All Stories Archive

The bloodshed in Egypt continues at the hands of those who do not care for Egypt's wellbeing and do not want stability so that they can continue to secure their own interests by promoting the coup. But the coup is being sustained by bloodshed and violence that will only...

America has a problem with Egypt: that much is obvious. Ever since President Mohammed Morsi was deposed by the military on 3 July, the US and other western powers have been scrambling around to find a coherent response to the crisis. This has become more pressing as the bloodshed...

With news of the acquittal and imminent release of Egypt's deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak, the military regime has exposed its ugly face to full view. Since the counterrevolutionary coup began on 30 June, the Egyptian people have been subjected to unprecedented brutal and humiliating persecution. This has eroded much...

Since the military intervention in Egypt, many observers of Middle Eastern politics have tried to evaluate the geopolitical consequences of the regime change in Egypt. The majority of these scholars assert that Turkey and Qatar would lose from the new political developments in the region, since they were the...

Our sadness is doubled. We went to sleep with the massacre of prisoners while being transferred to Abu Zaabal prison, and woke up to the slaughter of soldiers in Rafah. In both tragedies, Egyptians had killed other Egyptians, which leads us to say that the two sides share three...

The international response to the events in Egypt has been uncertain and hesitant. Governments and citizens alike seem to have been caught off-guard by the bloodshed that followed the enforced removal of Mohamed Morsi. Initially, there was a dispute about acknowledging whether a coup had taken place. I understand...

In 1948 they returned from the war in Palestine and were taken to detention camps in Mount Sinai, and today they have won five elections in the post-revolutionary period, including the presidency, only to be taken to the prison and detention centres yet again. This group is none other...

As the bloodshed in Egypt worsens, the country's economic situation has been consigned to a postscript in most news coverage, while death tolls, political grappling, and western intervention make the headlines. Yet the economic problems which contributed to downfall of President Mohammed Morsi last month remain, and are set...

Terrorism is an accusation made by the powerful against the weak as an excuse to commit the ugliest forms of terrorism against the weak while making the claim to be combating terrorism. Therefore, this term, or accusation, has not been properly defined in order to allow tyrants to justify...

To focus on media coverage of the tumultuous convulsions through which post-revolution countries are going may seem a luxury in the current crisis. Yet an analysis of the role of the media in shaping popular perceptions of the Arab Spring revolutions, of their progress through the transition, and of...

Asmaa Mohammed Al-Beltagi was a child in the legal sense of the word. At just 17 years old, she was mature for her age in terms of outlook and actions; she was the only girl in her family. This child was shot and killed by Egyptian security forces on...

The new Pinochet-style government in Egypt has followed in the footsteps of the George W Bush administration, with national television now displaying the slogan, permanently and in very clear English, which claims that it is involved in a "war against terrorism". This is not a good omen for the...

The legitimacy supporters in Egypt are winning every day because of the constant blunders of the coup leaders. The army in Egypt does not behave like a national army which staged a coup but rather like an occupation army. The situation was not left to police, state security and...

In Egypt, General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi of the Egyptian armed forces is now the most powerful man in the land. While Hitler and Mussolini were invited, or voted into office, Sisi took power for himself in a military coup in July that toppled the first democratically elected leader –...

There has been a growing controversy over the past two years regarding the creation of an alliance between political Islam and the American project in the region, especially after the increased polarisation surrounding the Syrian Revolution, on one hand, and the course of democratic transformation in the Arab Spring...

If one takes his or her information about the Muslim Brotherhood solely from the media reports coming out of Egypt today, he or she could be forgiven for thinking that the Muslim Brotherhood is a power grabbing, violent group of extremists intent on destroying Egypt. Ever since the removal...

The Egyptian media has done little to restore its image since the removal of President Morsi, smears against the president and the Muslim Brotherhood have been par for the course since the installation of the military coup leaders. The media, often under the control of the state or the...

The events in Egypt can be read on several levels. On the one hand it is an internal coup against the "Arab Spring" and a counter-revolution against the revolutions of liberation and emancipation. On the other it is a regional and international alliance against any popular effort towards our...

Genuine democracy requires practice and partnership, and cannot be realised without the participation of the people. Mobilising crowds to replace the ballot box is very dangerous because a lust for power and authority can be cast in popular demands and gain pseudo-legitimacy. The coup in Egypt is a case...

I do not know when we will sober up and discern the truth of many of the myths spread across Egypt nowadays. However, I see indications that this sobriety will come soon. I am referring to some of the extraordinary writings that have appeared in Egyptian newspapers during the...

Only a few days after the bloody and treacherous military coup in Egypt on July 3rd, Western governments released timid statements on the issue with a sense of concern and anticipation; they were unsure about the consequences and if they would be favourable for the coup leaders. The rapid...

Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are enjoying a healthy flow of tourists, thanks to turmoil in the Middle East which has driven holidaymakers away from the Red Sea resorts of Egypt and towards the Acropolis in Athens, reported The New York Times recently. Once badly affected by the euro...

In the aftermath of the January 25 Revolution, General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said that the army's interference in public life sets back the country by 30 or 40 years. There is some irony in that statement today, given his role as the leader of the coup which toppled President...

The arrest of the Muslim Brotherhood's spokesman, Gehad El-Haddad, had the hallmarks of a kidnapping rather than a conventional arrest. His arrest in Cairo on Tuesday, along with two colleagues, although shocking, is no surprise to observers of Egyptian politics. Since the coup on July 3rd the arrest of...

Since President Anwar Sadat's visit to Jerusalem in 1977, Egypt has been in a dark tunnel that has altered the country from an Arab state to an "Arab crisis". Since that fateful day, the Arab world has witnessed a series of catastrophes that are a direct result of Egypt's...

