Egyptian Politics

Google the name Chant Avedissian (1951-2018) and you will be led to over 20,000 links and images presenting the artist primarily through the lens of his world-recognized signature stencils. “Icons of the Nile” (1991-2010), for example, composed of 120 portraits, set a record for the highest price achieved at auction by a living contemporary Arab artist in 2013 when it sold for over USD 1.5 million at Sotheby’s in Doha. Fueled by Egypt’s twentieth-century political and cultural heyday or Golden Age, Avedissian’s stencils may have started as “childhood memories,” but eventually, transformed into a subtle critical discourse of the Egyptian and Arab society. Using newspaper images from the Egyptian press, the stencil technique allowed Avedissian to discover the truth or rather the “lie” propagated through the media. According to an interview with doctoral candidate Sadia Shirazi titled "Europe, Europe, Europe" and published in Threshold in 2008, Avedissian stressed “how an image [in newspapers] is not true” because “neither the people stand like that nor look like that; everything [is] fake.” Avedissian explained he was “shocked” by what he discovered in newspapers: “The images said things about liberty and happiness, but the photos were composed for propaganda,” arguing that he did stencils to “emphasize the lie.” For Avedissian, it was the ideal medium, a fake façade as he defined it, because “it looks like a painting and it talks about something quite horrible, something quite dramatic.” In a way, Avedissian’s stencils shaped a multi-layered collective Arab culture torn between past and present, truth and lie, reality and propaganda. From Gamal Abdel Nasser to Om Kolthoum, well-known buildings and landmarks, Anubis, and other ancient gods, Chant Avedissian is a voyeur, a messenger of a sort, a kind of social realist or cultural critic. In celebrating our personal histories, Avedissian reminded us to dig deeper, peel the onion, and “see” beyond the visible and the montage fabricated to make us believe. 

But what about the pre-stencil period? Who was Chant Avedissian then, and what was his message?

Online here: https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/08/01/alaa-al-aswanys-novel-republic-false-truths-review-arab-spring-dictatorship/?tpcc=recirc_latest062921

Review of "The Republic of False Truths," a retrospective on the Arab Spring ten years later.

The article discusses the efforts to undertake economic reconstruction in Bosnia following the end of the war. It argues that, despite certain successes such as the rehabilitation of
infrastructure and the privatization of the banking sector, overall progress has been below expectations. The study, accordingly, attempts to analyse the reasons behind the reconstruction
failure by grouping Bosnia’s problems into four different challenges for analytical purposes: the post-Dayton institutional deficiency; overcoming political fragmentation; creating appropriate conditions for economic revival; and graduating from dependency on foreign economic aid. In this respect, it is concluded that the intersection between the economic and political dimensions of post-conflict reconstruction has generated a paradox: while huge amounts of economic assistance have intended to facilitate political reconciliation, the nature of the administrative (political) structure that was established in the post-war period has in turn hindered economic
recovery and the creation of a unified economic space. Moreover, political fragmentation and slow progress in economic reconstruction have been in a mutually constitutive relationship in which the existence of the one has contributed to the sustenance of the other.

This paper proposes and illustrates a framework for analysis of the recent events in Middle Eastern and North African countries (the so-called Arab Spring) by bringing into dialogue recent theoretical advances in democratization theory with the comparative-historical literature on the political development of the MENA region. We advocate two analytical shifts from conventional approaches in the analysis of the Arab Spring: first, reconsider the temporalities of democratization processes; second, focus on struggles over specific institutional arenas rather than over the regime as a whole. The former recommendation draws attention both to the strategies used by key actors in the political, economic, and civil society spheres, and to the historical legacies that built the influence and resources of these actors over time. The latter allows us to consider the institutional safeguards for old elites that are likely to be included in the post-authoritarian regimes emerging in the region. Even though some of these safeguards are clearly anti-democratic, historical examples show that they do not necessarily preclude democratization. Indeed, in some cases, their introduction might be necessary to achieve democratic openings in other arenas. We illustrate these theoretical points with reference to the case of Egypt.

