Trump’s Doublespeak in Saudi Arabia [CNN]

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about Donald Trump, it is that he has no qualms about contradicting himself to get what he wants. In Saudi Arabia, he wanted a $110 billion arms deal – not to promote peace and tolerance, as he later proclaimed in his Sunday speech. Thus, his speech will not “be remembered as the beginning of peace in the Middle East,” as he loftily put it, but rather a boost to the war that is ravaging it. Nor will Trump’s speech put an end to the … Continue reading “Trump’s Doublespeak in Saudi Arabia [CNN]”

Trump’s Immigrant Ban Part of a Long, Sad Tradition [Fox News]

For all of his anti-establishment rhetoric, President Trump’s stance toward immigrants and Muslims is more of the same. Orientalism and Manifest Destiny have long animated American foreign policy and domestic treatment of its racial and religious minorities. Trump’s executive orders on Friday, effectively barring immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries, harks back to an era when holy wars were the currency for mass mobilization by the ruler. In the eleventh century, for example, Pope Urban II called on his people to defend the Byzantine Empire from encroaching Muslim armies. What became… Continue reading “Trump’s Immigrant Ban Part of a Long, Sad Tradition [Fox News]”

The Expanding Jurisdiction of Egypt’s Military Courts [Carnegie Sada Journal]

Egypt’s ongoing expansion of military jurisdiction under the pretext of economic development and public safety is yet another indicator that its revolution was stillborn. Although the military has long been a key political player, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s regime has promoted the military to the helm of Egypt’s political and economic affairs. In parallel, there has been an unprecedented expansion of military trials of civilians to serve the interests of the military generals governing the country. Concerns over trying civilians in military courts have long been a priority for Egypt’s… Continue reading “The Expanding Jurisdiction of Egypt’s Military Courts [Carnegie Sada Journal]”

The Egyptian Revolution [UTexas]

The Egyptian Revolution of 2011 captivated the imagination of pro-democracy activists worldwide and turned the name of Cairo’s Tahrir Square into a buzzword for freedom and popular resistance. However, since the February 11, 2011 deposition of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s road to democracy has been marred by two military coups, a decrease in government transparency, and the erratic reign of a democratically elected president-turned-authoritarian who wasn’t even his own party’s first choice nominee for office. Our guest, Professor Sahar Aziz, helps us understand the political earthquakes in Egypt’s bumpy transition from… Continue reading “The Egyptian Revolution [UTexas]”

Protest is Egypt’s Last Resort [New York Times]

Nearly three years after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt is at a critical crossroads: Will it move toward democratization or regress into authoritarianism? With a vote on a new constitution slated for the next couple of months, and promises of parliamentary and presidential elections by summer, Egypt’s military-backed interim government claims it has a road map to correct the country’s deviation from the goals of the 2011 revolution. But the passage last week of a law effectively quashing the right to public protest suggests the opposite. According to… Continue reading “Protest is Egypt’s Last Resort [New York Times]”

Egypt and Other Arab Democracies Will Not Survive Without Including More Women [Christian Science Monitor]

The Arab revolutions, and their aftermath, are a testament to the human spirit. In a matter of months, decades of corruption and injustice were confronted by the raw strength of women and men unified against a common dictator. Facing death, torture, and sexual assault at the hands of state police and government-hired thugs, people across the greater Middle East sought to shed the yoke of tyranny, as they demanded one simple human right – dignity. But once the revolutions ended and the transitional phase began, women were expected to return… Continue reading “Egypt and Other Arab Democracies Will Not Survive Without Including More Women [Christian Science Monitor]”