Posted on Tue, December 11, 2012 at 18:35 pm CET
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A Turning Point in Egypt: Not on Direction But on the Speed of Islamist Transformation

A critical moment has arrived for Egypt. But what does it mean?… Continue reading

Topics: Democracy • Egypt • Islamism • Muslim Brotherhood • Religion 
Posted on Sun, December 9, 2012 at 21:57 pm CET
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Erdogan’s Volatile Authoritarianism: Tactical Ploy or Strategic Vision?

In recent months, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made a string of highly controversial public statements which appear indicative of an authoritarian mindset… Continue reading

Topics: Democracy • Neo-Ottomanism • Politics • Religion • Turkey 
Posted on Tue, November 27, 2012 at 00:01 am CET
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Contemporary Kemalist Intellectuals: Europeanizers Against Europe?

During the last decades, Kemalism, the modernization ideology of the Republic of Turkey, has been vehemently criticized… Continue reading

Topics: Culture • Democracy • History • Religion • Turkey 
Posted on Mon, November 26, 2012 at 16:21 pm CET
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The Islamist Regime’s Game Plan for Egypt

What’s been happening in Egypt this week is as important as the revolution that overthrew the old regime almost two years ago… Continue reading

Topics: Democracy • Egypt • Egyptian Revolution • Islamism • Muslim Brotherhood • Politics • Religion 
Posted on Fri, November 23, 2012 at 21:58 pm CET
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Egypt’s Islamist President Assumes Dictatorial Powers

Egypt’s President Morsi assumes sweeping powers, branded new pharaoh… Continue reading

Topics: Democracy • Egypt • Muslim Brotherhood • Politics • Religion • U.S. Middle East Policy 
Posted on Wed, November 21, 2012 at 15:26 pm CET
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The Middle East Crises of 2013 Are Already In Dress Rehearsal

If 2011 was the year of the Arab Spring, 2013 looks to be the year of the Arab Fall… Continue reading

Topics: Arab Spring • Democracy • Islamic Fundamentalism • Politics • Security and Defense • The Middle East 
Posted on Sun, October 28, 2012 at 11:09 am CET
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Why Economic Development As a Panacea for Middle East Problems is a Myth

While “economic development” sounds like a great idea, in practice it isn’t so effective… Continue reading

Topics: Arab World • Culture • Democracy • Economy • Islamic Countries • Religion • The Middle East 
Posted on Tue, August 21, 2012 at 20:01 pm CEST
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Which Way for Syria? Listen to the Sermons

The closer one gets to ground level in the Middle East, the crazier things become… Continue reading

Topics: Democracy • Religion • Security and Defense • Syrian Revolution 
Posted on Tue, August 21, 2012 at 19:32 pm CEST
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What Happened in Egypt

A short history of democracy in Egypt… Continue reading

Topics: Democracy • Egypt • Security and Defense 
Posted on Sun, August 12, 2012 at 11:05 am CEST
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Egypt: There Goes the Army; There Goes the Free Media; There Goes Egypt

So can you write “Arab Spring,” free elections, democracy in Egypt, and such things 100 times?… Continue reading

Topics: Arab Spring • Democracy • Egypt • Egyptian Revolution • Islamism • Muslim Brotherhood • The Media 
Posted on Thu, August 2, 2012 at 19:37 pm CEST
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Are Iraq and Turkey Models for Democratization?

In the wake of the upheavals that have shaken the Arab world since December 2010, activists, politicians, and analysts have all been searching for new, democratic models of governance that could come into force in these lands… Continue reading

Topics: Democracy • Iraq • Turkey 
Posted on Sat, July 21, 2012 at 22:13 pm CEST
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Muslim Brotherhood ‘Democracy’

Prior to Egypt’s presidential elections, Islamists made clear that the electoral process was an obligatory form of “holy war”… Continue reading

Topics: Copts • Democracy • Egypt • Jihadism • Muslim Brotherhood • Politics • Religion • Sharia Law 
Posted on Thu, July 19, 2012 at 20:06 pm CEST
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Islamists Are Generally Winning But Not Everywhere and Not Inevitably

Hussein Ibish is one of the more interesting Arab writers on regional affairs. Ibish critiques the idea that assumes the inexorable rise of Islamist parties… Continue reading

Topics: Arab World • Democracy • Islamism • Politics 
Posted on Thu, July 19, 2012 at 19:30 pm CEST
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Yankee Go Home! Saith the Good Guys

