Saad Eddin Ibrahim Receives Prison Sentence
August 4th, 2008 by Sarah
Saad Eddin Ibrahim, prominant Egyptian dissident and member of POMED’s Board of Advisors, has been sentenced to 2 years in prison, after an Egyptian judge found that Ibrahim’s writings had harmed the country’s reputation. Ibrahim has urged President Bush and Congress to tie financial aid to Egypt to democractic reform, and has accused President Hosni Mubarak of manipulating the country’s peaceful relationship with Israel, as well as fears of Islamist extremism, to keep U.S. aid flowing.
In response to his sentence, Ibrahim states, “my real crime is speaking out in defense of the democratic governance Egyptians deserve.”
Blake Hounshell at FP Passport argues that despite the fact that Ibrahim has a lot of admirers on Capitol Hill, that “with the [Bush administration’s] ‘freedom agenda’ long dead, perhaps Hosni Mubarak’s government….thinks it can get away with it.”
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Egypt, Foreign Aid, Freedom, Islamist movements, Muslim Brotherhood, POMED, US foreign policy | Comment »
Setback to Democracy Promotion
July 30th, 2008 by Sarah
Rami Khouri in the Daily Star looks to the advice of Robert Pelletreau, former assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs and ambassador to three Arab countries, to review why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the oil situation, and efforts to expand democracy are worse off now than before Bush became President. Democracy promotion “has been set back by our headlong push for elections in countries with little or no popular experience in political participation. The result has been clerical-led factions being elected in Iraq, Hamas winning parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories, the Muslim Brotherhood gaining ground in Egypt, Hizbullah becoming a stronger political force in Lebanon and even the word ‘democracy’ now being widely treated in the region as an American implant.”
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Egypt, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iraq, Israel, Muslim Brotherhood, Palestine, US foreign policy | Comment »
2008: Separating Terrorism From Islamic Extremism
July 17th, 2008 by Matt
Over at TAPPED, Ezra Klein homed in on a particular passage on Islamic extremism in Barack Obama’s interview with Fareed Zakaria that Klein says shows a distinct difference between McCain and Obama on this issue:
“One of the clear distinctions between the Left’s approach to terrorism and the Right’s approach to terrorism is that the Left wants to limit the scope of the conflict, while the Right wants to expand it. So though it was only al Qaeda who attacked us on 9/11, Romney and Giuliani and McCain and plenty of their colleagues want to zoom out from al Qaeda to terrorism, and from terrorism to Islamic extremism. Rather than this being an effort to hunt down al Qaeda, it becomes a war to hunt down al Qaeda, destroy Hezbollah, eradicate Hamas, overthrow Saddam Hussein, change the regime in Tehran, crush the Muslim Brotherhood, and confront Syria, and whatever else Bill Kristol thought of while eating his Cheerios that week.”
Posted in Election 08, Hamas, Hezbollah, Muslim Brotherhood, Terrorism, US foreign policy, US politics, al-Qaeda | Comment »
Mubarak and the Mosque
July 14th, 2008 by Adam
Rannie Amiri at Counterpunch reports on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s attempts to subvert Sunni scholars to do his sectarian bidding. According to Amiri, Mubarak’s outreach to these religious authorities is based on his fear of the tens of thousands Iraqi Shiite refugees that have come to Egypt since 2003. Mubarak wants to use the Sunni scholars to provide a counterbalance against the influence of the Shiites, who are seen as a fifth column and unwilling to submit to state authority.
On a related note, the Daily Star reports that 16 members of the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested Sunday during a by-election in Northern Egypt.
Posted in Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood, Political Islam, Sectarianism | Comment »
Internet Suppression in Egypt
July 9th, 2008 by Sarah
At IkhwanWeb, the Muslim Brotherhood’s official website, Dr. Abdul-Fattah Hassan, a member of Egyptian Parliament, argues that there is a direct correlation “between the increasing number of blogs and increasing suppression of freedoms and expression of one’s opinion.”Meanwhile, a report issued by Egypt’s Information and Decision Making Center has found that there are 160,000 Egyptian blog, representing over 30% of all Arab blogs.
