An angry friend told me: “I noticed that the media has started sympathizing with accusations against Omar Al-Beshir. I was shocked to find some columnists repeating the accusations leveled against the Sudanese President by the International Criminal Court. “The press has a duty to deliver all the information to the readers. So if a report …

With the world fixated on recent events at the International Criminal Court and how they will affect the situation in Sudan, it is important to remember what is happening in Darfur today. As force commander of what is destined to be the world s largest peacekeeping operation, I am deeply concerned about the deteriorating security …

Is it possible to fall out of love with your own country? For two years, I, like many Americans, have been focused intently on documenting, exposing, and alerting the nation to the Bush administration’s criminality and its assault on the Constitution and the rule of law – a story often marginalized at home. I was …

The much-anticipated verdict on the case against Mamdouh Ismail, owner of the doomed Egyptian Al Salam ferry, has triggered a wave of anger and resentment across Egypt, yet no one was particularly surprised. Despite the scathing condemnations, the raw fury, the indignation beamed through satellite TV talk shows and on the opinion pages of the …

I was recently on holiday away from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. As customary, I was bombarded with questions by both friends and acquaintances gathered around the dinner table one evening about how I could possibly bear to live in this desert and unbearably hot country. Well, putting the element of heat aside, those …

In the 1960’s, feminists coined the slogan “Our bodies, our selves. But that liberating sentiment has recently undergone an ironic twist. As an anonymous American woman, justifying her decision to undergo cosmetic surgery, put it, “All we have in life is ourselves, and what we can put out there every day for the world to …

Up until 1979 America employed what is often referred to as a twin pillar strategy in the Middle East. That is to say that it used Saudi Arabia and Iran under the Shah as its stalwart allies in the region and the aim of its policies was to ensure regional stability through cementing, prolonging, protecting …

“Why do they hate us? asked the Americans of the Islamic fundamentalists after 9/11. “Why do they not like me? could be the question asked by Nicolas Sarkozy to the French after more than one year in power. Sarkozy is omnipresent both domestically and internationally. On July 13, the leaders of more than 40 countries …

In the wake of Abu Ghraib, extraordinary rendition and Guantanamo, torture has become a stain on America s good name, something that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. This stain, which has especially harmed US relations with the Muslim world, must be removed, with all those involved being held accountable for their …

Ten days ago an amazingly colorful array of Arab princes and Muslim clerics came together with representatives of the world’s major faiths in the Spanish Royal El Prado Palace in Madrid. While the Western media generally failed to appreciate the magnitude of the event, the Arab media understood how important it really was. Not only …

Today, as regional and international powers contemplate the choices of war and peace at the historical juncture that will shape the future of the Middle East, Egyptian foreign policy busies itself combating an Iranian documentary that criticized a former Egyptian President. The documentary entitled “Execution of a Pharaoh was produced in 2006, and was recently …

We were not in need of the Egyptian Dar Al-Ifta to issue a fatwa rendering power-inheritance in Egypt illegitimate, simply because power-inheritance itself is no longer a source of legitimacy in any mature society. Egypt needs a new type of legitimacy – that of achievement. The regime has to have the requirements of this legitimacy, …

Senator Barack Obama’s recent European tour hints that the Illinois senator is Europe’s choice to be America’s next president. But Europeans should not expect too much. While Obama would likely restore civility and politeness to transatlantic discourse, the sources of friction are more profound. The geo-political interests of Europe and America have been drawing apart, …

In Riyadh last March, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia decorated American Vice President Dick Cheney with the Kingdom’s Order of Merit. This gesture elicited hundreds of Internet postings from Arabs condemning the award as treachery and lamenting the pitiful state of leadership in the Arab world. To cite only one comment, addressed to the King: …

Palestinian journalists and writers seem to have found it difficult to address the current trend of bulldozer attacks in Israel. The piece of construction equipment appears to have joined our national conflict as a new weapon in the hands of Palestinians working inside Israel. I see this astonishment, however, as something that Palestinian writers have …

