It was reported over the past two weeks that the Muslim Brotherhood’s Guidance Office is set to hold internal elections. According to the Islamonline website five new members have been elected, three of them will replace Khairat Al-Shater and Mohamed Ali Bishr who were tried in a military court and Ahmed Hassanein, who died last …

Farmers across Africa are currently engaged in an unequal struggle against a pestilent fruit fly whose natural home is in Asia. The fly, first detected in 2004 in Mombasa on the Kenyan coast, has since swept across the continent, decimating mangoes and other crops and devastating livelihoods. In a bid to counter the fly, a …

There is a marked language gap between the discourse used by religious community leaders and that used by Muslim youth in western societies. This communication gap is why many Muslim youth are becoming increasingly divorced from the key tenets of the Islamic tradition – respect for teachers, elders, moral virtue, and high ethical values – …

For some reason, there is a popular assumption that within the boundaries of Middle Eastern politics, every internal factor is related to an external one. Although such popular assumptions only attempt to provide simple answers to complicated questions, the Syrian government persistently traces a pattern of relations between external factors and the internal political conditions …

Hamas just offered Israel a 10-year long truce. This is an important opening that could allow Israel and the United States to start engaging Hamas in the political process, either directly or through Arab allies, because the isolation of Hamas undermines the policy objectives of all parties presently involved. Mahmoud Abbas is the elected president …

A hitherto latent rivalry between Iran and Israel thus has been transformed into an open struggle for dominance in the Middle East. The result has been the emergence of some surprising, if not bizarre, alliances: Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the American-backed, Shia-dominated Iraq are facing Israel, Saudi Arabia, and most of the other Sunni …

PRAGUE – The enormous suffering of the Burmese people caused by the recent cyclone, which has caused tens of thousands of deaths, deserves the sympathy of the entire world. But more than sympathy is needed, because the Burmese military junta’s incompetence and brutal oppression are further aggravating the tragic consequences of this natural disaster. In …

What does it mean to be “civilized ? Obviously, being highly educated, wearing a tie, eating with a fork, or cutting one’s nails weekly is not enough. We all know that being “civilized in this formal way doesn’t prevent people from behaving like barbarians. Everywhere and at all times, being civilized means being able to …

Despite recent progress, more than one billion people still lack decent water supplies, and more than two billion go without sanitation services. But, while we often assume that the benefits of improving water and sanitation systems always outweigh the costs, this is not always true. Piped water and sanitation networks are expensive. Consumers in most …

Over the last few years I attended a number of my Muslim colleagues marriage ceremonies at the mosque. Every time I participate in this lovely occasion I get the impression that Islamic weddings have become closer, at least in form, to the wedding ceremonies of Christians. In the past, Muslims used to celebrate weddings at …

Our venerable Members of Parliament never cease to surprise me. I returned from a trip abroad last week to find a huge uproar at the People’s Assembly against Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni. Apparently some newspapers had reported that certain MPs had criticized him for the fact that the Geneva Book Fair, in which Egypt …

Despite the political and economic turmoil that Lebanon has endured for many years – which culminated in violence weeks before the recent Doha accord – I recently noticed that the number of international students around the American University of Beirut (AUB) campus has grown. One only has to attend a course on Middle Eastern studies …

Recent reports indicating that Israel and Syria are indirectly engaged in Turkish brokered peace talks suggest a major (albeit overdue) development in the Mid-East peace-making process. Since the collapse of the Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations in May 2000, I have consistently been advocating the need for Israeli-Syrian reconciliation specifically because there is not a single dispute …

That there needs to be a conduit between America and the Muslim world for better communication is an understatement given the tensions between the two cultures. The American Muslim community is composed of two distinct groups – indigenous Americans and their children, and immigrants and their children. There is a feeling among the indigenous Muslims …

The settlement reached in Doha last week between warring factions in Lebanon puts an end to an 18-month national crisis and raises hopes for a stable future for that beleaguered country. It may also make real my father s dream for his country, and prompt a wider movement for peace in the region. In the …

