Egypt

So, no regime then? Jon Stewart was on al-Barnamag [“The Program”] last year this time and remarked of the then Muslim Brotherhood government’s prosecution of his Egyptian counterpart, Bassem Youssef, for political libel of President Muhammad Morsi, “If your regime can’t handle a joke, you don’t have a regime.” AFP reports: Egypt satirist who mocked […]

Egypt

Egypt: Passive Aggression and Counter-revolution: Voters, Youth Stay Home

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Voting was abruptly extended from two days to three in Egypt’s presidential election on Tuesday, apparently because of an unexpectedly low turnout. The contest pits Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, until recently minister of defense and a high-ranking general, against leftist warhorse Hamdeen Sabahi. None of the other eligible Egyptian frontrunners agreed to run, […]

Egypt

Top 5 Wars on Religious Extremism in Today’s Muslim World

Juan Cole

The Fox News commentators who say that the Muslim world is not doing enough to police its own extremist movements don’t actually seem to be reading the news. If anything in a number of countries they’ve gone overboard with a Bush style ‘war on terror.’ To wit: 1. On Wednesday, the commander of Libya’s Air […]

censorship

The BuSSy Monologues in Egypt: I will pinch your ass and grab your boobs, and you can’t talk about it:

contributors

(By Sondos Shabayek) “You can’t go on stage and say this,” the state-owned theater director told me. “How do you suggest I say it otherwise?” I replied. “Just use ‘bleep’ or say that someone said an inappropriate phrase or committed an inappropriate act in my presence.” “So when someone pinches my ass and another […]

Arab Spring

The Real Egyptian Divide is between Tahrir Self-Government and Authoritarians of all Stripes

Juan Cole

(By Haifaa G. Khalafallah) Revolutions or coups seeking to change modern Egypt, whether in 1919 or 1952, never challenged the familiar patterns of power relations, that is to say, their political culture. The triumph of a home grown, new political discourse is the real and most significant Egyptian revolution that took place early in […]

Egypt

In Egypt, Industrial Scale Death Decrees

Juan Cole

(By Amy Austin Holmes) A single judge in a single court in Egypt has sentenced more people to death this year than the total number of people who were executed last year in the rest of the world combined, with the exception of China. In 2013, at least 778 people were killed as a result […]

Climate Change

Egypt going Big Into Solar Energy, Announces $1 Billion Investment

Juan Cole

The new Egyptian government apparently sees solar energy as being a key part of the country’s future, based on recent comments made by its Local and Administrative Development Minister Adel Labib. At the recent inauguration of a conference organized…

Dissent

Egyptian Judges shock world again, condemning 683 Muslim Brothers to Death

Juan Cole

Egypt’s judiciary accused of being arm of repression (via AFP) A wave of mass sentences in Egypt, including hundreds sentenced to death this week after a rushed mass trial, has sparked charges that military-installed authorities are using the judiciary as a blunt tool of repression. The sentences handed out Monday… —– Related video: AFP: […]

Arab World

From Raybans to Portrait Underwear: Sisi-Mania floods Egypt with Kitsch

Juan Cole

(By Leila Zaki Chakravarti) Egypt’s current political scene is marked by ’Sisi-mania’, as the new leader’s supporters scramble to snap up the latest items of Sisi-branded consumer kitsch. A gendered reading of this ‘patriotic consumerism’ reveals its role in negotiating citizenship within Egypt’s refashioned political order. “In the end I suppose I’ll marry my cousin […]