Forty years ago this month, more than 50 nations gathered in the East Room of the White House to sign the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In his memoirs, US President Lyndon B. Johnson called it “the most significant step we had yet taken to reduce the possibility of nuclear war. Today, with …

A while back I had quizzed the author of a best-seller in the US by the name of Kyle Mills. I’d just read his spy novel Sphere of Influence, about Al-Qaeda, where he predicted how Al-Qaeda reformatted itself into a cost-efficient, decentralized organization post-9/11 (he wrote the novel before 9/11, and updated it immediately afterwards). …

It s one of those days when a lot of people are probably looking at the Middle East and scratching their heads. The Israelis have released Samir Qantar, who committed a terrible atrocity, along with four others who are defined as terrorists to Hezbollah – which Israel defines as a terrorist organization. And all of …

How sick is Nigerian president Umaru Yar’Adua? In May, he admitted during a live television broadcast that he suffers from a kidney ailment, but sought to quell rumors that he was terminally ill by insisting that fears for his health are greatly exaggerated and politically motivated. There are plenty of world leaders in less-than-perfect health. …

The products of globalisation have significantly undermined the process of “information management in countries where censorship is still part of everyday life. Traditionally, the Islamic Republic has always interfered in the press. Human rights organizations have criticised the Iranian state for actively impeding freedom of expression and undermining platforms for social discourse. However, the emergence …

As the competition for the US presidency heats up, the threat of Muslim extremism is bound to become a major issue in the campaign. The reason is its link to the war in Iraq. Public polling shows that Iraq is the top foreign policy issue for most Americans, with many seeing the war as increasing …

On the website of Al-Masry Al-Youm readers are encouraged to leave comments on articles as a way of engaging them and gauging their opinions on various subjects. I hadn’t noticed the comment section until the Egyptian cultural attaché in Tokyo drew my attention to it, remarking that he follows it regularly. He specifically noted readers’ …

Interfaith dialogue is nothing new, but new technology is changing the way it s done. Before, the average Muslim Pakistani might never have crossed paths with a Jewish Israeli; a Nepali Buddhist might never dialogue with a Christian American. On the World Wide Web, however, social interactions that before were limited are now commonplace. It …

Young Egyptians don’t believe in politics. This striking argument should not surprise any political analyst, whose concern is centered on our country’s public affairs. Last week, I lectured a politically diverse group of Egyptian youth in a workshop organized by Liberal Youth Federation. In my talk, I tried to build an argument is that democratic …

This is a public service announcement for all Egyptian youth planning a day at the beach in the sweltering summer season: You are in danger. This is not about sharks or jellyfish; it’s not about the perilous currents of the Mediterranean, deadly tidal waves or fatal diving accidents in the Blue Hole. It’s not about …

Would it be a great disaster if Iran had nuclear weapons? As a habitual contrarian, I pose the question because almost everyone seems to believe that it would, and that it must be prevented at all costs. But is that true? John Bolton, the former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, said in April …

While the world looks elsewhere, Somalia is in flames. The nation just topped a list of the world s most unstable countries by Foreign Policy magazine, and the United Nations has declared the humanitarian situation there worse than Darfur. In the next three months the number of people requiring immediate food aid will reach 3.5 …

Maybe it is time to be a bit more generous to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and look at the outcome of what he does rather than the way that he does it. The original launch of the Mediterranean Union almost sank the whole enterprise. Appearing to speak without giving the issue much thought, Sarkozy initially …

The Doha Round of multilateral trade talks has already died a thousand deaths. But, apart from the bureaucracies in Geneva, Brussels and Washington, few are grieving. That’s because the world economy is moving forward without a World Trade Organization treaty. While Doha negotiations have sputtered on for seven years, annual global trade flows have increased …

When a foreign minister goes out of his way to assure reporters that there is no tension on his country’s borders with a powerful neighbor, the logical tendency is to wonder whether “the lady doth protest too much. After all, you don’t hear Canada’s foreign minister denying tension on his country’s American frontier, because the …