20 July 2010

A Muslim woman wearing a niqab Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Syria has banned the country's students and teachers from wearing the niqab - the full Islamic veil that reveals only a woman's eyes.

The New York Times
18 July 2010

 
People in Alexandria, Egypt, recently demonstrated over the
death of Khaled Said, 28, which has heightened concern over
police brutality.

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — The two undercover police officers seemed unfazed by the bystanders, who watched as the officers beat a 28-year-old man in the lobby of a building here last month, one witness said.

17 July 2010 

 The high profile criminal trial of Christian Copt  poultry vendor Girgis Baroumi, accused of allegedly having sexually assaulted a Muslim minor, has reconvened on July 12, 2010,  under a new judicial body and another district criminal court in Qena.   The defendant's legal team had applied in April 2010, to change the previous court  due to being prevented from meeting  with their client, attending closed sessions or cross-examining witnesses.

The Independent, London
17 July 2010

A Conservative MP says he will refuse to hold meetings with Muslim women wearing full Islamic dress at his constituency surgery unless they lift their face veil.

16 July 2010

Islam seems to be fading as a revolutionary force

Who needs hairdressers?

EDWARD LANE, an English orientalist, published a classic account of Egyptian society in the 1830s. Impressed with much else, he had this to say about religion in Egypt: “It is considered the highest honour among the Muslims to be religious; but the desire to appear so leads many into hypocrisy and pharisaical ostentation.”

16 July 2010

After three decades of economic progress but political paralysis, change is in the air, says Max Rodenbeck

TRAVELLING into Cairo, Egypt’s monster-sized but curiously intimate capital, it is hard to tell if these are the best of times or the worst. Visitors who have long known the city are in two minds. Egyptian expatriates returning home are liable to cringe at the worse-than-ever traffic, the ever-louder noise, the fervid religiosity, and what they often bemoan as a new aggressiveness that spoils their nostalgia for a sweeter, cheerier Egypt.

16 July 2010

Economist: For good or ill, change is coming to Egypt and Saudi Arabia soon

THE fate of the Arab world’s two most important states lies in the hands of ageing autocrats. Hosni Mubarak, an 82-year-old air-force general who has ruled Egypt since 1981, is widely reported to be grievously ill. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who assumed the throne of the Arabs’ richest country five years ago but has run the show for longer, is reckoned to be 86. The grim reaper will bring change in both places soon.

FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS
15 July 2010

I have recently finished reading Paul Berman’s latest book, ‘The Flight of the Intellectuals’. It’s terrific. The first part is an evisceration of that Islamist in westernised clothing, Tariq Ramadan.