The Middle East Institute is pleased to welcome Sarah Margon of Human Rights Watch and Nancy Okail of Freedom House for a timely discussion about the implications of Egypt’s controversial draft NGO law submitted for vote to the Shura Council last week. The law, which seeks to restrict the funding and operation of non-governmental organizations, is being slammed by human rights groups both inside Egypt and around the world as a blow to the free and full expression of Egyptian civil society.
Malaysia: A Base for the Growing Asia-Middle East Market?
With the shift in the direction of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries’ trade from the West to Asia and the emphasis on the “Islamic connection” by Malaysia and many of its Middle Eastern counterparts, Malaysia-GCC economic cooperation appears to be gaining momentum. Malaysia’s strategic location at the center of Southeast Asia and the need for as well as the apparent determination of Malaysia and the GCC countries to diversify their export markets could provide the impetus for this partnership to flourish.
It was with customary gusto that Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi proudly announced that he had submitted his first draft law to the Shura Council under the new constitution that came into effect in December of 2012.
From Muhammad Ali to Mohamed Morsi, modern Egyptian leaders have understood that any attempt to control the state without the endorsement, if not blatant co-option, of key institutions such as al-Azhar is an ill-fated pursuit. The headache for President Morsi is that these institutions are trying to assert their independence and are presenting a range of direct and indirect challenges to his authority and, more broadly, to the Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP).
Amr Darrag is a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood and a professor of engineering at Cairo University. He served as the head of the foreign relations committee of the Freedom and Justice Party and as secretary general of the constituent assembly that drafted Egypt’s new constitution in 2012. He was recently appointed Minister of Planning and International Cooperation.
Members of the Egyptian press and media who make it their business to critique high officials know they’ve done a good job when they’re arrested and hauled in for questioning. In January 2013 an Islamist lawyer filed charges against Bassem Youssef, host of the satirical talk show al-Bernameg (The Program), for defaming President Mohamed Morsi, prompting the general prosecutor’s office to launch an investigation.
The Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD): Progress and Potential
The Asia Cooperation Dialogue’s (ACD) future looks promising. The 11-year-old ACD has taken important steps in becoming a relevant, constructive pan-Asian body with a forward-looking agenda, concrete plans and projects underway, and some noteworthy accomplishments.
The main streets of Manshiyat Abdel Moneim Riad, a choked grid of hastily constructed apartment blocks spreading out from a power station at Cairo’s northern edge, are organized according to a simple principle: shops and cafes on the edge, mounds of waste, animals, and rough teenagers from the narrow tributary streets in the middle. Rickshaws and trucks battle for position and skirt potholes in between. Men in search of a bit of air brush away flies at sidewalk cafes and survey the scene with contempt.
Debunking Five Myths of Washington’s Leverage in Egypt
This article was first published by Al-Monitor on April 28, 2013
Assertions and opinions in this publication are solely those of the above-mentioned author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Middle East Institute, which expressly does not take positions on Middle East policy.
When Mohamed Morsi assumed the mantle of first democratically-elected, civilian president of Egypt, he both resigned from the Freedom and Justice Party‑‑the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood‑‑and declared himself “president of all Egyptians.” Now, only ten months later, the country’s Coptic Christians are undoubtedly sneering at the insincerity of Morsi’s initial gestures toward magnanimity.
The Egyptian judiciary is facing enormous challenges and hardships while striving to perform its essential role, not only as a judicial institution, but also as a constitutional authority standing alongside the executive and legislative branches. Its difficulties can be seen in a range of problems with which it has been struggling both before and since the outbreak of the revolution in January 2011.
