The Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters accuse us [the opposition] of laying in wait to pounce on President Morsi and of rushing to judge him without giving him a chance to perform his duties.
Their main argument is that we began opposing the (...)
Like many of my compatriots, I aspired that after the elimination of Mubarak and his constitution there would be an honest and sophisticated debate about the constitution that would outline the principles and fundamentals that must be the foundation (...)
Former US President Ronald Reagan famously said that: "Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realise that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.”
This bleak outlook on politics is found everywhere in the (...)
The volume of aid Egypt has received is more than the majority – if not all – of its Third World peers have ever seen.
In the 1950s and 1960s Egypt had special ties to the Soviet Union, which no other non-Marxist country enjoyed. International (...)
To be honest, I'm not convinced with the Popular Current that was launched last week. It is nothing personal about its founder, former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi. I am an admirer of his and his accomplishments in closely connecting with (...)
History has returned for revenge. The family of Field Marshal Abdel-Hakim Amer, the commander of the Egyptian army in the 1950s and 1960s, are accusing former President Gamal Abdel Nasser and a handful of military leaders of murdering Amer. We don't (...)
The sales tax in the 1990s, income tax reform in 2005, and proposed property tax in 2010: while Mubarak's regime was politically stagnant, it was vigorous and prolific in the financial realm. But this vigour did not improve deficient state revenues (...)
While the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party appears to view the cause of Egypt's chronic problems as improper institutional frameworks, the party's platform – surprisingly – makes little mention of ethical reform
The issue of (...)
After the January 2011 uprising, the Muslim Brotherhood was able to establish a political party, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), and nominate its members to senior posts – including presidency. It won the elections and now rules the country, (...)
The Morsi/Qandil government is a revolution against the ascension of technocrats - which characterised the last decade of the Mubarak regime - and represents a return to the practice of relying on bureaucrats
The health minister in Hisham Qandil's (...)
My brother, member of the Freedom and Justice Party, Al-Nour, Al-Assala, Construction and Development parties, or any other party based on religion, imagine if circumstance forced you to live in a European country or the US, which is not a (...)
Egypt is currently reeling from the outcome of the presidential race, exhausted, confused and with blurred vision. This is accompanied by deep frustration among half of the population who opted for Ahmed Shafiq, or reluctantly voted for Mohamed (...)
The judiciary —especially the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) —dominated Egypt's political scene in the past few weeks. The SCC dissolved parliament and kept Ahmed Shafiq in the presidential race, and therefore we should make the role of the (...)
There are three lessons to learn from the results of the first round of Egypt's presidential race.
One: Do not trust opinion polls
None of the opinion polls ahead of the presidential elections were able to gauge voting patterns, but they no doubt (...)
Civil forces are transforming, developing and changing. If the Islamic current itself – a conservative force – is changing, then it is not unnatural that civil forces, too, are transforming and, therefore, today are divided about the best (...)
More important than finding out which presidential candidate someone supports, is knowing why they support him. About three weeks ago, I was riding a taxi to the airport and wasted no time in finding out the cab driver's opinion about his preferred (...)
Failed reform results in revolution; it is a golden rule in politics which was confirmed by the glorious revolution of Egypt. Gamal Mubarak and his circle attempted to “reform” the despotic and decaying July regime after it reached a dead end at the (...)
One of the characteristics of the Egyptian revolution, lived in many Egyptian squares, was the emergence of a new model of society based on solidarity, compassion and respect for others. We are told that large gatherings in Egypt can only lead to (...)
At last, we have arrived at the juncture of writing a constitution. This is a critical crossroads in the post-Mubarak phase since it dismantles the July 1952 regime and builds a new one that as yet remains undefined.
The people have arrived at this (...)
Revolution occurs in the mind before it is accomplished by hand. Man is a rational being; instinct could make him angry but he never revolts without using his head. In order for a revolution to deserve this description and become more than a gift, (...)
The criticism I will make about the positions and ideas of some revolutionary comrades is well-intentioned and not born of malice. It aims to improve the performance of reformist and revolutionary trends to overcome unnecessary divisions, in order (...)
The trouble with the July 1952 regime was not only that it was tyrannical and condescending towards the people, or that it used torture and humiliation to subjugate the people. The problem with this regime was also that it failed in developing the (...)
It is our right, and even our duty, to congratulate ourselves on the return of the ballot box to the political domain after a long absence. It has been sixty years since the last genuine elections were held in 1951. The problem with the elections of (...)
Egypt will not prosper unless all its energy is invested in rejuvenation and development in order to put an end to injustice, poverty, backwardness, ignorance and unruliness.
Millions of people during the January revolution expressed their desire to (...)
I tried hard last week to overcome my sorrow and shock at the tragedy of Bloody Sunday at Maspero, and find out the truth about what happened and the place of this event in the overall picture of the interim phase in which the Supreme Council of the (...)