Last week Egypt’s secular military dictatorship continued its increasingly brutal campaign to suppress dissent. In the span of just a few days it formally accused the deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood associates of participating in a far-fetched terrorist plot and sent security agents to raid the office of the Egyptian Center for […]
While the coup and the ensuing repressive bloody outcome was, by and large, propelled by indigenously Egyptian political dynamics, it is naïve to assume that there were no geopolitical dynamics at play. The monarchies that poured petro-dollars into Egypt to support the coup regime were nervous about the long-term effect of any democratically elected […]
On July 3, 2013, in a move that shocked some members of the international community, the Egyptian military forcibly removed from power President Mohammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). With overwhelming support from Egyptians, the military deposed Morsi’s government, maintaining that they stepped in as a response to serious political and social unrest triggered […]
I don’t know who deserves the attribution as far as the coining is concerned, I only know—like the terms Islamism, sharia, and jihad — so-called political Islam is a loaded term that stirs storms of controversy. Despite that baggage, it is the prevalent concept that defines all political parties and movements with Islamic references. This […]
There usually is. The Egyptian military, mirroring, it says, the will of the Egyptian people, has thrown Morsi’s band of Islamists out of office and set in motion the kind of parliamentary and electoral process that millions of neighboring Syrians want to see materialize in their own country. Instead, the Syrian people remain trapped […]
To coup or not to coup? Who cares? Whatever label it is being given, coup or revolution, what the Egyptian military accomplished less than one week ago is removing a government supposedly democratically elected. This comes on the heels of a previous removal of a long-standing dictator — Hosni Mubarak — just over two years […]
Today, Egypt is a dangerously polarized nation that is on the brink of a civil war. And, that worst case scenario could have broad implications far beyond that country and the Middle East. Since the military coup d’etat, the situation in Egypt has been rapidly escalating into a dangerous political dichotomy- all against the Muslim […]
Eric Trager on the Muslim Brotherhood’s view of Iran and Iran’s foreign policy Eric Trager is the Next Generation Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He is an expert on Egyptian politics and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Dr. Trager was in Egypt during the 2011 anti-Mubarak revolts. He visits the country on a […]
On February 11, 2011, approximately two years ago, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down as the supreme leader of Egypt after a reign that lasted 30 years. His rise to the pinnacle of the country’s power structure came following the 1981 assasination of his predecessor, Anwar Sadat. This was considered the culmination of the Arab […]
Going home. The resonance of that phrase is universal. The happy homecoming. The poignant or sad one. The unsure one. The second chance one. For His Royal Highness Prince Mahdi Al-Senussi that ultimate appellation of his “going home” remains to be determined. Forty-two years to the month that Prince Mahdi was forced to leave […]
Egypt’s fragile young democracy seems on a knife’s edge after President Mohamed Morsi decreed that decisions he makes until a parliament is instituted are not subject to judicial review. Morsi’s camp insists this measure is necessary to protect the democratically chosen assembly working to agree on and draft a constitution, which faces opposition from judges […]
Over the decades the opportunistic Turkey has dictated its Middle Eastern relations based on shifts in the regional balance of power. In the early 1990s up until around 2006, Turkey was finely enmeshed in Western sentiments and policies. But beginning in 2006 it recognized a leadership vacuum in the Middle East and began attempting to […]
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