Month

Archives: Egypt

Do Egyptians have any Rights Left at All? – HRW

Human Rights Watch | - - (Beirut) – Egyptian authorities in recent weeks have arrested at least 50 peaceful political activists, blocked at least 62 websites, and opened a criminal prosecution against…

The End of pan-Arab Media? Governments Ban whole Channels, Fine Fans

Human Rights Watch | - - (Beirut) – Arab countries engaged in a dispute with Qatar have shut down media outlets with links to or considered sympathetic to the Qatari government, Human…

Top Reasons Why Qatar Will Survive the Saudi-led Diplomatic Offensive

By Mohammed Nuruzzaman | (Informed Comment) | - - The Saudi – Qatar diplomatic rift is intensifying, showing no sign of immediate solution. Since June 5, the day Saudi Arabia, the UAE,…

Saudi v. Qatar: Will Turkish intervention cause Escalation?

By James M. Dorsey | (Inter Press Service) | - - SINGAPORE (IPS) - Turkey’s parliament is this week fast tracking the dispatch of up to 3,000 troops to Qatar, home to…

Who are Egypt’s Coptic Christians, ISIL’s latest Victims?

By Paul Rowe | (The Conversation) | - - Coptic Christians in Egypt have been attacked while traveling on pilgrimages and bombed while praying on Palm Sunday, amid an accelerating series of…

Which Middle East Authoritarian Leader is Trump most Like?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Trump's abrupt and virtually unprecedented firing of FBI director Jim Comey raises the question of whether he and his far right wing circle…

Pope Francis, Islam and Peace-Building

Interview by Jayson Casper | (Informed Comment) | - - Dr. Kamal Boraiqa is a lecturer at al-Azhar University and a member of al-Azhar Center for Dialogue, the al-Azhar Observer for Combating…

Sharpening Contradictions: ISIL Strikes Egyptian Christians on Palm Sunday

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) claimed responsibility Sunday for two suicide bombings at Christian churches in Lower Egypt on Palm Sunday, which left over 40…

Trump, al-Sisi and Tightening up the Pressure Cooker

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - President Trump met Monday with Egyptian field marshal/ president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Trump effused, “We agree on so many things. I just want…

Sectarian Tensions Flare in Egypt as Christians flee ISIL in Sinai

By Brian Whitaker | (Al-Bab.com) | - - Several hundred Egyptian Christians have fled their homes in North Sinai over the last few days following a series of murders attributed to supporters…

Trump to al-Sisi: Syria’s al-Assad is a Brave, steadfast Man (Beirut Report)

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - al-Diyar (The Lands) [Beirut] reports on what Egyptian officials allegedly leaked about the telephone conversation between Donald J. Trump and Egyptian president `Abdel…

Pain and torture: state violence in Egypt

By Maged Mandour | ( OpenDemocracy.net) | - - The root of state violence and torture is not poor police training, nor a political decision that can be reversed, it is the…

With Fall of Aleppo, will a Russo-Iranian Middle East challenge Trump?

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - On Thursday, the Syrian government announced that the last of those who wanted to be evacuated from the East Aleppo pocket had been…

Life under the Junta: Deadly Explosion at Cairo’s Coptic Christian Cathedral Kills 25

TeleSur | - - The Coptic cathedral explosion has reportedly killed 25 people and injured dozens more. A crowd gathered outside Cairo city’s biggest Coptic Christian cathedral Sunday morning chanting, "Tell the…

Egypt’s Special Courts in time of Crisis are Nothing New

by Yoram Meital | (Informed Comment) | - - The toppling of a regime, whether by civil insurrection or military coup, invariably gives rise to a fierce struggle over the lineaments of…

60 Years later, Suez Crisis looks a lot like Iraq War

By Nigel Ashton | (The Conversation) | - - Does history repeat itself? Never perfectly or precisely, but some of the parallels between Anthony Eden’s handling of the 1956 Suez Crisis and…

Egypt: New Church Law Discriminates Against Christians

By Human Rights Watch | - - Authorities Fail to Prevent, Punish Violent Attacks (Tunis) – A long-awaited new law maintains restrictions over the construction and renovation of churches and discriminates against…

Arab nationalist press Reacts to Erdogan’s Crackdown with cries of “Dictator!”

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | - - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's firing of some 50,000 people, including educators, bureaucrats, police and military personnel, in the wake of the failed July…