Posts tagged with "egypt"



15. October 2018
Jamal Khashoggi was an educated, enlightened, mild-mannered man ― and at this point, there is little doubt that the Saudi regime has abducted and murdered him. But the sad reality is that Khashoggi is not the first, and probably will not be the last, to be forcibly disappeared by the Saudi regime. The Saudi regime has abducted critics and opponents from numerous countries, including Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Morocco, and Egypt. When the Saudi regime is unable to lay its hands on its...
18. January 2017
A bill requiring the U.S. State Department to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a "foreign terrorist organization" is very likely to become law in the coming days. Senator Ted Cruz, one of the sponsors of the law, stated in a press release that the Brotherhood "espouses a violent Islamist ideology with a mission of destroying the West." In the same press release, Cruz cited to what is known as the "civilization jihad" memorandum - a document in which he accuses American Muslim organizations such...
15. January 2017
Egypt’s Secularized Intelligentsia and the Guardians of Truth By Khaled Abou El Fadl Initially, I was tempted to write an essay wrestling with the question of why the liberal and secular intelligentsia betrayed the Egyptian revolution. There is an extensive list of Egyptian intellectuals such as Sa‘d al-Din Ibrahim, Ibrahim Eissa, Bassem Youssef and many others who have carefully constructed themselves into emblematic figures standing for secular and liberal values. But what has transpired...
26. July 2016
We are living through a time replete with malignant possibilities. As if it is not sufficiently frightening that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is poised to rule the most powerful - not to mention belligerent - nation in the world, other Western and non-Western states are laying the seeds for what can only be a truly poisonous future. The real tragic irony is that unless more level-headed and reasonable minds prevail very soon, our post-secular world is very likely to deteriorate...
06. August 2015
By Khaled Abou El Fadl Ramadan is a month in which Muslims are supposed to retreat from the materiality of their existence into an effort to realize their superior perennial and luminous nature. It is a month in which the exercise in self-denial is supposed to unshackle one's sense of empathy for the suffering and oppression of others. It is supposed to be a month of worship and peace. Muslims are exhorted to expend an extra effort avoiding bloodshed, violence and all offensive behaviour. Other...
23. April 2015
It was once a simple dream that breathed life into the hope-starved spirits of so many. Ever since the French landed on the shores of Egypt in 1798, we have been in the grip of a past alienated from its history, an identity divorced from its memory, and insecure flashes of pride defeated by a deep sense of indignity. Then came the Arab Spring! So many thought the Arab Spring would allow the region self-determination, and would shift the gaze of the world away from the twin spectres of oil and...
18. December 2014
Failure of a Revolution: The Military, Secular Intelligentsia, and Religion in Egypt’s Pseudo-Secular State By Khaled Abou El Fadl[1] INTRODUCTION: Since the age of colonialism, legitimacy has become an elastic word that is exploited to invent and repress history; to construct and de-construct identity; and to uphold and deny rights. Legitimacy is possessed by no one but claimed by everyone, and it is enforced only through sheer power. In the absence of a transparent and accountable civil...
09. August 2014
The real tragedy of great power is that it is fundamentally at odds with ethical conscientiousness and judgment.
02. July 2014
Khaled al-Qazzaz, the former secretary of state of Egypt's only freely democratically elected government, has been disintegrating, as a human being, in solitary confinement in the ignoble 'Aqrab prison in Egypt. For those who do not know, the 'Aqrab prison was built under the reign of Hosni Mubarak to inspire terror and break the will of dignified human beings. It was built by Mubarak and has been filled beyond capacity under the equally ignoble reign of Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. Last week,...
09. January 2014
Human rights and terrorism both are grand concepts. Human rights is a grand concept of an ultimate or absolute good, in many ways, like the idea of divinity or like the idea of light. Terrorism, on the other hand, is a grand concept of an ultimate or absolute evil, very much the antithesis of divinity and the antithesis of light. Although we human beings, including theologians, jurists and philosophers, produce a remarkable variety of terminology to negotiate our idea of good and our repulsion...

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