تحاول هذه الورقة رصد عدة ممارسات للاشتباه وتتبع مساراتها التاريخية، وربطها بتطور البنية القانونية
في مصر من خلال الوثائق المختلفة المتاحة من القوانين والاحكام والتشريعات، ثم تحاول الوقوف على ما تخلقه كل ممارسة من منظومة عقابية تتكامل بعضها بعضًا لخضاع السكان سواء كانوا سياسيين، أو جنائيين، أو مجرد مواطنين عاديين لا علاقة لهم بالجريمة أو السياسة. فداخل كل ممارسة ممجموعة من الرموز والدلالات تنتج شكل معين للحكم مرتبط شرطًا بطبيعة البنية التحتية، وأنماط النتاج، واستخراج الثروة وتوزيعها داخل المجتمعات المصرية المختلفة، وتخلق ذوات وأقاليم خطرة؛ ينتج عن تصنيفها هكذا عدة تداعيات أمنية واجتماعية وسياسية متباينة التأثير، وتشكل وتنظم علاقة السكان بالدولة في هذا الحيز. وتربط الورقة بين الممارسات المختلفة
للاشتباه وتصورات النخب الحاكمة عن المجتمع المصريِّ والسياق التاريخيِّ الذي تنتج وتتغير فيه هذه الممارسات. ثم تذهب الورقة أكثر لرصد أشكال التكامل والتنافر بين الدولة البوليسية في مصر ودولة القانون، وتحاول تقديم تفسيرات لاستمرارية بعض الممارسات، مثل: أخذ الرهائن حيث يعد مخالف لمبدأ القانون الحديث الذي ينص على
فردية العقوبة، وكيف تساعد سلسلة أخرى من القوانين على تجاوز هذا الأمر. كذلك تنظر الورقة داخل كل ممارسة مرتبطة بالاشتباه وما يتم بداخلها من جملة من الانتهاكات الهادفة للإخضاع، أو باعتباره نتيجة لطلاق العنان للممارسة نفسها.
وبالنظر لتاريخ تطور التشريعات في مصر يمكن القول أنه تاريخ من محاولات التحديث وجعل العقوبة فردية،
أو ما يعرف قانونًا بشخصية العقوبة والارتداد عليها، ثم محاولة تعديل القانون، وهكذا. وفي القلب من هذا البندول سبل وطرق التحقيق. وممارسة الاشتباه وما يصحبه من انتهاكات مختلفة أحيانا، هي ممارسة ذات طابع مسرحيِّ، فأحد أهم أغراضها هو استعراض قوة وهيمنة الدولة البوليسية في الحيز العام والخاص بشكل موسع يقوم باستدعاء المشاهدين لخشبة هذا المسرح، وهو ما يعرف بالأداء المسرحيِّ أو الاستعراضيِّ للسلطة، وهو عرض دائم ومتجدد. فالمدينة ليلاً تفترش بعدد لا نهائيِّ من الكمائن الثابتة أكثر من المتحركة، والحملات الأمنية المختلفة، كذلك استعراضات رؤساء ومعاوني المباحث لأنفسهم داخل المناطق الشعبية. كما أن مشاهد القبض على الأشقياء،
أو أحد أفراد العصابات، أو مواطن معارض، أو مغضوب عليه لأسباب متعددة كثيرًا ما تأخذ هذا الطابع المسرحيِّ. 

As the international community showed discontent to Trump’s recent designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, a similar decision about the Muslim Brotherhood will also face criticism and create repercussions for the U.S.

This book has been edited by Dr. Ronald Meinardus, who has served as regional director of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) for more than seven years. His aspiration in this often tumultuous phase has been to promote liberal
principles and politics through educative activities. In his opening
chapter, Dr. Meinardus takes a closer look at these principles and shares his thoughts on the challenges and opportunities facing the liberal
cause in the Arab world. In the closing chapter, the editor, who
spent many years of his childhood in Egypt, shares personal
reflections at the end of his professional journey, which as he writes has been filled with excitement, joy and also occasional
frustrations.

How to reconcile a European policy in the Mediterranean
able to involve Egypt as a reliable partner and, at the same time, to ensure the promotion of essential European values in the field of civil and political rights? Where and how can the EU act to incorporate Egypt into a process of regional integration and cooperation on issues of shared importance? How can the EU deal with its loss of leverage in Egypt and in the region as a whole? Will heads of member states continue to look the other way as private sector bilateral deals are signed with a military regime systematically targeting the rights of Egyptian citizens? For European policy makers these issues raise further questions related to broader foreign policy strategy, commitment to deeper democracy, and the kind of relationship we want to maintain with Egypt.

This study shows some of the Egyptian captives who were captured in the Ancient Iraqi, both in the Assyrian and the late Babylonian period. The research starts with the term "captives" in the ancient Iraqi texts, which is close to the current term. Many Assyrian kings followed the policy of Assyrian deportation, we found a lot of Egyptian captives in the period of the kings of Assyria, perhaps the most prominent King Ashurbanipal, who conquered Egypt and occupied - for a short time - as the texts of the Babylonian period late Chaldean, the existence of some Egyptian captives in Babylon, then the research studied the social life of those captives and them works, and we see some of this captives working in Medicine.

2016 marks the 60 th anniversary of Sino-Arab relations, and specifically the establishment of the first Arab and African diplomatic relations between Egypt and China in 1956 (Scott, 2016). Since such cooperation emerged, the nature of ties between the two nations were mostly based on a win-win cooperation and multiple trade, political and economic mutual benefits. During the late 1990s, strategic cooperation relations were emphasized among their prioritized aspects, and since then there has been observable expansion and continuous development in various fields, e.

