Latest in Tag: opinion Highlight
Latest in Tag: opinion
AFC official ‘happy’ to bar women spectators from stadia
By James M. Dorsey The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has dropped any pretention of standing up for universal standards for equality in sports by endorsing bans on women attending football matches in stadia. In doing so, the AFC has confirmed policies adopted by the Asian group, as well as world football body FIFA, that effectively …
Cleaner cooking, electricity can improve millions’ lives
By Dr Bjørn Lomborg Nutritious food, clean water and basic healthcare for all may be obvious high-priority targets for the international community, but we shouldn’t ignore energy. Reliable and affordable energy is as vital for today’s developing and emerging economies as it was before the Industrial Revolution. Driven mostly by its five-fold increase in coal …
Notes from America: The day Egypt lost its virginity
By Ahmed Tharwat This is the story of Jihan and Rasha; two young activists whose lives were shattered forever. The story of the forced virginity test that was performed on young Egyptian women activists by military security during the height of the revolution. The virginity test allegations first surfaced after a 9 March, 2011 rally …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Qatar gambles that labour reforms will satisfy critics
By James M. Dorsey 2022 World Cup host Qatar has announced a series of reforms to improve working and living conditions of its majority migrant labour population that address material concerns, but fall short of recommendations made in a government-sponsored study and demands of trade union and human rights activists. The litmus test for Qatar’s …
Gulf-Iranian proxy war spills onto football pitch
By James M. Dorsey A Saudi-led proxy war against Iran playing out in Syria and Iraq has expanded onto the football pitch with a last minute decision by the Palestinian national team to cancel a friendly against Iran. The cancellation, officially on technical grounds, came barely two weeks before Iran meets two of its Gulf nemeses, the …
Is there a peace partner in Israel?
By Fadi Elhusseini The Palestinian-Israeli peace process has again ground to a halt, and each party blames the other for this unfortunate failure. Israeli officials repeat continuously that there is no Palestinian peace partner, and accuse Abbas and his authority of flexing their diplomatic muscle in an attempt to isolate Israel internationally and making unilateral …
From Syria and Iraq to Iran: Kurdish minorities push for autonomy
By James M. Dorsey More than three years into Syria’s brutal civil war, Syrian Kurds have carved out an entity of their own close to the border with Turkey. Their battle against Islamic State (IS), the jihadist group that has conquered chunks of Syria and Iraq, for Kobani, a stone’s throw from the Syrian-Turkish border, symbolises …
My 800 word torture report
By Ahmed Tharwat The release of the Senate Intelligence Committee torture report has brought back painful memories. Now everyone knows that our government has “tortured some folks”, as President Obama has put it when he wanted to be homey and cute. As someone who was tortured himself in an Egyptian jail, such charm is wasted …
Egypt between mediocrity and suspension of disbelief
By Wael Eskandar Very little has changed with regards to Egypt’s trajectory of descent into a social and political abyss ever since its security forces dispersed the Islamist sit-ins using great force and even much greater impunity. The slope of decline into a more oppressive police state has indeed been very slippery and while there’s …
What about Al-Sisi’s relationship with politicians?
In order to discuss Al-Sisi’s relationship with politicians and get to the root causes of this apparent acrimony between the president and those working in politics in Egypt, we must review how the heads of the 1952 family changed their relationships with politicians and the political process, in order to understand the constants of the …
Takfiri terrorist groups among top causes of atheism: Dar Al-Ifta report
Observatory says social media provides a safer space for youth to express “rejection of religion”