Arab atheists: A demonised minority
Atheists are widely misunderstood by many Arabs and Muslims. There are those who believe us to be Satanists or that
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The mediocrity of evil
Many of the leaders held up as representing the epitome of evil were extraordinarily and spectacularly untalented, incapable and incompetent. With this mediocrity of evil, it is almost a wonder that they managed to rise to the top at all.
Read moreMohamed Morsi’s ghost will haunt Egypt for a long time
The death in court of Mohamed Morsi completed the incarcerated former Egyptian president’s unlikely metamorphosis from mediocre mundanity to mythical martyr whose political ghost will haunt Egypt, the Middle East and the West for years.
Read moreThe folly of the Arab world’s nuclear enery dream
Investing in nuclear energy makes no economic, geostrategic or environmental sense in the Arab world. Renewables will provide the only sunny future.
Read moreEgypt’s pharaoh illusion
The idea that Egyptians are docile sheeple who need a pharaoh to shepherd them is a myth that dates back to the not-so-ancient times of the Nasser era.
Read moreEgypt’s other Great Pyramid
The Mogamma, that high temple of Egyptian bureaucracy, will be shut down. Welcome as it is, this will not solve the underlying problem of “el-routine”.
Read moreSisi’s Suez moment
Suez Canal II is not about economics. It is a symbol of how President Sisi is supposedly navigating Egypt through narrow straits towards modernity.
Read moreA Riche chapter of Egyptian history
For a century, Café Riche was a microcosm of Cairo’s bewildering contradictions, and a “refuge from the pain of loneliness” for intellectuals.
Read moreThe self-fulfilling prophecy of the Sunni v Shia myth
Like in Syria and Iraq, the conflict in Yemen is not sectarian. But political profiteers and jihadists are turning it into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Read moreEgypt’s centuries-old leadership vacuum
Decades of authoritarianism and centuries of non-indigenous rule have led to a shortage of effective native leaders in Egypt, derailing the revolution.
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