There was once a time in Cairo when the word “bestseller” was an unequivocal slur. Awards were for old establishment figures long coopted by the regime. And no one had ever heard of a shortlist, a blurb or a book launch. Say what you will about (...)
Once upon a time he sang so fine he threw the hacks a dime in their prime, didn't he? Well, now he's upstaged the hacks at their own show when he didn't even need to and the world is frothing at the mouth, pledging its time to arguing about it.
At (...)
When the young writer Ahmed Naje was referred to a criminal court over sexually explicit fiction this Saturday, gongs sounded for the literary community. The news was an unpleasant reminder that, while creative writers in Egypt are by and large left (...)
I had planned to write a spoof. I was to be a committed Islamist reviewing the first two years after 30 June. I would extoll the virtues of Egypt under the Muslim Brotherhood. I would glorify their puppet president Mohamed Morsi (aka the Mandela of (...)
It's a problem because, whether as a public tragedy or a defence of creative freedom, the incident was blown out of all proportion. It's a problem because it's been a moralistic free-for-all: to express solidarity is to omit context, to forego the (...)
No one paradigm or one theory can explain the jihadi barbarians, not at, but within the Arabs' gates. So says Hisham Melhem, an older writer, in Politico magazine this week, summing up the failure of modern “Arab civilization” with admirable (...)
On Friday 1 August , the blog of the Jerusalem-based news site The Times of Israel published and then quickly removed a post entitled “When Genocide Is Permissible”.
A barely literate homily in the Israel's-right-to-defend-itself genre by a New York (...)
Even as it ages, a corpse shows no sign of decay. People start having visions of the dead man. He gives them advice in their dreams. When miracles begin to occur through his apparent intercession, he is declared a wali or vassal (of God). A shrine (...)
When a UAE-based Palestinian friend sends me a link to the Emirati singer Hussein Al-Jassmi's hit Boshret Khair (or “Good Tidings”), I wonder what she finds remarkable about the video. After Tesslam Al-Ayadi (or “Saved be the hands”), Boshret Khair (...)
Time and again, since 30 June last year, I've come up against the commitment to democracy that I'm supposed to have betrayed by appearing to endorse the army's intervention in the outcome of Egypt's second revolution.
Time and again I've had to (...)
Time and again, since 30 June last year, I've come up against the commitment to democracy that I'm supposed to have betrayed by appearing to endorse the army's intervention in the outcome of Egypt's second revolution.
Time and again I've had to (...)
‘To concern yourself with surface political conflicts is to make the mistake of the bull in the ring'
— William Burroughs
As of 28 January 2011, the protests in and around Tahrir Square were never quite as peaceful as people would in later months (...)
1. Newton's third law of motion: When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to that of the first body.
2. For nearly three years the triumph of the 25 (...)
Jim Morrison died on 3 July, as young as most of the casualties of the Egyptian revolution of 2011-13 (let's assume it's been one string of events for simplicity's sake). Play a few Doors songs to honour him while you think of bloodied corpses and (...)
I had almost reprimanded myself for anticipating civil conflict in the wake of major protests against the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) President Mohamed Morsi remaining in office.
After what apparently was the largest demonstration in the history of (...)
Nearly a week ago, some little known Kuwaiti newspaper reported that President Mohamed Morsi had negotiated, it wasn't clear with whom, "a safe exit deal" for himself and 50 leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood — in anticipation of 30 June.
It was (...)
Nearly a week ago, some little known Kuwaiti newspaper reported that President Mohamed Morsi had negotiated, it wasn't clear with whom, “a safe exit deal” for himself and 50 leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) — in anticipation of 30 June.
It was (...)
First there was a riot, a kind of street fight with the police. Killings led to a sit-in that led to power changing hands. No one took issue with the hangman's noose swinging symbolically at the maidan, though the riots were supposed to be (...)
Early one morning in the summer of 2011, a good few months after the ouster of Hosny Mubarak, I received an international phone call. It was an unknown number that began with 00963. I could tell this was the country code of some Arab state, though I (...)
Towards the end of 2009, I completed my first novel, whose theme is contemporary Muslim identity in Egypt and, by fantastical extension, the vision of a possible khilafa or caliphate.
I was searching for both an alternative to nationhood and a (...)
Egypt has had Islamists and “revolutionaries”. So who are the nukhba or elite routinely denigrated as a “minority” that “looks down on the people”? Educated individuals, non-Islamist political leaders, the catalysts of the revolution itself… But, in (...)
Albert's case had begun as an instance of Muslim zealotry “coming to the defence of Allah and His messenger” against “offending” statements from (so far, mostly, foreign or Christian) unbelievers—before being taken into custody, the young man was (...)
The night before the ridiculously so called 24 August revolution—the first, abortive attempt to “overthrow the Muslim Brotherhood”—Intellectuals gathered in Talaat Harb Square to express discontent with the new political status quo. Much of what (...)
Against "the threat of Islamisation", culture is said to be Egypt's last line of defence, writes Youssef Rakha. But what on earth do we mean when we talk about Egyptian culture?
The night before the ridiculously so called 24 August revolution--the (...)
Revolution gives way to security breakdown. The people vote for the Sheikh. The Israeli Embassy is ringed with protesters, but so—eventually—is its Saudi counterpart. False prophets take over Tahrir Square. Thousands die; millions grow beards. (...)