democrati.net
Islamism
Response to Mustafa Akyol’s article: There is no such thing as the people
The following is my response to the article by Turkish “liberal” Islamist Mustafa Akyol entitled quite preposterously “There is no such thing as ‘the people’“. In it Akyol reiterates what we’ve heard repeatedly by Islamist supporters that protesters on the streets whether in Tahrir or in Gezi Park do not have the right to speak in … Continue reading
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
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
Case in point: Mona el Tahawy’s FP article
This article, like many others, is a response to Mona El Tahawy’s FP piece Needless to say that women in Egypt have a problem. There’s also a problem for Arab women in general. That’s also true for women in the third world. And its true of women even in the US, Mona admits that when … 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
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
Egyptian Blogger Aliaa Elmahdy: Rebel with a Cause?
By now if you have been keeping up with the ‘Arab Awakening,’ you have probably heard of Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, the 20-year-old Egyptian blogger who posted a nude photo of herself. For those of you not familiar with the story, Elmahdy posted the photo as an act of expression against the ‘norm’ found in the … Continue reading
At the Muslim Brotherhood election campaign rally
It was around 7 PM Cairo time when I incidentally passed by an election rally set up by the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Muslim Brotherhoods political wing. Conditioned no doubt by having grown up during Mubarak’s rule, I involuntarily walked away. Then, after actively reminding myself that elections were only a few days … Continue reading
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