are carefully crafted … Continue reading
Muslim Brotherhood online, interpreting the mixed messages
I originally published this article in The Los Angeles Professional Express. Several months ago, the Muslim Brotherhood’s English website, IkhwanWeb, published an article I wrote calling for the release of an Egyptian activist, named Maikel Nabil. The imprisoned blogger is not only an ardent defender of Israel’s right to exist but also a self-proclaimed atheist born … Continue reading