Posted in Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood, Technology | Comment »
Egyptian Politics
July 7th, 2008 by Sarah
Almasry Alyoum reports on an Egyptian opinion poll, where a majority claim that the Egyptian government ignores the country’s economic problems, corruption, deviation, and crime. A significant percentage found the People’s Assembly to be ineffective and that the government is either unfair or despotic.
Meanwhile, RearVision (Australia) hosts an interesting interview with Tariq Ramadan, Gilles Kepel, Joshua Stacher and Matthias Küntzel on the history of the Muslim Brotherhood, where it came from, why it has been banned for the past 50 years, and what it stands for today.
Posted in Egypt, Elections, Freedom, Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Muslim Brotherhood, Political Parties, Publications | Comment »
Facebook Showdown
July 3rd, 2008 by Sarah
Sherif Mansour reports at Freedom House on the Egyptian government’s attempts to block access to Facebook and the significance of the site as a tool to organize Egyptian dissidents. Unless the international community pressures the Egyptian government to keep Facebook accessible, Mubarak’s “self-fulfilling prophesy as the only alternative to the Muslim Brotherhood will continue to hold Egypt back from the democracy its people deserve.”
Posted in Arab media, Egypt, Journalism, Muslim Brotherhood, Technology | Comment »
Where’s The Brotherly Love?
June 23rd, 2008 by Adam
Ibrahim Gharaibei at the Daily Star looks at the recent rifts in the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. Over the past 60 years the movement has maintained a high degree of public unity, but internal squabbles centered around generational, regional, and ideological differences, as well as external pressure have reduced its political effectiveness. The poor showing by the group in 2007 parliamentary elections, and the emergence of a MB faction tied to Hamas, threatens to deeply splinter the group in a very public and perhaps permanent fashion.
Posted in Jordan, Muslim Brotherhood | Comment »
Can The Muslim Brotherhood Help Secularists?
June 19th, 2008 by Sarah
International Crisis Group has issued recommendations to both the Egyptian government and the Muslim Brotherhood in regard to moving forward. “Ultimately, the Muslim Brothers are too powerful and too representative for there to be either stability or genuine democratization without finding a way to incorporate them. Their integration..[is] an essential step to a genuine opening of the political sphere that would also benefit secular opposition forces.”
Posted in Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood, Political Islam | Comment »
June Edition of the Arab Reform Bulletin
June 11th, 2008 by Sarah
The June edition of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Arab Reform Bulletin is now available. This month’s edition features an interview with Egyptian blogger, Sandmonkey, and articles by Ibrahim Gharaibeh, Moataz El Fegiery, and Andrew Ng.
Sandmonkey discusses the role of the internet in mobilizing Egypt’s dissenting voices, the political attitude of Egypt’s youth, and the recent food protests in Cairo. “We live in a controlled society with an oppressive government, so expressing an opinion is asking for trouble. The only place you can do it safely is on the internet.”
Ibrahim Gharaibeh addresses the development of divisions in Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood. “It is clear that the Jordanian Islamist movement still is at risk of splintering. Divisions that were once seen mostly at the leadership level have now penetrated the movement in a much deeper way.”
Moataz El Fegiery discusses why most national human rights institutions in the Arab World, outside of Morocco and Palestine, have been unable to establish legitimacy. Because of the deterioration of democratization efforts and strained relationships between authorities and civil societies, these institutions have not been able to improve the status of human rights. “Only if [these institutions] are permitted to play their rightful role in mobilizing public opinion, communicating with civil society, and in turn pressing governments, will their work move beyond an academic exercise that any scholarly institution could undertake.”
