Latest in Tag: opinion Highlight
Latest in Tag: opinion
Review: Columnists ask who makes decisions in the palace?
After President Morsy withdrew the decision to raise the taxes on all luxurious commodities, columnists ask, who influences the president in making such decisions? Many writers have accused him of not being able to differentiate between ruling a nation and obeying his Islamist group. Â Ibrahim Eissa Tahrir Newspaper Failure Reveals its President With a …
A very bad joke
In reality, here in Egypt, the independence of Al Mahalla is only a punch line.
In the lap of the gods
By Philip Whitfield The hounds have the fox in their sights. Unleashed, the dogged gird for affray. Â Morsy is forced to flee his palatial, besieged lair. Across town the Muslim Brotherhood HQ is embattled. The overseer of the referendum calls it quits. Shakespeare: We would not seek a battle, as we are, yet as we …
Imagine
Imagine sitting at a friend’s house, watching the president address the nation after a week long crisis, with his supporters just the night before opening fire on civilian protesters in Heliopolis in horrifying clashes that spanned the whole day. Imagine finding out that he issued the illegal constitutional declaration that enflamed and divided the entire …
Review: Columnists condemn presidential manoeuvres
 Amid Morsy’s recent decisions, columnists criticise how the president blindly follows instructions from his Islamist group. Although the results of the national dialogue meeting were deemed successful by many, some columnists argue it rather marked a new presidential failure. It is not a state Ibrahim Eissa Tahrir Newspaper Eissa examines the policy “blunders” the …
From the other side
Overthrow La vache qui rit cheese
Contesting Egypt and de-contextualising narratives
Watch western TV news features on Egypt; you will find an almost identical discourse that de-contextualises current events. It always emphasises President Morsy’s declaration that gave him unmatched powers and fomented outrage, and that’s it. Morsy’s constitutional declaration was obviously met with some reservations from his closest people, which include his deputy, assistants, consultants and …
Review: Millioneya marches and Morsy’s (old) declaration
Before President Mohamed Morsy had issued a new constitutional declaration to repeal his old one, columnists continued to analyse the “million-man” marches that were organised in front of the presidential palace. Other writers denounced Morsy’s authoritarian approach in curtailing the judiciary. A president for the whole group Amr Al-Shobaki Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper President Morsy’s …
Public trust in public servants
Looking at how the presidency chose to deal with last week’s turmoil, it has become increasingly difficult to find a silver lining. The dreadful sight of Egyptians killing one another over political beliefs with such conviction is unprecedented, and it makes me sick to see politicians use that to further their agendas with absolute disregard …
Review: Columnists debate Morsy’s speech
As President Mohamed Morsy met with over 40 political and legal experts to reach national accord over the constitutional crisis columnists explored his invitation for dialogue. Emad Al-Din Hussein Al-Shorouk Newspsper Morsy’s speech and the blood curse Hussein analyses Morsy’s first speech following the violence near the Presidential Palace. He rejects speculation that the …
The growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood
Last week cannot be called anything other than a big mess. Ever since the Brotherhood took office, we have been reaping one misfortune after the other. From political exclusion to cracking down on freedom of speech, regular power cuts to tragic train accidents, blatant lies about achievements to outright hate speech and from false electoral …
Revolution revisited
Adel Heine’s weekly column
Fasten your seat belts please
The mood was tense last Thursday as anti-Islamist protesters continued their sit-in in Tahrir Square, demanding that President Mohammed Morsy annul the constitutional declaration he had issued a week before. Liberals and leftists had all come together to adopt a common stance: “No to absolute powers for the president.”They vowed to continue their sit-in until …
Is the Muslim Brotherhood’s sowing the seeds of its own destruction?
It is not an exaggeration or act of slander to say that the Muslim Brotherhood has always been the fascist alternative to what has been a reactionary regime. In the beginning of the 20th century, it entered into alliances with Egypt’s minor parties against the Wafd, who ruled the country and represented the people’s desire …
Morsy’s stepchildren
By Nervana Mahmoud They went out in the thousands; Egyptians from every walk of life and almost all political affiliations protested in Tahrir against President Morsy’s latest decree and the draft of the new constitution. However, they were not the only ones protesting. Islamist groups, mainly the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis, protested too, but …
The path of fear
Fear is what has made the apolitical stability-junkie stick his head above the parapet.
Middle East and the global chess game
The aftermath of the Arab Spring has not ceased. It is not clear what the region will settle for or how long this process will take. Many academic scholars prior to the outbreak of the Arab Spring questioned if there was a “democratic transition” at all. They assumed that these “survivalist” regimes were in a …
Embrace each other ya Egyptians
By Hussein Abdrabbu The political scene in Egypt has become increasingly hazy since President Morsy’s recent constitutional declaration, as both liberals and Islamists have been competing on the national stage, drawing millions of supporters to Tahrir Square and near Cairo University. All the while any form of meaningful dialogue between the two sides has yet …
From the other side
Suharto in Cairo
A dictator by any other name
As social fissures deepen and clouds of bellicosity darken the skies of Egypt, threatening a deluge of violence, Morsy’s dismissive attitude reveals his once-masked dictatorial disposition. In his interview on Egyptian National Television, Morsy’s spoke in the tone of the patriarch, the father to all Egyptians, a tone quite reminiscent of his ousted predecessor. “Those …
Hamstrung, humbug and hubris
By Philip Whitfield Cairo: Sheep steal elections. But you tempt fate pulling the wool over voters’ eyes. War is not receding in the Middle East. It is building to a crescendo US secretary of state (2005 to 2009) Condoleezza Rice writes in the Washington Post. Her clarion call is trumpeted by the Tahrir Square …
Morsy’s political crisis
For the past week we have been living in the shadow of civil strife caused by the president’s recent decisions. A state of deep polarisation has been created between all those who associate with Islamic political forces and those who associate with non-religious ones. Morsy’s recent constitutional amendments were not only a surprise to everyone …
Talk like an Egyptian
Adel Heine’s weekly column
Editor’s letter: Egypt’s political lag
Morsy with his behaviour and political tactics, is not very different from almost all other political groups in Egypt
Opening up to Islamists
The Arab Spring is undisputedly turning into an Islamist one. This has divided the world over how to deal with it. The realism school of Henry Kissinger supports opening up to Islamists, the same way Kissinger reached out to Communist China in the 1970s. The Chinese turned out to be more pragmatic than Communist, and …
A crisis of trust
It is a must that all political forces come together and immediately start reconciliation dialogue
Has the Muslim Brotherhood entered a new stage?
The process of Al-Tamkin is a phrase often used by Islamists, that can be traced back to the time of the Prophet (PBUH), which, according to various biographies, consists of two phases. The first phase is Istada’af, (subjugation); Muslims during the time of the Prophet (PBUH) were often persecuted, and therefore often hid the fact …
Review: Op-eds analyse Morsy’s new constitutional declaration
Columnists continue to dissect Morsy’s recent constitutional declaration that some say sets the president up as a modern day pharaoh. Many writers believe his move was planned as revenge on the judiciary. Others believe he merely needed to reinstate the power of the office of the president after some political powers had refused to negotiate …
The game no one wins
Granting yourself this level of power is so in the essence of fascism
One man, one vote, one time
By Philip Whitfield CAIRO: You’d die to be immortalised by a zinger, wouldn’t you? Like Ed Djerejian”s after Islamists and pro-democracy groups fell out in Algeria — condemning 30 million to decades of misery, penury and slaughter. Some counted 200,000 corpses. The killing hasn’t stopped 21 years on. That North African torment began with Morsy-like …