Moroccans Fear That Flickers of Democracy Are Fading
Some Moroccans wonder whether the Arab Spring brought only cosmetic changes, questioning whether the king and his entourage gave up any of their power.
The New Islamists |
Articles here explore the rise of political Islam in the Middle East, as Islamic movements struggle to remake the Arab world. |
Some Moroccans wonder whether the Arab Spring brought only cosmetic changes, questioning whether the king and his entourage gave up any of their power.
As Israel and Hamas met separately with Egyptian officials for indirect talks about a truce in the ongoing Gaza fight, Hamas seemed to be trying to exert its sway over ideological allies in Egypt’s government.
A compromise in the constituent assembly accepted that “the principles of Islamic law” should guide law, but leaves it up to Parliament and the courts to determine how and what.
One brother joined the global jihad against the West under the nom de guerre Abu Yahya al-Libi. He rose to become Al Qaeda’s brightest star and second in command, until an American drone strike killed him in Pakistan four months ago.
Naglaa Ali Mahmoud wears an Islamic head covering that drapes down to her knees, did not attend college and never took her husband’s last name, because that is a Western convention that few Egyptians follow. She also refuses the title of first lady, in favor of simply Um Ahmed, a traditional nickname that identifies her as the mother of Ahmed, her eldest son.
Two jihadis in Libya represent opposing directions for Islamists, democracy or militancy with Taliban-style rule, and for the moment, democracy appears to have the upper hand.
Twelve days before a presidential election, a televised debate that carried on into the early morning hours Friday has put the role of Islam in Egypt’s government at the center of the campaign, with the self-described liberal Islamist in the race coming under fire over whether his agenda is too religious or too secular.
Egypt’s most conservative Islamists endorsed a liberal Islamist for president, upending the political landscape and confounding expectations about the internal dynamics of the Islamist movement.
Two leading presidential candidates, Mohamed Morsi and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, differ on religion’s place in Egypt.
The Muslim Brotherhood nominated its chief strategist as its candidate to become Egypt’s first president since Hosni Mubarak, breaking a pledge not to seek the top office.
Khairat el-Shater, a leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and an advocate for moderation and modernization, says that recent elections have proved that Egyptians want an explicitly Islamic state.
In an article he wrote days before his death in Syria, Mr. Shadid examined how a party shaped by repression hopes to act as a regional model after being voted into power in Tunisia.
A blasphemy trial in Tunis symbolizes an emotional struggle, with implications for the Arab world, playing out with the rise of Islamists after the end of a secular dictatorship.