Tourism= Prostitution?

The July 14th episode of the Al-Jazeera talk-show “Al-Itijah Al-Muakis” (The Opposite Direction) was one of the better I’ve seen in a while.   Essentially, two guests debated the value of Western tourism to the Arab world.   On one hand, an Economics professor at Cairo University argued that it’s a critical component of the Arab economies, pointing [...]

Ikhwani vs Salafi Satellite Competition

In May, Arab Media and Society published an article on Salafi Satellite TV stations in Egypt.  One of its arguements was that the Salafi-Ikhwani relationship should not be seen as adversarial or a zero-sum game.   While Salafis and Ikhwanis may slightly differ in their tactical approach, they don’t see themselves as competitors,  but as working towards the same end [...]

To condition or not to condition?

That is  the dilemma on US aid policy to Egypt:  Should  assistance (financial or military) be contingent upon certain Egyptian domestic reforms as some members of Congress suggest?  Or does doing so harm the US-Egypt military relationship and cause the Mubarak regime to dig in against reform?  Matthew Axelrod, a Fulbright scholar who is researching the US-Egypt [...]

The Five Rules of Understanding ‘Revisions’ – UPDATED

I’ve seen  heavy interest in Jihadist Revisions lately so I’ve developed five rules analysts should follow as they try gauge their significance.  Ignore them at your peril. 
1)  View Jihad as a means, not an ends.    
Far too often in the US, analysts treat Jihad as  an “ends” or a “state of being” but not merely a tool or [...]

The new hotspot

Given this blog’s central mission I feel compelled to formally make note:  Dar_Al_Shourouk is a new Egyptian newspaper that’s making waves.  Look down at the bottom of the screen and you’ll notice that it’s attracted a bunch of big names including Fahmy Howedi who left Al-Dostor to join the paper.    One of the reasons is funding.  The [...]

Who gave those to you?

Here is  very interesting story from Egypt’s Al-Masryoon newspaper on Mohamed Hussaneyn Heikal (for more on his background see this post from mregypt).  
Basically, Heikal was one of the most important Arab voices of the 1950s and 1960s (close ally of Nasser) and still has a huge following throughout the region.   As a sign of his popularity,  he has how [...]

Stuff to check out

1)  America’s Finest:   Except for  Lou_Dobbs, most  major American TV stations are mediocre and unserious in their coverage of important news — unless we now consider Tweeter updates as “serious and critical.”   There is, however, one huge exception to this trend.  Check out this clip and see what I’m talking about.  I learned more from this 8 minute clip [...]

The Akon Disaster — UPDATED

A couple weeks back I wondered why Iron Maiden wouldn’t come to  Cairo .   Probably for the same reason that the Akon Concert in Cairo was a disaster.   Unless a Western-style concert culture exists, acts like this are hard to make work in places like Egypt.  From Sandmonkey:
So, here I am, preparing for my trip back [...]

Traffic Week: On Automotive Darwinism

If you’ve lived in the West long enough, you’re sure to have participated at some point or other in conversations about who’s traveled to the scariest driving country. This usually comes up as something of a feat of strength along the lines of: “I survived a taxi ride in Cairo, I can survive any kind [...]

Blast in Cairo

From Daily News Egypt:
CAIRO: Seventeen people were wounded, including 11 French tourists, three Germans and three Egyptians when a bomb went off in the tourist district of Al Hussein, near the popular Khan Al Khalili market in the heart of Cairo at around 7 pm.
A conflicting report by Reuters, however, claims that four people had [...]

Why No Stop in Cairo?

Iron Maiden, a  great band,  is  playing_Dubai February 13th.   I know for a fact, however,  that there are a lot of angry  rock  fans in the Arab world, especially Egypt,  who are wondering why Iron Maiden’s  Mid-East tour consist of just one city — Dubai — that doesn’t really qualify as “Middle Eastern.”     I just had a [...]

What is he talking about?

I still am confused after reading Egyptian author Alaa Aswany’s Sunday editorial in The New York Times:
PRESIDENT OBAMA is clearly trying to reach out to the Muslim world. I watched his Inaugural Address on television, and was most struck by the line: “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers.” [...]

Don’t Fear the Ikhwan Part Two

Why does the Muslim Brotherhood get so much bad press?     Top Egyptian journalist  Ibrahim Eissa, editor of  Egypt’s Al-Dostor newspaper, has a two part series this week on  what he calls an irrational and baseless fear of the Brotherhood reaching power.   Why does everyone talk about the MB reaching power as if it is an  imminent [...]

‘Why does everyone hate the Brotherhood?’

Ibrahim Eissa, a fierce critic of the Mubarak regime and the editor of Egypt’s Al-Dostor newspaper, has a very interesting set of articles on the  hysteria surrounding the possibility of the  Muslim Brotherhood taking power in Egypt.  Why do so many prominent voices disparage them and act as if their taking power would represent as serious threat to [...]

Ok, so what would you do?

A major theme  in the Egyptian press (which contrary to public perception in the US is actually pretty free)  is that the Government has “misplayed” its hand vis a vis Israel-Palestine.  The critique goes something like this:  
 ”instead of sticking up for Arab interests, the government has supposedly “sold-out” to the US and Israel.  Or it [...]

Heikal on Gaza

On Sunday, I posted that I think that Hamas would come out stronger from the Israeli attack on Gaza.   On January 7th,  Muhammed Hassanein Heikal,  in a  long_interview  on Al Jazeera,  apparently agrees on that.   For American readers  Heikal (read an English bio here) is by far the most important, famous and respected journalist in the Arab world.   He was the [...]

Would Hamas come out stronger?

No doubt about the unity of the Arab public opinion behind Hamas.  However, with the current bombardment of the Gaza strip this attitude might be questionable.  Rob’s thoughts about the military dimension  of Hamas vs. Israel were good but lets put them in a bigger picture.
First,  while Hamas leaders knew that Israel was looking for a [...]

The decline of the Egyptian Bar Scene

An interesting article  in the International Herald Tribune writes about the decline of the Cairo bar scene:
Armed with a bottle of Egyptian brandy and a bowl of steaming chickpeas, Hatem Fouad keeps watch each night over a historic slice of Cairo that is in danger of dying: the bars that once flourished amid the sweeping [...]

Iran vs Egypt

Yesterday, the lead op-ed in  Al-Quds Al-Arabi’s   savaged Egyptian foreign policy, in particular the recent comments of Foreign Minister Ahmed Abu Al-Ghait. 
This is a big theme that (American)  people need to be aware of:  Egypt’s role as a regional power has seriously declined.  Why is this?  The vast majority of the analysts in the Arabic press blame [...]

“The Death Industry” on the Revisions

Al-Arabiya (The Saudi counterweight to Al-Jazeera) has a special program called “The Death Industry” which is part of the Saudi counter-propaganda campaign against Al-Qaeda.  The show’s basic purpose is to slander Al-Qaeda style Jihadists.  This week’s episode (see the transcript  here)covered a variety of topics related to Ayman Zawahiri such as 1) why is he releasing so many tapes [...]