Links May 15 - June 7 2015

The Arabist's editors have been on the move lately, traveling and showing visiting friends around Morocco. Hence, a few pictures and a very late, large set of links.

A detail from a work by the early modern  Moroccan painter Ben Ali Rbati (held at the Musée de la Fondation Slaoui in Casablanca), one of the earliest artists to use perspective and to depict more casual and domestic scenes. This is of a Coranic school. 

• The Algerian Exception by Kamel Daoud - NYT
• Battle to write constitution for a Libya at war with itself - FT
• Missed this interview with Tarhouni
• Egypt: 2,600 Killed After Ouster of Islamist President
• Entangled | The Economist
  America and the the Middle East.
• Syria’s Sunnis and the Regime’s Resilience | Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
  On Sunni support for Assad.
• Yemeni officials under ex-president Saleh 'worked with al-Qaeda' | Middle East Eye
• CIA duped.
• Matariyya, Egypt's New Theater of Dissent | MERIP
• Good reporting by Amira Howeidy
• Saudi Arabia Shoots Down Missile Fired From Yemen - NYT
• Surprising Saudi Rises as a Prince Among Princes - NYT
  On Muhammad bin Salman
• Why Jihadists Write Poetry - The New Yorker
• The Administration Should Not Meet With the Muslim Brotherhood in Washington - WINEP
  Because if you ignore it all will be well?
• Mohamed Morsi is no Nelson Mandela
  @belalfadl on MB: "All they have left now is empty threats of revenge against everyone, if their deluded fantasy of returning to power ever comes true"
• Illegally detained activists summoned by prosecutor amid wave of forced disappearances | Mada Masr
• Orwellian Times in Egypt: A Conversation with Emad Shahin - YouTube
• Saudi Arabia's Widening War - Gary Sick - POLITICO Magazine
• Rethinking nations in the Middle East - The Washington Post
  POMEPS collection of essays on nationalism.
• Defense Minister exempts 574 military installations from real estate tax | Egypt Independent
  Geish Inc.
• Moroccan Film About Prostitution Creates Uproar - NYT

Plumbers' shop in the Tangiers medina

Two Egyptian Policemen Shot Dead Near Pyramids of Giza - NYT

• Congress seeks to lift last restrictions on aid to Egypt - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
  No longer requires HR progress, free elex.
• New Left Project | The End of Empire?: Violence and US Hegemony in the Middle East
  Gilbert Achcar on Kaplan's plea for a more assertive US imperialism in the Middle East
• A League of His Own | Bloomberg Business
  Great profile of Sepp Blatter, much mention of Arab money in FIFA.
• From Belgium to ISIS
  Great, strange, sad story of one wannabe jihadi
• Partition en vue d’une succession contrôlée - Actualité - El Watan
• U.S. citizen Mohamed Soltan freed from Egyptian prison
  After such an ordeal
• Opening the black box of Egypt's slush funds | The Angaza File
  Important read.
• Egypt's military establishes multi-industry company - Ahram
  al-Geish Inc.
• Egypt's new justice minister called for hardline Sharia - Telegraph
  And considers citizens "slaves".
• Libyan Prime Minister Survives Assassination Attempt Amid Protests - NYT
  Just as likely Haftar as it is Fajr Libya
• It’s Time to Bring Imperialism Back to the Middle East | Foreign Policy
  Robert Kaplan, being a silly neocon.
• Maybe He Found Gaddafi's Billions. Or Maybe It’s All a Giant Scam
  Bizzarre con seems to have worked in Washington
• “Cairo," cityscapes by cartoonist Mohamed Wahba Elshenawy
  I want this.
• Islamic State "institutionalizes sexual violence" and sexual slavery
  Interview with head of UN sex crime investigators
• Obama to the Arabs: We don’t care - Al Arabiya
  Hisham Melhem.
• Obama Upgrades Tunisia’s Status as a U.S. Ally - NYT
• الدولة ترد على تحركات شفيق «المريبة»: إنسى - بوابة الشروق
  Sisi regime tells Shafiq to fuggedaboutit.
• Egypt Nile water pollution on the rise - Al-Monitor
• The challenged kingdom | The Economist
  Saudiland.
• World's biggest hotel to open in Mecca
  Saudis go on desecrating holy city with crassness
• Egypt’s cyber crime bill
  It's open season on all forms of online expression
• Egypt: Rape and sexual violence perpetrated by security forces 'surges' under el-Sisi's regime
  But nobody wants to know
• Egypt Tax Delay Means Rich Pay Less to Cut Deficit: IMF
• Clinton Friend’s Memos on Libya Draw Scrutiny to Politics and Business - NYT
• Elite Iraqi units abandon Ramadi in biggest Islamic State win since Mosul
• Meet the director of the BuSSy Project, Egypt's answer to the Vagina Monologues
  Good interview with Sondos Shabayek
• Egyptian court labels Ultra soccer fans as terrorists
  Why not, who's next?

Casablanca architecture reminds me of Cairo