MENASource

Top News: US Urges Egypt Government to Defend Political Speech

By Egypt Source

The Obama administration is calling on the Egyptian government to rein in prosecutions of political expression amid what it called a "growing trend" of efforts to punish and deter people from speaking their mind.

The Morsi Government’s Faltering Steps / نحو مزيد من الخطوات المتعثرة

By Yussef Auf

In an effort to improve government performance, President Mohammed Morsi introduced a limited cabinet reshuffle, in which a number of ministers from Hisham Qandil’s government were replaced. Most striking among the replacements was the appointment of Judge Hatem Bagato as Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, as well as the appointment of Judge Ahmed Suleiman as Minister […]

Syria: Will Geneva Happen? Should it Happen?

By Frederic C. Hof

As preparations continue for an international conference aimed at jump-starting intra-Syrian negotiations to be held in Geneva in mid-June, the prospective value of the initiative is increasingly in doubt. Bashar al-Assad is making it clear to the news media that he intends to stay on and run for president in 2014, something that cannot happen […]

Talk to the Gulf About Leadership

By Richard LeBaron

It is likely that every American president since George Washington has joked with his advisers that he would love to have the absolute power wielded by some of his fellow world leaders. With such authority, he could deal decisively with pesky domestic critics, unruly media, or noisy civil society groups. Occasionally a president has imposed […]

Will Egypt Go Bankrupt?

By Ziad Daoud

The Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, has already answered the question in the title by declaring that “Egypt will never go bankrupt”. But judging by some of the recent headlines, skeptics are still unconvinced. What does it mean for a country to go bankrupt anyway? And is Egypt really on the brink of financial collapse? 

Top News: Friday Marches Call for Early Presidential Elections

By Egypt Source

Opposition and revolutionary groups are organizing only two marches this Friday, as some figures saying they are reserving their organizational strength for a million-man protest planned for the anniversary of President Mohamed Morsi’s inauguration on 30 June. The main focus of the marches, however, is raising awareness for the Tamarod campaign. GOVERNMENT & OPPOSITION Judges […]

Islameya Islameya: An Open Letter to the Egyptian People and the Egyptian Administration

By Mohammad Tolba

It is no coincidence that the people who believe TV ads marketing a so called: “magic patch” as a cure for every ailment or pain are the same people addicted to the ‘text-to-win’ contests that carry the promise of a trip to the holy land (‘Umra) in exchange for answering questions such as "What is […]

Egypt’s Growing Judicial Activism Stymies Democratic Consolidation

On May 13, the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East held an event to release a new issue brief, Egypt’s Litigious Transition: Judicial Intervention and the Muddied Road to Democracy. Director of the Rafik Hariri Center Michele Dunne moderated a discussion with the author Mahmoud Hamad, who is assistant professor at Drake University and Cairo […]