Algeria and its neighbour Tunisia have increased the levels of their discrete bilateral cooperation. In a period of roughly a month and a half, Algerian and Tunisian officials met several times to discuss many issues in a series of meeting in Algiers. In early August, Algeria's Foreign Minister, Mourad...

At the end of July, Hamas held a press conference in Gaza in which it presented a number of documents issued by the Palestinian Authority security agencies in Ramallah. The papers revolve around the efforts being made to widen the gap and raise doubts and fear between Hamas and...

After the second hearing session into the case, an Egyptian administrative court in Cairo has issued a decision to ban the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, the country's biggest and most organised social and political group, with branches all over the world. The decision includes a ban on any entity affiliated...

Hamas has been accused of interfering in Egypt's internal affairs; an earlier accusation mentioned Syria. Such accusations are unprecedented, as well as unfounded, because ever since the movement was founded, it has never interfered in any Arab country's affairs; even when called upon to do so and weigh in,...

Nowadays, Egypt is witnessing the absurdity of the coup-backed media spreading lies to demonise the coup's opponents and then calling on those who have been named to prove their innocence. This nonsensical situation is despite the fact that the law requires the prosecution to prove its case, not the...

It was not difficult to anticipate the stumbling paths of the 25 January revolution and their repercussions such as those we see now of the decline and absence of many of its inspirations, dreams and objectives. To start with, this was the revolution that came in the aftermath of...

On Sunday, the world learnt that the detention of Tarek Loubani and John Greyson had been extended by 45 days. The Canadian doctor and filmmaker have been held without charge since mid-August when they were arrested after filming and providing aid to the wounded during clashes between anti-coup protesters...

In the aftermath of the military coup in Egypt on July 3, 2013, comparisons to other countries came thick and fast. For the optimists, there was Turkey, where the army had ousted governments who had become unpopular, and held new elections to allow a seedling of democracy to take...

I used to think that the defamation and incitement campaign against the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) was limited to a few Egyptian television stations and specific programmes aired on them, supervised by some icons of the former Hosni Mubarak regime. However, the threats made by Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmi,...

The latest Russian-American truce in Syria does not mean that the crisis is over. Far from it. Moreover, the insurgency in Syria seems to have overshadowed another crisis in the region. The overthrow of Mohammed Morsi, the democratically-elected President of Egypt and member of the Muslim Brotherhood, has left...

The siege of Nairobi's Westgate Mall has finally come to an end. Kenyan forces have been battling militants claiming to be members of the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab group after they stormed the western-style shopping precinct on a busy Saturday afternoon and took hostages, killing over 70 people in the...

The Westgate Mall in the Kenyan capital Nairobi is on everyone's lips and every news agency appears to be covering the awful incident that catapulted this relatively unknown shopping centre into the headlines. The mainstream media has carefully crafted its narrative into one that has a limited timeline beginning...

You may recall Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip in November last year. The aggression led to the martyrdom and wounding of about 330 Palestinians and followed the assassination of Al-Qassam Brigades commander Ahmed Jabari the day before. You may also recall how quickly President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt...

When Mohammed Morsi was ousted by the Egyptian military on 3 July, Saudi Arabia was one of the first nations to express its support for the new regime. The interim president, Adly Mansour, told a newspaper that Saudi's King Abdullah was the first world leader to congratulate him, in...

Although the Egyptian scenario is overshadowing the picture in Tunisia, the difference between us and them is that they can see some light at the end of the tunnel, while we are still looking for the tunnel. I was invited to speak in Tunisia about the developments in the...

Part I The Turkish military has often been compared and contrasted in scholarly writing with its counterparts either in Western Europe or in Latin America. Secular-minded Turkish scholars scorn at the idea of comparing the Turkish military with armies in the Arab world. For instance, one scholar claimed that...

Since Egypt's president, Mohammed Morsi, was ousted in a military coup on 3 July, the US has been in an awkward position. An automatic Congressional instrument halts military aid in the event of a coup. The US supports the Egyptian military to the tune of $1.3bn a year, and...

The October 6th celebration of Egypt's surprise attack against Israeli forces across the Suez Canal in 1973 is certainly a source of joy and pride for every Egyptian without exception. This year, though, the leaders of the bloody coup wanted to exclude a large part of the Egyptian public...

It was not only natural for the Egyptian media to side with the coup leadership, but also inevitable. The media has played a key role in Egyptian politics for decades thanks to ownership and inherited loyalties. Gamal Abdel Nasser took power thanks to the support of the media, and...

It is important for analysts to be absolutely accurate in their deliberations and data if they are to retain any credibility. Likewise, it is important for the analysis itself not to be slanted to favour one group or another. I say this because my analysis suggests that Israel may...

I do not know to what extent it is permissible for me to comment on or discuss the comments that Al-Masri Al-Youm newspaper have attributed to Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. This is due to the man's high military ranking, the fact that he holds the title of Minister of Defence...

This is a true story: A young man drove an unlicensed motorcycle and decided to ride it into oncoming traffic. When he ran into a police officer, he did not hesitate to shoot at him, but the police chased him down and arrested him, in addition to seizing his...

A statement has recently spread throughout the Arab media claiming that the Islamists have failed in governing. Some say it as if it were a well-known fact or an uncontested notion. The essence of the notion rests on the following logic: the Arab people chose the Islamists to govern...

Even the Merit Publishing House founder and director, Mohamed Hashem, decided to leave Egypt. He posted what could only be described as a departure speech on his Facebook page last Wednesday: "I would not have left it if it weren't for the repulsiveness there." Hashem also wrote; "I respect...

The conflict in and over Egypt cannot be reduced to being a mere struggle over political power, albeit the latter is an intricate part of it. Indeed, in a major part of it, it is an ideological struggle related to the identity of the state and its policies, and...