Opinion
14 Dec 2012
The battle for Egypt’s constitution is under way, with the opposition decrying the hastily composed document’s failure to guarantee civil rights. However, another compelling yet unpublicized reason for voting “no” in the upcoming referendum is that the proposed draft ignores the nation’s most valuable and threatened resource, one that affects the quality of life of...
Yes
14 Dec 2012
The lines are now drawn. Five months ago, when President Mohamed Morsy presented himself to Tahrir as a revolutionary, there was still room to conceive that he might take up the principles for which hundreds of Egyptians had given their lives since 25 January 2011 — bread, freedom and social justice.
When he claimed that he was an Egyptian just like the Egyptians in the square, and that he...
Yes
13 Dec 2012
Egyptians have been walking the road to hell over the past few weeks, characterized by a frightening polarization between Islamists and non-Islamists and a harsh battle of wills between the president and the judiciary.
President Mohamed Morsy’s desire to move the political transition forward in order to tackle economic and other challenges is understandable, but insisting on pressing...
Yes
12 Dec 2012
The clashes that broke out between police and army forces at a police station in New Cairo on 19 November 2012 elicits derisive laughter from followers of the developments of the modern Egyptian state.
State institutions are engaged in a battle over who is better able to violate the laws of the state, which they supposedly protect, as the modern state legend goes.
The Egyptian army's...
Yes
11 Dec 2012
Many Muslim Brotherhood figures have characterized the clashes at Ettehadiya Presidential Palace as a manifestation of its conflict with the deep state and remnants of the Mubarak era. But in reality, the Brotherhood is not fighting against the alleged “deep state” and Mubarak remnants within the opposition and inside the courts, as it claims, but rather the deep state within...
Yes
10 Dec 2012
The events of 5 December mark an important shift in Egyptian politics in light of the violence that pitted Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters of President Mohamed Morsy against protesters opposed to the president’s recent moves to centralize power and allow the Brotherhood to dictate the terms of Egypt’s new political order.
Dominant narratives in international media have...
Yes
09 Dec 2012
Less than two weeks ago, President Mohamed Morsy issued a decree that made his decisions immune from judicial oversight. The decree also protected the Constituent Assembly from being disbanded by the judiciary.
In so doing, he set in motion a political polarization that is expected to only deepen in the coming weeks. With an impending referendum on a draft constitution that was rushed through in...
Yes
08 Dec 2012
Now that it has ended with a truce, maybe it’s time to understand the logic behind Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense.
In fact, the operation elicits more questions than answers. The besieged Gaza Strip is too weak to pose a threat to Israel. Reports produced by Israel’s security agency, Shin Bet, point out that more than 160 missiles launched from Gaza in October...
Yes
07 Dec 2012
To decide whether to vote yes or no to the new constitution, we have to go back in time to the moment when the idea of writing a new constitution for the country was brought up after the 25 January revolution.
Why do countries write new constitutions?The French revolution in 1789 may help give us answers.
The French Constituent Assembly, after which all subsequent constitution-writing assemblies...
Yes
06 Dec 2012
When former President Hosni Mubarak introduced amendments to the 1971 Constitution in 2007, the always contested issue of the status of Sharia in Egyptian law reemerged in public discourse. Among the most unexpected contributions to the debate that ensued was that made by the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch, the late Pope Shenouda III.
In stark contrast to positions he had adopted in the 1970s, at the...
Yes