Andrew Ng is concerned about the implications of a new political movement in Morocco. The Movement for All Democrats advocates for political reform, but the pressing question is whether the movement “will channel its energy toward engaging and strengthening the parliament or bypass it” and focus on the King instead. Ng warns that “the more the MAD behaves like a royally-blessed association dismissive of parliament, the more it will reinforce the political status quo.”
For the full Arab Reform Bulletin, click here.
Posted in Egypt, Human Rights, Jordan, Morocco, Muslim Brotherhood, Reform, Technology | Comment »
Trouble for the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan
June 10th, 2008 by Adam
At Abu Aardvark, there is a look into the political difficulties facing the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. The MB’s previous tacit agreement with the Hashemite monarchy broke down after the 2005 hotel bombings and Hamas’ electoral victory. The repressive crackdown on the organization has emboldened hardliners and radicals whose commitment to political participation is tenuous. This has produced a dangerous dynamic in which the youth of the MB are disillusioned with political participation because, “…their experience is of repression and regime manipulation.”
Posted in Jordan, Muslim Brotherhood | Comment »
Politically Motivated Verdicts in Egypt
June 9th, 2008 by Sarah
Recently 40 members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt were charged with terrorism, money laundering and belonging to an outlawed organization. The charges were dropped when civilian courts found them to be “groundless, intentionally fabricated by state security officers, and politically motivated with no substantial evidence whatsoever.” Mubarak ignored the court’s ruling and transferred the case to a military tribunal, which today found the accused guilty.
Ibrahim El Houdaiby writes a fascinating article in the Middle East Times condemning actions by Mubarak and the court as purely political and warns that the verdict is likely to have a negative effect on the moderation of political Islam in the region.
Posted in Egypt, Islamist movements, Muslim Brotherhood | Comment »
New Conservative Members of the Muslim Brotherhood
June 4th, 2008 by Sarah
Abu Aardvark believes that Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is about to announce the appointment of new members to its Shura Council. These new members are decidedly more conservative than those they are replacing, effectively sidelining reformists and illuminating an internal divide within the opposition group.
Posted in Egypt, Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Muslim Brotherhood, Political Parties, Reform | Comment »
Is Islamism Rising With Food Prices?
May 31st, 2008 by Amanda
Jack Fairweather at PostGlobal opines that Islamism in Jordan is being helped by the rise of food prices in Jordan. As the poor look to the Muslim Brotherhood for food assistance, Fairweather notes that the goodwill “comes with a caveat” requiring recipients to “attend classes advocating the imposition of Sharia law.” Although the group’s political arm, the Islamic Action Front, is allowed to participate in elections, the government is “distrustful” of the group’s tactics.
Yusuf Mansur at BitterLemmons International claims that the steep inflation of late is forcing normally “numb” Jordanians to recognize “manifest discontent and rising poverty.” He derides Jordan’s government on “the similarity of promises from one cabinet to the next and their dismal achievements [that] have helped douse the possibility of emergence from the catacomb of policy ineffectiveness.” He asserts that Jordan’s “dangerous tripod” of historically high unemployment and poverty that have gone unresolved by its leadership are only being exacerbated by the inflationary pressures, which is leading to popular unrest.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the “food crisis creates an opening for Muslim fundamentalists and has considerably “challenged America’s goals in the Middle East.”
Posted in Elections, Islamist movements, Jordan, Muslim Brotherhood, Political Islam, US foreign policy | Comment »
Net-Roots Take Hold As Egypt Awaits Bush
May 15th, 2008 by Pasha
Ahmad Zaki Osman of the Daily Star observes the growing of a youth net-roots movement in Egypt, while Abu Aardvark posits that the Muslim Brotherhood is acting as a counterweight to jihadist groups like Al-Qaeda in Egypt both intellectually and politically, as President Bush prepares for his visit to Cairo this weekend.
Posted in Egypt, Islamist movements, Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda | Comment »
Egyptians Go E-Politics
May 14th, 2008 by Amanda
At the Daily Star Ahmad Zaki Osman explains the effect that the internet is having on Egyptian political participation. By utilizing popular online networking tools like Facebook, and other methods for widespread information distribution like YouTube and blogs, the younger members of society are changing the political landscape.
