Middle East

I noticed a lot of television commentators wondering why no one predicted the unrest in Egypt. I’d just like to draw attention to the number 1 item in my New Year’s list of 2011 challenges for US foreign policy. While it is not exactly a prediction of what we are seeing today on our television […]

Sunday saw a return to Egypt of themes of national unity across the Christian-Muslim divide that recalled the heyday of early Egyptian nationalism in 1919, when the modern nation was formed in the cauldron of mass demonstrations against British colonial rule. Nowadays, Copts are roughly 10 percent of the Egyptian population, or about 8 million […]

5 Year Old Child Heads Million Strong Demo in Alexandria Egypt He is chanting about freedom, the nation, the need for the regime of Hosni Mubarak to fall, and complaining about “American agents.” I don’t think Mubarak has high ratings in the key demographic of the young. And neither will the US, if it goes […]

The protest movement in Egypt scored several victories on Friday, but did not actually succeed in getting President Hosni Mubarak to step down. Their accomplishments include: 1. The hundreds of thousands (the Egyptian Arabic press is saying a million nationwide) of demonstrators showed that they had not been cowed by the vicious attacks of Ministry […]

Anti-Mubarak Egyptians prepared themselves on Friday for a major campaign of street protests that they are calling not another “Day of Wrath” but rather a “Day of Departure,” an attempt to force President Hosni Mubarak to resign. By mid-morning thousands had already gathered at Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo and at other key nodes in […]

On Wednesday, the Mubarak regime showed its fangs, mounting a massive and violent repressive attack on the peaceful crowds in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. People worrying about Egypt becoming like Iran (scroll down) should worry about Egypt already being way too much like Iran as it is. That is, Hillary Clinton and others expressed […]

Alarms have been raised by those observing the popular uprising in Egypt that, while it is not itself a Muslim fundamentalist movement, the Muslim fundamentalists could take it over as it unfolds. The best-positioned group to do so is the Muslim Brotherhood. Some are even conflating the peaceful Brotherhood with radical groups such as al-Qaeda. […]