The interesting news was not that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was pelted with stuff while visiting Cairo, the important issue was who was doing the pelting… Continue reading

Topics: Anti-Americanism • Democracy • Diplomacy • Egypt • Islamism • Obamaism • U.S. Middle East Policy 
Posted on Sat, July 7, 2012 at 21:27 pm CEST
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Tunisia: Goodbye Democracy? Islamists Start to Take Over Media

The much-touted, Islamist-led coalition government in Tunisia is showing how little has changed… Continue reading

Topics: Democracy • Islamism • The Media • Tunisia 
Posted on Mon, June 25, 2012 at 22:08 pm CEST
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If You Don’t Stand Up for Western Civilization It Will Fall

A small incident in an obscure court case in Minnesota shows why we need to understand properly the debate over Islam, Islamism, and Islamophobia… Continue reading

Topics: Anti-Westernism • Culture • Democracy • Islamophobia • Multiculturalism • Political Correctness • Religion • United States of America • Western Culture 
Posted on Sun, June 17, 2012 at 19:10 pm CEST
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Egypt: Things to Think About as We Await the Presidential Election Outcome

While one can certainly sympathize with the idea of letting an elected parliament being allowed to take office… Continue reading

Topics: Arab Spring • Democracy • Egyptian Revolution • Islamism • Muslim Brotherhood • Politics • Security and Defense • U.S. Middle East Policy 
Posted on Fri, June 15, 2012 at 21:27 pm CEST
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Court Dissolves Egyptian Parliament; Army Takes Over; Civil War?

The Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court has invalidated the parliamentary election there… Continue reading

Topics: Algeria • Democracy • Egypt • Egyptian Revolution • History • Muslim Brotherhood • Religion • Salafism 
Posted on Fri, June 15, 2012 at 20:57 pm CEST
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The Wild Card in Arab “Democratic” Politics: Extra-Parliamentary Violence

Consider just a small part of what’s gone on in Tunisia, a relatively moderate country where the radical Islamists “only” got 40 percent of the vote… Continue reading

Topics: Democracy • Egypt • Islamism • Religion • Salafism • Tunisia 
Posted on Thu, June 7, 2012 at 19:32 pm CEST
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This Week, Turkey Went a Long Way Toward Becoming an Islamic Republic

Hardly surprising, deeply upsetting, and geostrategically catastrophic, it’s official. Turkey has now passed over towards being an Islamist state… Continue reading

Topics: Democracy • Human Rights • Islamism • Turkey 
Posted on Mon, June 4, 2012 at 20:08 pm CEST
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Is the AKP Creating the Conditions for a Counter-Force to Emerge?

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party is demonstrating an unwillingness to leave any room in society to those who are not its supporters… Continue reading

Topics: Democracy • Economy • Human Rights • Turkey 
Posted on Fri, May 18, 2012 at 18:35 pm CEST
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Watching the new state of South Sudan fall into chaos

The worst problem South Sudan faces is tribalism, despite the unity that was cultivated among South Sudanese rebels during decades of resistance to Khartoum’s aggressive campaigns of Islamization… Continue reading

Topics: Democracy • Economy • Energy • Politics • South Sudan 
Posted on Fri, May 11, 2012 at 23:05 pm CEST
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What Do Egyptians Want? A Democratically Elected Islamist Dictatorship

It’s once again time for that exciting game of Spin the Polls by the Pew Foundation. Here are the rules… Continue reading

Topics: Democracy • Egypt • Islamism • Muslim Brotherhood • Religion 
Posted on Sun, May 6, 2012 at 15:26 pm CEST
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U.S. Syrian Policy: A Massacre in Progress; A Disgrace in the Making

U.S. policy toward Syria is turning into a scandal on both strategic and humanitarian grounds… Continue reading

Topics: Arab Spring • Democracy • Diplomacy • Human Rights • Security and Defense • Syrian Revolution • U.S. Middle East Policy • United Nations 
Posted on Mon, April 23, 2012 at 20:17 pm CEST
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Egypt’s Elections: Titanic of Western Interests, Meet Iceberg of Islamist Revolutionary Zeal

Egypt will hold its presidential election May 23-24 with a possible run-off on June 16-17. It is impossible at this point to predict what’s going to happen but I can make a good guess… Continue reading

Topics: Arab Spring • Democracy • Egypt • Islamism • Muslim Brotherhood