Latest in Opinion Highlight
Latest in Opinion
Revolution Dishonoured
To understand today’s pungent pain you must absorb the degree of yesterday’s hope
In search of a new meaning for ‘homeland’
By Emad El-Sayed For a while the idea of emigrating from Egypt was persistent, and quite recently I reconciled with the idea of starting again, in a new place in any field of work. You may not be surprised to know that many of those who participated in the 25 January Revolution (nowadays a confession …
Oil diminishes interest rates
By Ahmed El-Wahsh Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) director, Hisham Ramez took the decision of unexpectedly cutting nationwide interest rates by 50 basis points on the inflation expectation. This decision was implemented due to the current volatility of the crude oil prices per barrel that had been fluctuating, since the organisation of the petroleum exporting …
Who supports terrorist forces in the ongoing wars?
There is a war, or rather wars, taking place in the Middle East between political Islam and ruling regimes, and most observers note that on one side of these wars stands a group of states and governments while the other includes religious, extremist, and militant groups and organisations. The current scene may bring to mind …
The French role in the use and export of torture practices
By Dr Cesar Chelala As the world is reacting with justified condemnation to the tragic events in Paris, the same condemnation should be extended to industrialised countries that have resorted to violence and torture in their recent history. In addition, those countries not only have used these techniques themselves but have exported them to other countries. …
A Muslim perspective on Charlie Hebdo – a side war
By Karim al-Andalusi Prophet Muhammad has been one of the top defenders of the freedom of speech, and from there we go. Is it worth it to take to the streets to fight a deep European behaviour, or to dig deeply in the European values and try to perceive and influence it? I argue that …
Turkish football: Illiberal President Erdogan’s latest victim
By James M. Dorsey Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s illiberal policies have targeted the media, the judiciary, the police, militant football fans, and anti-government protesters. Now they threaten to claim yet another victim: the game of football itself. In a major blow to troubled Turkish football, Yildiz Holding, a conservative conglomerate known for its confectionary and biscuit business and …
Let’s not fool ourselves – The roots of terrorism extend beyond Islam
By Mohammed Nosseir After committing their deadly crimes, terrorists often leave a message that Islam or the Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) is the motive behind their crimes. Scholars logically follow this lead, digging deeper into the Quran in an attempt to solve the puzzle of Islam to determine what motivates Muslims to kill innocent people, and …
Notes from America: Arab Americans, the new blacks
By Ahmed Tharwat The Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris and the overhyped anti terror rally that followed exposed the hypocrisy of the West’s secular free speech. It also started a debate about the future of Muslims in Europe and the US. There are about 7 to 8 million Muslims in France, the largest Muslim population in …
Education in Egypt hit harder by Arab Spring unrest
By Mohamed Ibrahim Education in Egypt has been further dented by the unrest that has engulfed the country since the start of the Arab Spring in January 2011. The education process has been largely disrupted since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak that year. Reforming the education system in the most populous Arab nation …
Better data might cost huge chunk of global aid
By Bjørn Lomborg While the world has generally seen success with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – half the proportion of hunger and poverty, get all kids into school and drastically reduce child mortality – drawn up nearly 15 years ago, not all promises will be achieved. What is somewhat surprising, however, is that we …
Iraq: A tale of two shocks
By Masood Ahmed Iraq is facing a “double shock” from the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) insurgency and the global plunge in oil prices. While the new government led by Prime Minister Haidar Al- Abadi was formed with the express objective of dealing with the insurgency and addressing the humanitarian disaster it …
Deaths in Paris: Separating fact from fiction
By James M. Dorsey The attacks in Paris on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket, as well as two French police officers, have prompted analysts and the media to often jump to hasty conclusions. Terms such as intelligence failure and Al-Qaeda are liberally employed with no clear definition of what they mean …
The wrong uses of public health
By Dr Cesar Chelala One of my most persistent memories of my friend Albert Sabin, who developed an oral vaccine against poliomyelitis (polio), was how, when we met after one of my health-related missions overseas, he would question me about the polio situation in the country I visited. I am sure he would be dismayed …
Egypt’s year in review 2014
With investor confidence growing, Egypt is looking forward to a sizeable boost to its economic performance in 2015. A peaceful conclusion to presidential elections in June, along with slowing inflationary pressures, a slew of crucial fiscal reforms and rallies on both the EGX [Egyptian Stock Exchange] and in the tourism sector, have helped pave the …
