Perhaps the most pertinent question to be asked of Egypt’s revolutionary/counter-revolutionary process in the past three years is this: how…
Is democracy the question?
Muslim Brotherhood
Beyond duality, for plurality
Carl Becker was right in his assessment of great events: they have an ability to create a new normal language…
The politics of divine intervention
What role do divine interventions play in Egypt’s current political climate? Is Abdel Fattah el-Sisi a Sufi? Is the Muslim…
Electoral legitimacy, not religious legitimacy
The ouster of Mohamed Morsi involved a dispute over legitimacy—what gave the Egyptian president the right to remain in power?…
This is not Mubarak-lite: The new face of authoritarianism
Since the removal of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected leader, much of the discourse on the interim government’s handling…
Egypt and the elusiveness of shar’iyyah
Political legitimacy in the Arab world has often been derived from Islam. Both sharia (Islamic law) and shar’iyyah (legal, legality…
Searching for the church of Islam
Amid the conflict currently underway in Egypt—between state authorities led by the military-backed government and the Muslim Brotherhood and their…
Three observations on religion, politics, and the Muslim Brotherhood
In the following essay I would like to offer three observations about the use of religion in politics in Egypt…
Not secularism vs. Islamism
Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is the new Nasser, according to many Egyptians. The image of the military strong man…
The future of political Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Egyptian politics
Shortly after the late Omar Suleiman, the Hosni Mubarak era head of Egypt’s military intelligence, had been appointed vice president…