Rendition to Jordan

The Washington Post about Jordan’s role as a CIA holding prison and proxy interrogator. Nothing you havent previously heard. Some excerpts: The building is the headquarters of the General Intelligence Department, Jordan’s powerful spy and security agency. Since 2000, at the CIA’s behest, at least 12 non-Jordanian terrorism suspects have been detained and interrogated here, [...]

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Brotherhood Bashing; Spreading Ignorance

“If Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini were alive today, he would celebrate the expansion of his Islamist vision.” This is how Mohamed Elmenshawy starts his article criticizing the MB on their unofficial party platform that has been floating around for a couple of months. And it pisses me off. I really hate this uninformed, sensationalist, alarmist [...]

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“Human Rights and Non-State Actors”

The October ARB offers another article, i feel deserves some attention. Eric Goldstein writes about non-state actors’ violations of human rights and how HR organizations in the Arab world need to be dealt with. The main issue seems to be with Hizbullah and Hamas. Specifically, the firing of rockets onto civilians in Israel. While i [...]

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Muslim Brothers’ Party Platform

Amr Hamzawy criticizes the MB’s draft party platform in the current issue of the Arab Reform Bulletin. While he admits that it has yet to be endorsed by the decision-making Guidance Bureau, i think he’s a little hasty with the judgments he passes. I’ll just not the points i take issue with: Second, the draft [...]

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“Al Qaeda’s Fall Reading Picks”

John Judis looks at two books mentioned by bin Laden in a recent tape: Michael Scheuer’s Imperial Hubris and Emmanuel Todd’s After the Empire.

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Hodeiby: “The MB Will Stand Up for All Egyptians”

I just noticed (on the Arabist, where else?) that Hodeiby who i mentioned yesterday, has written a response to the Mona el Tahawy article i’d posted.

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Ibrahim Hodeiby on the US, the regime and the MB

I never particularly liked Ibrahim El Hodeiby (for his positions, not his person). Even since he’s become so prolific. But here is a not-so-well-written article that’s hard to disagree with. He basically points to the OBVIOUS fact that although democracy may not benefit the US’s short-term interests, it definitely beats their current game plan that [...]

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“I Will Stand Up for the Muslim Brotherhood”

Since a much-removed relative that i’d met for the first time pointed me to Mona El Tahawy, i’ve periodically checked in on her writing. I just noted this small piece where she explains that despite distaste for their beliefs, she believes in the MBs right to participate.

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Mubarak dead. again.

Abu Aardvark provides a pretty good roundup of last weeks wildfire rumors of mubarak’s death. What i find the most amusing is that they’re blaming the MB. Obviously there’s no logical reason why they would do this. Aside from that, the rumors, based on the order of sources i heard them from, seemed to start [...]

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Pakistan: Islam’s Fault

UPDATE: oops! forgot the link. I just read a pretty interesting article in the National Geographic that takes a look at Islam in Pakistan and its relationship to both fundamentalist Islam and violent Islamists, entitled “Struggle for the Soul of Pakistan”. I have always, since my insect-observing science-obsessed nerdy childhood had a certain affection for [...]

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Essam El Erian detained; MB party program

Security, it seems, stormed a meeting of MB members in Mohandeseen over the weekend. They detained the group of about 20 people that included Essam El Erian. Here‘s an email sent to the Arabist that raises a good question regarding the detention of “moderate” leaders in the MB. Of course, it could be read as [...]

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“Boxing in the Brothers”

Samer Shehata and Joshua Stacher write in MERIP on the last couple of years of interaction between the Muslim Brothers and the Mubarak regime. The essay covers the regime’s scramble to contain the political influence of the MB since their surprise 2005 parliamentary success including: 100s of member arrests; charges dismissed in courts; Mubarak’s personal [...]

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Inherited Jihadism

Just caught this article by ICG SE Asia director titled “Inherited Jihadism: Like Father Like Son”. She’s essentially saying that, in Indonesia at least (and i would say it’s more or less applicable across the board) there has already been at least one generation of islamists by inheritance and that mechanisms to draw them away [...]

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Silverstein on Islamists

Just caught an article in the March Harper’s by Ken Silverstein. It’s one of the most measured looks at “Islamist” movements/parties in the region and the West’s (particularly, the US) approach to dealing (or, rather, decidedly not) with them. Naturally, he touches on the oxymoronic so-called “Bush Doctrine”: Notwithstanding President Bush’s new “forward strategy of [...]

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Drinking the Sea at Nahr el-Bared

I havent actually read the book, Drinking the Sea at Gaza (note to self). But i distinctly recall someone bringing up stories from the book about the first Intifada. Apparently, ‘activists’ would run into civilians’ homes with the IDF in hot pursuit. The strategy was meant to aggravate the Palestinians with the inevitable and indiscriminate [...]

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