Deaths in Paris: Refining the post-9/11 model
By James M. Dorsey Just like Al-Qaeda’s audacious attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington on 11 September 2001, the raid by suspected jihadist militants in Paris on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo will have far-reaching repercussions on multiculturalism. The pursuit of multiculturalism was an attempt by …
Paris operation: Questioning the future of security
By Khaled Okasha Was the attack on Charlie Hebdo in the French capital just a coincidence? Or was it a plan to threaten anyone who mocks Islam? According to eyewitnesses of the attack, while firing their guns, the attackers were shouting that they had avenged the prophet. There is no doubt, however, that this attack …
Stuck between Audacity and Hypocrisy
By Nesreen Salem From a Western perspective, one can see why it is convenient to propagate the Charlie Hebdo massacre as a direct attack on their way of life, on the values they perceive their societies to have been built on, and how global jihadism is a real – nay – the only threat the …
GCC abandonment of unified labour contract puts onus on Qatar
By James M. Dorsey A decision by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to abandon plans to adopt a unified contract for domestic workers increases pressure on Qatar to significantly revamp its controversial labour regime in a bid to fend off efforts to deprive it of its right to host the 2022 World Cup. It also …
The clanging cymbal, a church with a loveless creed
By Wael Eskandar “People talk about human rights, but what about God’s rights?” said Pope Tawadros in his sermon on the eve of Coptic Christmas on 6 January. These words, and most others in the same sermon rang hollow, as I recalled the opening lines of chapter thirteen in the book of Corinthians: “If I …
Notes from America
By Ahmed Tharwat It seems every time a Muslim or group of Muslims behave badly, the rest of us Muslim Americans are asked to respond to the situation, to try to explain their motives and to react to their horrible acts as if we were experts on terrorism or have special insight on Muslim rage. …
Hebdo and Islam: Extreme dichotomies
While most onlookers, in the international scene, stand horrfied by the appearance of a jihadist fog bank in a European capital, Paris, the reality is more complex; indeed, potentially, more sinister
Egypt on FDI Injections
By Ahmed El-Wahsh After several meetings with different foreign investors to pump money into the Egyptian economy, Minister of Investment Ashraf Salman opened up several new investment projects, such as the second phase of the Suez Canal and various other opportunities. Hisham Ramez, the Chairman of the Central Bank of Egypt, has taken initiatives to …
Up migration to make the world richer
By Bjørn Lomborg There is a way to make the poor of this world $500bn better off, but this solution is rarely discussed. This matters, because the international community is gearing up to produce the next set of development goals for 2015-2030, to follow on from the Millennium Development Goals. $2.5tr in development aid, …
A vote for Prince Ali is a likely vote for change – and for challenge
By James M. Dorsey FIFA vice president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein’s announcement that he will challenge the world football body’s four-time president Sepp Blatter in elections later this year has definitively turned the poll into a battle for the group’s future. A vote for the prince is at least a vote against the FIFA president …
Freedom matters – even in a poor and uninformed nation
By Mohammed Nosseir Freedom is, and will continue to be, the most important attribute not only of genuinely democratic nations, but also of a people’s development and progress. Freedom is a gift from God that people can enjoy without burdening their respective governments. Yet autocratic rulers, who usually believe that they are right, are unable to …
What about Al-Sisi’s relations with politicians? (3)
Leaders of the 1952 family start taking power through alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood. Naguib, Nasser and El-Sadat did this. Finally, the Supreme Council – Al-Sisi followed. Even Mubarak, who began to clash with political Islam because it came to power – and the trend that was found guilty for the assassination of El-Sadat, allied …
Once again, what about Al-Sisi’s relations with politicians?
A week after dissolving political parties, particularly on 16 January 1953, Abdel Nasser announced the establishment of the “Freedom Authority”, making it a direct subsidiary of the ruling “revolution council” at the time. It was purposely called “authority” rather than “party” or “front”. The expression makes it sound like one of the state’s authorities like …
Setting benchmark in battle for statehood: Palestine in Asian Cup
By James M. Dorsey Palestine has set a new benchmark for nations like the Kurds and the Kosovars, who see football as a key part of their toolbox to achieve statehood, with its qualification for this month’s Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup even if the Palestinian road to statehood is increasingly pockmarked by seemingly …
Challenges of providing water in Africa
By Dr Cesar Chelala One of the most notable changes in modern times is the rapid urbanisation of our planet, which began in the 19th century. While in 1950, 29% of the global population lived in cities, that figure is estimated now at 50%, and by 2030 it will reach 61%. In Africa, urbanisation experienced a …