Middle East Specialist
Published in the Jewish Chronicle.
During the 1950s and 60s, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser guided and shaped Arab public opinion.
Nasser emerged as the undisputed leader of the Arab world by championing pan-Arabism — a secular ideology that advocated Arab unity and freedom from Western influence. It also championed the liberation of Palestine, a euphemism for the creation of a Palestinian Arab state on the ruins of Israel.
Continue reading “A Humiliated Arab World Turns to Islamism”
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy – who was sworn into office only six weeks ago – has successfully forced Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Defence Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and the Chief of Staff, Sami Anan, into retirement. Continue reading “Morsy Consolidates Power”
Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi writes in a guest column for Levantine Routes
For the next decade, think tanks in the United States and Europe will be analyzing why an Islamist won the Egyptian presidential elections. To save them the trouble, I will give them the simple answer: the Egyptian voters did not vote for Mohammed Morsi as an individual or for his election platform. They did not watch his interviews to see where he stands on the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, women, Christians, etc. Continue reading “Dajani: Morsi Beyond the Islamist Identity”
Published in the Huffington Post on Jan. 3, 2012.
Polling data in Egypt suggests that Islamist parties will gain a majority of seats in Egypt’s future parliament. While it is too soon to predict whether an Islamist government in Egypt can coexist with democracy, and whether it can adopt a truly “Egypt-first” approach which focuses on domestic concerns above foreign and external issues, recent developments raise concerns regarding Egypt’s future. Continue reading “How Will Egyptian Islamists Rule?”
In November 2011, the first parliamentary election was held in Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak’s abdication. Egyptians began voting for the National Assembly (lower house) in three phases. The first phase allocated a majority of votes to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and al-Nour, the more fundamentalist Salafist party. At the end of December, the second round of parliamentary elections concluded with another plurality for Islamist parties. The final round of voting is scheduled for tomorrow, with Islamists anticipating similar gains. Continue reading “Egypt’s Islamists and Israel”
Michael Sharnoff, PhD 