Osman reports that as “internet users have voiced direct criticism of Mubarak’s regime,” the government has cracked down on the opposition by arresting bloggers, like Moneim Mahmoud, Wael Abbas, Karim Amer, and most recently Isra Abdel Fattah for organizing the April 6th demonstrations. As for the Muslim Brotherhood’s blogging participation, Osman notes that “most Brotherhood blogs joined the reformist side of the debate, rejecting ideas such as supervision of the executive and legislative branches by a board of religious scholars or exclusion of women and Copts from the presidency.”
For more on the Islamist political movement, visit Abu Aardvark where Marc Lynch discusses the the moderating force of the the Muslim Brotherhood on radicalism.
Posted in Egypt, Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Muslim Brotherhood, Political Islam | Comment »
Speaking Out Against Mubarak
April 24th, 2008 by Sharlina
In a discussion of Hosni Mubarak’s harsh sentences towards many members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Khalil Al-Anani argues, “The regime should have been honest and courageous and should acknowledge that it rejects the group’s political action on the grounds that it is a religious group instead of imprisoning innocent people and torturing their children and families.”
Meanwhile, Belal Diab, a 20-year-old literature student at Cairo University who interrupted Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif as he addressed the student body on campus Monday, demonstrated the continued uprising about the recent crackdown on dissidents, food woes, and the lack of democracy and freedom.
Posted in Egypt, Human Rights, Muslim Brotherhood | Comment »
Feeding Egypt
April 21st, 2008 by Amanda
Jackson Diehl at the Washington Post believes that for Egypt, “the link between food and freedom — or the lack of it — has never been clearer.”He says that Mubarak’s regime is in trouble as “Egypt’s latest bread crisis comes on the heels of a pro-democracy movement” and people take to the streets in protest over wages and political oppression, not just a hike in grain prices.
Riots are being stomped out but strikers continue to reorganize, and as Eman S. Morsi at babelmed interestingly points out, “most of these events were led or initiated by women,” defying social norms to voice their frustrations. Visit 3rabawy for photos on the most recent sit-in by 500 workers at Misr Dairy Products Company in El-Amiriya.
At the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, David Schenker provides detailed analysis of the current economic and political situation in Egypt, the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in recent elections, and the relationship between the United States and the Mubarak regime. Schenker notes that “Washington faces an uphill battle on certain key issues” as Egypt faces “a political transition on the horizon.”
Posted in Egypt, Islam and Democracy, Muslim Brotherhood, US foreign policy, Uncategorized, Women | Comment »
Mubarak’s Battles with the Muslim Brotherhood
April 18th, 2008 by Sharlina
Amr Hamzawy and Mohammad J. Herzallah discuss in an op-ed in The Daily Star Hosni Mubarak’s efforts to stifle the Muslim Brotherhood during the most recent Egyptian municipal elections, asserting that the current “wave of social unrest and economic uncertainty” is “certain to aggravate conditions and lead to further instability in Egypt.” They further argue that such conditions could stimulate increased legal participation on behalf of the conservative members of the Brotherhood, which “would be terribly regrettable for the country as a whole.”
The Economist looks at the recent, and harshest, sentences given to members of the Brotherhood, analyzing them as “attempts to discredit Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood before Egyptian public opinion, [where] the government is also seeking to highlight the role that Egypt is playing in providing humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Palestinians and in persuading Israel to ease its choking restrictions on the territory.”
Posted in Egypt, Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood | Comment »
Members of Egyptian MB Sentenced to Long Jail Terms
April 17th, 2008 by Stephen
An Egyptian military tribunal has sentenced 25 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to as many as 10 years in prison for a variety of charges including money laundering and terrorism. This is seen as a significant move in the Egyptian government’s efforts to undermine the nation’s largest opposition group.
Posted in Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood | Comment »
