Religion Dispatches
…each other. It would have been easy to craft a story that divided Copts in Egypt from Muslims and Jews and Muslims because of these stereotypes. Although, if you actually watch the film, you see that it is filled with recycled anti-Semitic portrayals of the man interested only in money and “good” women. Instead of looking for “savages” over “there,” perhaps we should look at home. The creators of this film wanted it to create violence and almost…
Read More…ia industry have portrayed the Brotherhood as treasonous, fundamentally un-Egyptian, criminal, and, importantly, not truly Muslim. Since the coup, Egyptian media have described the Brotherhood as a “cancerous tumor,” “foreign agents,” “unpatriotic,” and as having “kidnapped” Egypt in the aftermath of the 2011 uprising that ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak. The Brotherhood has also been described as Zionists who are loyal to the state of Israel, and b…
Read More…nti-gay law as discriminatory, unreasonable, and psychologically damaging. Egypt: Country invests heavily in unscientific anal exams to ‘prove’ homosexuality BuzzFeed’s Lester Feder and Maged Atef explore the brutal and scientifically bogus anal exams that are used by police in Egypt and other countries that criminalize homosexuality. Human Rights Watch and other advocacy organizations have long denounced such anal exams — which are routine in sev…
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…itional monarchy and modern statehood. But as I watch the latest news from Egypt, that the country’s parliament has been dissolved by a Mubarak-era court, I wonder: Has the revolution ended before it began? (Revolutions are, by definition, simply movements around the wheel: The end is the beginning is the end.) The Islamists made a big mistake in contesting so many seats in this first parliament, for now they have now (among other things) demonstr…
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…ofessionals like Wael Ghonim, the Google executive who helped organize the Egyptian revolution, were deeply aware of China’s rise, and began to look to their own country with dissatisfaction. Turkey Turkey brings it even closer to home. In the last few decades, the average Egyptian has barely seen his salary rise, while Turkey’s GDP rose by 300 percent. Turkey has raced past Iran to become dominant in the Middle East, and has done so with a curiou…
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…terious impotence. The American young adult is powerless while the average Egyptian’s salary is roughly $2000 per year? The Egyptian educational system is far less developed than America’s, and the opportunities for young people are far less numerous. So for young Egyptians fighting Mubarak’s rule, the fight really wasn’t fair. But Mayer and his friends “don’t have the means” to rise above? It seems to me that the song’s one false statement is tha…
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…d at a concert, noting that repression of all kinds “has intensified under Egypt’s military leaders in recent years.” In Indonesia, where some Muslim leaders are promoting polygamy, the Washington Post’s Vincent Bevins reported from Indonesia, where “radical Islamists” have been “playing a larger role” in politics, and where police recently detained nearly five dozen men in a mass arrest: In Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, h…
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…empowered publics eager to see policy changes. Hamas even recognized that Egypt wanted to restore itself as a leader of the Arab world, and would jump at the opportunity. Pillar of Cloud was made the means by which that would happen—the Netanyahu government was surprisingly slow to understand that. But once it did, not much clarity of action emerged. And I’d push this argument on the Arab Spring’s effects still further. The uprisings, with their…
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…ppression against a variety of minority, political and religious groups in Egypt since 2013, when the military took control of the government.” Meanwhile, scores of Egyptian legislators are lobbying for a law that would explicitly criminalize homosexual acts to ensure harsher penalties by replacing a 1961 anti-prostitution law that has been used against LGBT people for decades. “Homosexuality” is not clearly defined or mentioned in Egyptian law, s…
Read More…ces when Parliament attempts to legislate protections for basic rights and freedoms, such as freedom of religion. “The Government is particularly concerned to prevent uncertainties caused by generally worded Bill of Rights-style declarations. “This will be a timely expert stocktake to inform consideration of any necessary legislative reforms.” LGBTI activist Rodney Croome called for LGBTI representation on the panel, saying, “Genuine religious fre…
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