News features

Gamal al-Banna leaves behind a legacy of controversial views on Islam

File photo of Islamic intellectual Gamal al-Banna during an interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm, 8 June, 2011.
17 Feb 2013
In his home office in Bab al-Shaariya, the late Gamal al-Banna always had his door open to curious guests seeking personal interaction with the controversial writer, whose works branded him an apostate in the eyes of many Muslims. With his...
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New draft law would limit the scope of work of NGOs

Defendants in foreign funding standing in cage during the first session of trial, Cairo Criminal Court, February 26,2012. The judge adjourned the session until April, following a chaotic first court session.
14 Feb 2013
It didn’t take long for the draft law regulating the NGOs’ work to be finalized before it was dubbed “suppressive,” swiftly incurring the ire of a civil society community already under scrutiny and increasingly...
Yes

Protesting legally: Demonstration bill deemed highly restrictive

13 Feb 2013
The new protests draft law proposed by the Justice Ministry opens the way for fresh controversy over the future of freedoms, at a time of mounting political and economic dissent against the Islamist-led executive and legislative branches...
Yes

Violence and politics on the day Mubarak's toppling is remembered

Words reading "This Palace is your prison" against President Mohamed Morsy written by protesters of "Friday of Departure" on walls of Ettehadiya Presidential Palace in Heliopolis, Cairo, 9 February 2013.
12 Feb 2013
The commemoration of the second anniversary of Hosni Mubarak’s abdication in Egypt was centered around calls for the current president to step down, in a scene indicative of the tough time ahead for authorities.  Tens were...
Yes

Syrian refugees find second home in Egypt's Port Said

11 Feb 2013
PORT SAID — It’s just after 2 am on Monday, and dozens of people are milling around the gates to Port Said’s main docks. Microbus drivers stand in groups outside their vehicles, smoking cigarettes and joking as they wait...
Yes

For Egypt's jailed children, an ongoing plight

Egypt's street children suffer abuse at the hands of police.
10 Feb 2013
Police arrested yet another group of minors Friday, as protests and street clashes again swept across Cairo and its surrounding governorates. One of the minors to be arrested and locked up alongside adults was Yehia Abdel Razeq, a boy...
Yes

Tech experts brush off YouTube ban

A Saudi internet surfer checks his Twitter account at a coffee shop in Riyadh. Malaysia has deported a young Saudi journalist who is wanted in his home country over a Twitter post about the Prophet Mohamed that sparked calls for his execution, according to an official. (AFP Photo/Fayez Nureldine)
10 Feb 2013
Information technology experts dismissed a court order issued Saturday banning YouTube in Egypt for a month for hosting the highly controversial film “The Innocence of Muslims,” widely deemed anti-Islamic. The Cairo...
Yes

Less-than-defined National Salvation Front faces a murky path

Clashes between protesters and security forces at the Presidential Palace in Heliopolis, Cairo, 1 February 2013.
09 Feb 2013
Last Friday’s protests and subsequent clashes in front of the Ettehadiya Presidential Palace, underscored by the security forces’ assault of protester Hamada Saber, saw opposition groups — notably, the April 6 Youth...
Yes

Caught between opposing forces, military is reluctant to step back into politics

07 Feb 2013
After emerging from a tumultuous 18-month period of military rule following President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, the public has kept an anxious eye out for any signs that the military may be making a comeback. The latest series of...
Yes

Despite Ahmadinejad’s visit, geopolitics may hinder Egypt-Iran relations

06 Feb 2013
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Egypt on Tuesday, marking the first visit by an Iranian head of state since 1979. Ahmadinejad is in Cairo to attend the Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit, which starts Wednesday,...
Yes

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