I feel a little sorry for President Bush. Whatever his other many failings, he has a pretty good record on aid to poor countries, particularly in healthcare. True to form, he recently announced a big increase in US food aid – good for the hungry poor and good for American farmers. This was a faster …

Truth is often said to be the first casualty in wartime. But if the real truth is told, it is women who are the first casualties. In conflict zones, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF recently observed, sexual violence usually spreads like an epidemic. Whether it is civil war, pogroms, or other armed conflicts, all …

With each passing year, the impending crisis of global warming looms closer and closer. Time is running out for preventative action to be taken. The European Union’s “20-20-20 mantra aims to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20 percent relative to their level in 1990 and to increase the share of renewable resources to 20 …

A Hamas-Israel cease-fire could be on its way, but you wouldn’t know it. No press conference will be held to announce it. Instead, quiet on Gaza’s borders – no rockets going out, no Israeli fire going in – will serve as the declaration that the cease-fire has begun. But this quiet will come with a …

Salafis in Kuwait have won most of the National Assembly seats in the May 17 parliamentary elections. In Jordan the Muslim Brotherhood elected conservative Hammam Saeed as the new leader. He is the first Jordanian of Palestinian origin to hold such a high-profile position since the founding of the group in 1946. In Egypt conservatism …

Eighteen teenagers jot down on colorful post-it notes their one-word impressions of the eight religions listed on the poster boards in front of them. Some show no reservations as they work their way quickly down the list, while others hesitate to put down their thoughts for fear of appearing intolerant or ignorant. Is this a …

The National Planning Institute, a state-run entity, issues an annual report on human development in Egypt. The issuance of this report in collaboration with the UNDP gives it a little bit of objectivity. It is, therefore, considered a reliable source to a reasonable extent for those observers of Egyptian society from one year to another, …

Israel is one of the only places in the world where Georges W. Bush can be greeted with real enthusiasm and even affection. The most unpopular American president in recent history thus relished his recent triumphal welcome in Jerusalem, where he was the guest of honor of the International Conference planned and devised by Israeli …

Ministers at the World Health Assembly in Geneva celebrated unprecedented amounts of money for fighting diseases in Africa. The US Congress has just committed $50 billion over the next five years to combatting HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, while the Global Fund for these diseases will probably add $25 billion. This is a lot of money …

Whoever walks through the streets of Marseille will hear languages and music from every corner of the globe. Only a few steps away from La Canebière, the city s newly-renovated splendid main boulevard, you could mistakenly believe you were in North Africa. In the dark, narrow side streets, Arab shops are lined up one beside …

Many poor, food-importing countries around the world have become desperate in recent months, as global prices of rice, wheat, and maize have doubled. Hundreds of millions of poor people, who already spend a large share of their daily budget on food, are being pushed to the edge. Food riots are mounting. But many poor countries …

The visit of US President George Bush to the region and the realization of the two-state solution are governed by four determinants of which anyone interested in the peace process should not loose sight. The first determinant is the time limit attached to President Bush s departure from the White House in eight months. Is …

A young journalist at one of those up-and-coming weeklies came up to me the other day and asked with serious concern: “Mr Mohamed, where is the Writers’ Union? Why haven’t we heard of any sit-ins, demonstrations, or protests organized by it? Don’t you have any demands from the government? He then took out a copy …

It is fashionable these days, particularly in the West, to speak of India and China in the same breath. These are the two big countries said to be taking over the world, the new contenders for global eminence after centuries of Western domination, the Oriental answer to generations of Occidental economic success. Indeed, two new …

Why, oh, why me? is a common theme of Persian poetry, and complaining about the disfavor of the stars is a general Iranian art form. There is no dearth of evidence in Iranian history for this attitude. King Xerxes was probably the first to complain about his Persian luck when a tempest sank his armada …