Month: April 2012

“The announcement from Gamaa Islamiya provides a boost to Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh’s chances in the May 23-24 vote. He received a similar endorsement from an influential ultraconservative Salafi group last week”: Ex-jihadists Back a Moderate for Egyptian Presidency, Causing More Splits in Islamist Vote (AP / Washington Post with Foreign Policy) “[T]he Brotherhood has been respected…

Malaysian Spring? “Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who many hope will win the upcoming election, rallied the enthusiastic crowds as one of Bersih’s leaders, Ambiga Sreenevasan, said: ‘We all want change today’”: Malaysian Police Fire Teargas at Electoral Reform Protesters (Guardian) “Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet, kids. At least until there’s like, you…

“Breivik has said that he wants to be judged sane so that his anti-Islamic ideology is taken seriously.” He denied that he has a Messiah complex, that the Knights Templar are not a paranoid fantasy and that what psychiatrists called his “’emotional flatness’ was actually part of his military dehumanization training” to become a cold-blooded…

As the presidential campaign begins in Egypt, things start popping, with the banning of Jimmy Carter’s center from monitoring the elections for fairness, the proposed (but probably moot) ban of the Mubarak-era PM from the race, and a tacking to the right by the MB’s candidate seeking to attract supporters of the but disqualified Nour…

Egypt’s economy is an a dangerously sad state … Egypt’s Dire Economy Looms over Elections (Christian Science Monitor) … but millionaire Islamists say that removing the ceiling on success can “empower a new class of businessmen … while also improving the lives of poor Egyptians and attracting investment from abroad” as in “Turkey, where a…

“The far-right fanatic said he was inspired by al-Qaida’s use of decapitation but noted that ‘beheading is a traditional European death penalty,’ adding, ‘The goal was not to kill 69 people on Utoya. The goal was to kill them all’” … Breivik Wanted to Decapitate Former Norway PM (AP / NPR) …as he enacts his…

With excuses for disqualification of the three frontrunners from the presidential race upheld on grounds ranging from the plausible (inadequate diversity in the sources of petition signatures) to the dubious (American citizenship of one’s mother) to the outrageous (imprisonment by the Mubarak dictatorship), a return to the streets may be in the offing: Ban on…

The significance of the Afghan defense forces ability to defeat the insurgent attack without Western help is disputed, while NATO’s failure to anticipate the  ability of the Taliban to penetrate so deep into the heart of Kabul provokes speculation over the role the Haqqanni Network and the connection to an attack on a Pakistani prison…

“Egypt’s election commission disqualified 10 presidential hopefuls, including Hosni Mubarak’s former spy chief and key Islamists, from running Saturday in a surprise decision that threatened to upend an already tumultuous race… The disqualified candidates have 48 hours to appeal the decision…”: 10 Egyptian Presidential Hopefuls Barred From Race (AP / abc News) “The lawsuit says…

“[T]he prosecution in the Mehanna case made the material support statute a vehicle for the suppression of unpopular ideas that fall within the boundaries of the First Amendment – including watching ‘Jihadi’ videos with others, lending CDs to ‘create like-minded youth,’ translating texts freely available on the internet”: It’s Official. There Is a Muslim Exemption…