I was just reading Jackie Spinner’s article in yesterday’s Washington Post on the trend among Iraqi girls to wear the hijab so as to avoid standing out in the crowd, and thus becoming targets of kidnappings, shootings, etc… It’s a fine article, except for this statement of fact by the author:
Conservative Muslims believe that [...]

An interesting story today on the front page of Al Misry Al Yom about the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR). At its end of the year performance review board members accused the Council’s leaders of hindering the NCHR’s work, taking unilateral decisions without consulting the rest of the Council, and failing to respond to [...]

The plot thickens… Here’s the Reuters story.

CAIRO (Reuters) - One man died and two others were injured in uncertain circumstances in southern Egypt, a police source said on Thursday, in the latest in a series of clashes between Muslims and Christians in Egypt.
The source said the clash took place on Wednesday when dozens [...]

Gamal Mubarak is quoted in the December 25 Al Hayat as saying that the Fall parliamentary elections would be “important and decisive.” He said they would be “different” and added that “it is unimaginable to conduct the new elections in an air of suspicion as happened during the past elections.”
The Gamal quotes in Al [...]

Al Misry Al Yom reported last Sunday that the Sheikh of Al Azhar, Muhammad Sayid Tantawi, issued a fatwa declaring that a woman could be president of Egypt, but could not become a sheikh at Al Azhar. According to the article the fatwa was a response to Nawal Al Saadawi’s announcement that she would be [...]

Nader Fergany heads the team of scholars and researchers that has worked on the Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) series. The third report in that series, on freedom and governance, will not be published under the aegis of the UNDP after attempts by the US and Egyptian governments to alter its contents. The first two [...]

A few quick thoughts on the Tariq Ramadan controversy. The debate is largely one of definitions. What defines a moderate Muslim? Is Tariq Ramadan, or anyone for that matter, moderate simply because he doesn’t support suicide bombers, and isn’t calling for armed confrontation with the West, or infidel regimes, or whatever other looming entities are [...]

I don’t usually like to post about Israeli internal affairs here unless they have an Arab angle, but two stories in the past few days drew my attention. One was that Israeli banks and Bank Leumi in particular are conspiring with the government not to return money that belongs to Holocaust survivors and their descendants. [...]

One of my favorite sites, the Agonist, posted this flawed piece on Tariq Ramadan yesterday. I’d like to explain a few of the issues that I have with it.
First, the reliance on Lee Smith’s analysis in Slate is highly dubious. Smith is a poor source of expertise on the Arab world, and the reasons why [...]

Saad Eddin Ibrahim, the noted Egyptian-American political scientist who was imprisoned for nearly a year and a half before being acquitted, has penned a new editorial for the Daily Star. It’s on the status of Christians in various Arab countries and is well-timed to coincide with the current sectarian tension in Egypt over church construction [...]

The World Bank is linking a new $500 million in Palestinian aid to Israel lifting travel restrictions and Palestinian reform:
The president, James Wolfensohn, said the bank is not imposing conditions, but that international donors want to see conditions improve to make the aid more effective.
“The donors, essentially, today, having gone through the intefadeh (Palestinian uprising), [...]

I’ve just come back from the interview with Nader Fergany, the lead author of the Arab Human Development Report. As promised before, it will be posted here after I’ve had a chance to transcribe it.
In the meantime, see this Al Hayat column by Jihad Al Khazen, which has more information. According to my meeting with [...]

I have a long-delayed story in the Daily Star on Arab comic book superheroes. Not a new topic, but I think I discuss a few things that weren’t raised before. Here is my friend Paul Schemm’s story on this a few months ago, which quickly made it around the blogosphere.

Evan Osnos of the Chicago Tribune has a long piece on French Muslims here, which is part of a wider series on the “Struggle for the soul of Islam.”
I have to say these pieces on Islam, while often interesting and educational, are getting a bit tiring. Which is why I was glad to see that [...]

A survey finds that nearly half of Americans are in favor of curtailing American Muslims’ liberties:
The survey found 44 percent favored at least some restrictions on the civil liberties of Muslim Americans. Forty-eight percent said liberties should not be restricted in any way.
The survey showed that 27 percent of respondents supported requiring all Muslim Americans [...]

The Independent reports that the Brits are secretly taking the US side on getting Mohamed Al Baradei out of the IAEA:
It had been assumed that Britain was also well-disposed towards Dr ElBaradei, who has said he plans to seek a third term next year as IAEA chief, but a well-placed Whitehall source revealed that officials [...]

I’ve just received the following message via email:
Egyptian journalist Abdou Al Maghrabi, who works for the Sout Al Umma (’Voice of the Nation’) broadsheet, faced a violent attack by a police officer in Abd el Moneim Riad square, next to Cairo’s main square, Midan Al Tahrir, on Saturday night. The area was tightly guarded as Gamal Mubarak, [...]

Daily Star Editor Rami Khouri provides some new information on the suppression of the third Arab Human Development Report by the US and apparently Egypt, who is also pressuring the UNDP not to publish it in its current form.
Authoritative sources directly involved in the matter revealed that the U.S. State Department had accused the [...]

I suppose it’s worth noting that Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif gave his first address to Parliament today (Sunday) since assuming office in July. It provides us an opportunity to reflect on the progress of the new government. In terms of political reform, I don’t think there is really much to say, because nothing has [...]

Who says Islam and modernity can’t go hand and hand? Al Masry Al Yom reported yesterday that Cairo University announced at a press conference last friday that it will begin work in January on the Islamic Satellite. Due to be launched in mid-2006, the satellite will unify the lunar calendar throughout the Islamic world. For [...]