What we have learned so far during these two and a half years of revolution is that people do learn from experience. It is this high level of political consciousness which will save our revolution. (A long interview, July 24, 2013.)
A historian of the Middle East from Stanford University discusses Egypt’s new interim government and the labour movement.
Everywhere the Arab uprisings have been confronted by the entrenched vested interests of old regimes, the so-called ‘deep state’ in Egypt, and by Islamist populism. The alignment of regional powers, following geopolitical interests, has sharpened the sectarian lines. But these alignments are not s
Tunisia’s second high-profile political assassination highlights the gravest shortcoming of the nascent Islamist government: the inability to contain the violence that increasingly threatens Tunisia’s fragile transition - a violence set to divide loyalties and destroy social cohesion, foreclosing
The bottom-line is that revolution is too loose a category to describe what is happening in Egypt. The real fight is not between revolutionary and counter-revolutionary forces but between different strategies that lay claim to the idea of revolution.
Much of the debate revolved around the use of the word ‘coup’ in describing what had happened, not merely an issue of great symbolic importance but mainly a crucial determinant of continued American aid.
Can manipulating the democratic process ever play out in the interest of progressive politics? Samuel A. Greene suggests not: we’ve been in this situation before, in post-Soviet Russia, with largely calamitous results.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s atrocious record in government has obscured the nature of the army’s coup, directed against the Egyptian people and the revolutionary potential of their deep disaffection with the old regime. As for the remnants of that regime – these elites are playing a game in which ins
In the weeks after the 1991 elections, official Algerian rhetoric too was replete with appeals to the popular will and the promises of a swift and total return to democracy. Promises that, two decades on, have yet to be fulfilled.
Arab Awakening's columnists offer their weekly perspective on what is happening on the ground in the Middle East. Leading the week, How did the crises in Egypt snowball?
The official spokesman of Egypt’s Salafist Al Nour party tells us about recent events from his personal point of view. This is part one of his account.
