The summer of 2011 must’ve been an incredible time for Hamdein Sabbahi. He was one of the darlings of the revolution, known as a left-leaning Nasserist (whatever that means), ignored only by the hardcore revolutionaries who would only rubber-stamp a batter front-liner, but mostly admired, and generally just liked by almost everybody else. He was tight with what you could, with some effort, call...
So, finally – when their lackluster attempts at reason fall apart, they tell you it’s just a difference of opinion and that it’s okay to disagree. So yeah, it’s just ‘opinion’… Well – It’s my ‘opinion’ that the so-called Supreme Council of the Armed Forces hijacked the revolution with the aid of the Muslim brotherhood, to whom they handed power in order to be able to restore military rule with...
Being held by armed men – in most cases, that would be the police or the military – is something anybody who’s never been arrested or tried for a crime can’t ever quite understand. In my case, I expect the worst, and my emotions shut down. It’s a spiritually devastating experience that nobody should ever have to endure unless he was guilty of inflicting it on...
It takes no genius to recognize that Egypt is off the rails. Most Egyptian media is exhibiting an undying commitment to polarization, despite it being quite well known that, behind closed doors, the military is, in fact, negotiating with the ‘terrorists.’ Please note that the quotes are no longer technically necessary in Egypt since the Muslim Brotherhood was legally declared, for what that’s...
Perhaps one of the biggest changes we’ll all felt since Jan 25, 2011, is – the euphoria and the burden of – choice. Will you go down? What for? Will you risk your life? On which issues? What is the best choice today? What will it lead to tomorrow? Is this what I want to do? What kind of president do I want? What kind of constitution? Yet – in retrospect, and to some along the way – it seems like...
Obligatory recap It’s difficult to know how far back to go – but let’s just say this; it’s January 2014, the Post-Morsi constitution has passed, with a (ridiculously) high approval but a relatively low turnout. Now a Field Marshall (just promoted a few days ago, and active today), El-Sisi, the man who was instrumental in removing Morsi from power on July 3rd, is expected to become the new...
Excuse the title. I like the Camelot myths. I’ve never read the original Malory, though, and wasn’t quite so interested in it when I was a child. The whole knight in shining armor thing never quite caught my fancy. However, years later, I was lucky enough to run into The Sword in the Stone, T.H. White’s wonderful take on the Arthurian myths. In the first volume, we see a young Arthur slowly...
The Great Divide Recent events in Egypt have led to deep intellectual and moral fractures; Egyptians are both shocked and offended at the way the media is handling things, and the media is shocked, and by turns disgusted and dumbfounded by how Egyptians see things. The divides have been brutal, creating what appears to be vast moral and intellectual divides between people who, just two weeks ago...
The Muslim Brotherhood lives in a Bizarro World. In their universe, the supreme authority is not the God of Islam, to whom all individuals have access through their hearts and innate moral compass (the fitra) but the Guidance Council. In their universe, anybody who is not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood is not really a Muslim. In their universe, wisdom comes from Sheikhs who insist that Hindus...
To avoid all suspense – The last page reads: Superman is actually Clark Kent. Now, onwards: We sailed the storms, and we defeated fire-breathing hell-spawn! We battled mythical monsters and corrupt politicians! We got wet. Twice. We endured thunder, rain, sleet, and hail. We grew cold in winter, smelly in summer. We had a cough. We sneezed. I myself had a cold. Nasty. We endured boredom, and we...
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