Links 17-21 August 2015

• NaTakallam
  Great idea: displaced Syrians act as online Arabic tutors
• Anthropologist Seeks the Roots of Terrorism
  On the challenges of studying jihadists
• Donne che mordono donne
  In Italian: testimony of medieval practices of ISIS female police
• Eric Laurent interpellé pour chantage au Roi
  French journalists accused of blackmailing the king of Morocco
• Vast Reserves of Natural Gas Found Off the Coast of Egypt
  Great, much-needed news.
• IS posts pics of food distribution in North Sinai
• Sinai Militancy and the Threat to International Forces [PDF]
  Zack Gold.
• The disgrace we should not embrace
  Khaled Mansour on Egypt's human rights council.
• Egypt in Talks to Buy Mistral Warships From France
  More Sisi defense spending...
• Securing the Sinai MFO Without a U.S. Drawdown
  Eric Trager on MFO policy review.
• Is Alawite Solidarity Finally Breaking?
• Brookings | Rethinking Political Islam
  Essays on Islamists in various countries.
• Lebanon’s Un-collected Problems
  Sahar Atrache on Beirut's garbage crisis
• You Can't Stop the Signal
  Great piece by Mahmoud Salem.
• The UN Security Council debates gays and ISIS: Why this is a bad idea | a paper bird
  Long post by Scott Long.
• Shipping Giants Reduce Sailings on World’s Busiest Route - WSJ
  Bad news for the Suez Canal.
• Imprisoned activist Alaa Abd El Fattah speaks from Tora | Mada Masr
  Imprisoned Egyptian activist @alaa on prisons as sites of violations, extremism and boredom
• Look At This: The Unthinkable
  Five minutes of beautiful, heart-rending photos from Yemen
• The Republic of Fear
  Strong words from Amr Hamzawy on Sisi's Egypt.
• How ISIL Out-Terrorized Bin Laden - William McCants - POLITICO
• Foreign Policy by Bumper Sticker | The National Interest
  Many good points here, esp. on Obama in Libya and Syria.
• After its leader resigns what comes next for the Dostour Party? | Mada Masr
  What an absurd mess.
• 'There is no silver bullet': Isis, al-Qaida and the myths of terrorism | The Guardian
  Jason Burke.
• In Egypt, the "disappeared" resurface on TV as terrorists - Reuters
• On writing about sexual violence
  From one of the volunteers who worked to defend Egyptian women from assault
• The Questionable Legality of Military Aid to Egypt - NYT
  Considering use of F16s in civilian areas...
• Religioscope: Étude: l'État islamique
  Study on IS by Olivier Moos [French]
• Arianna Huffington and the Khanfar connection
  Whitaker on HuffPo Arabi
• Enduring repression and insurgency in Egypt's Sinai - BBC News
• The Chinese Lingerie Venders of Egypt
  Another great piece from Peter Hessler
• The langue de Moliere gets a north African infusion
  Nothing so new, but I love hearing about new French slang
• Girls gone wild, parties gone bad
  An analysis of a hit Ramadan soap about drug addiction