Die Mobilisierung der koptischen Massen ging weder vom Klerus aus, noch von den etablierten Vertretern des koptischen Menschenrechtsaktivismus in Ägypten und in der Diaspora, sondern von unbekannten jungen Aktivisten. Die koptische Jugendbewegung, deren wichtigster organisierter Akteur im Jahr 2011 die ‚Bewegung der Maspero-Jugend‘ (ḥarakat shabāb masbīrū) war, vertrat bei aller Verbundenheit mit der koptisch-orthodoxen Kirche ein völlig neues Politikmodell. Ihre Wurzeln liegen – wie ein Blick auf die Entwicklungen des letzten Jahrzehnts zeigt – an der Schnittfläche von politischem Engagement im oppositionellen Spektrum und kirchlich gebundener Gemeindearbeit

يوضح المقال أهم جونب هذا القانون مقارنة بنظيره رقم 77 لسنة 1975، ويحلل انعقاد الجمعيات العمومية للأندية لوضع لوائحها الأساسية، ويعرض لمؤشرات أولية عن حالة الزخم التي أحدثتها انتخابات الأندية الرياضية. ويقترح المقال في نهايته مجموعة من الاقتراحات أهمها فيما يتعلق بالناحية البحثية كيفية وضع ضوابط محددة لاستخدام ما أسميته بـ "المال الرياضي" في العملية الانتخابية في الأندية ومراكز الشباب الكبرى، وضرورة تحليل اتجاهات التصويت في انتخابات الأندية والتي عكست في بعض جوانبها حالة من الاستقطاب الطبقي والمجتمعي في مصر.

The 20th Century revolved politically around competing interpretations of Capitalism, Communism, Socialism and Fascism. These are all ways to organize the lives of people on a large scale. Are real alternatives or new interpretations likely to emerge in the challenging years ahead? What might they look like?

Previous studies have noted the dominance of official sources within the news process and their unique ability to shape media narratives. This research addresses the role and implications of news sources in contributing to the overwhelmingly positive portrayal of the anti-Mubarak opposition protesters within British and American newspaper coverage of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Furthermore, this paper will assess how the position of global political elites towards the protests in Egypt possibly opened up the editorial space within the news coverage of the revolution for the anti-Mubarak opposition movement to emerge as the dominant voice within the reporting.

This chapter revisits the political phenomenon of “Nasserism,” acknowledging that it has multiple connotations and yet enduring significance across the Arab world. It discusses Nasserism under Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918–1970) during his 1952–70 leadership, and Nasserism as the political tradition that survived him. The chapter’s range generates the conclusion that Nasserism has transcended its historical origins. It is now widely employed in political contestation to signal a set of enduring principles and aspirations for sovereignty and dignity across the Arab world. At the same time, it is an important node in critiques of contemporary political centralization and authoritarian rule in Arab republics. Sparking debate between these poles continuously, and as a political tradition with movements in most Arab countries today, Nasserism is set to remain a force to be reckoned with in Egyptian and Arab politics for the foreseeable future.

The Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun) is one of the most popular and influential socioreligious movements in the Muslim world. Over the past century, the movement dominated the religious sphere in several countries, with its extraordinary ability to blend religion, politics, and activism. With its comprehensive and elastic ideology, disciplined structure, and enormous resources, the Muslim Brotherhood (hereafter, the Brotherhood) was able to galvanize and mobilize Muslims in order to achieve its political, social, and religious objectives. Over the past few years, the Brotherhood has been a subject of debate and disagreement among scholars, particularly regarding its ideology, tactics, and objectives. Also, scholars disagree whether the Brotherhood should be studied as a religious, social, or political movement. In fact, the multifaceted character of the Brotherhood, which is part of its very nature since the beginning, has something to do with this confusion and disagreeme...

In ancient Egypt, the ram was regarded as a symbol of protection, male virility, fertility, syncretism, rebirth, and resurrection, which is why ancient Egyptians associated some of their gods with the ram form. The most popular ram deities, each connected with his own temples and cult centers at different geographic locations, were Banebdjed of Mendes, Heryshef of Herakleopolis Magna, Amun-Ra of Thebes, and Khnum of Esna and Elephantine. Similarly, numbers were another important aspect of Egyptian religion and magic, and the symbolic language of numbers manifested itself in a variety of ways in the art of ancient Egypt; occasionally, ram gods, for example, were represented with multiple heads in order to indicate the syncretism of two or, more frequently, four different divinities. This thesis engages with New Kingdom representations of four-headed ram deities, appearing in separate entrance scenes preserved inside the individual tombs of Ramesses IX (KV 6), Ramesses X (KV 19), and Ramesses XI (KV 4), as an artistic response to theological and political change in the late Twentieth Dynasty. This examination of art applies iconographic and iconological analysis on selected images of tetracephalic ram deities in order to better understand the symbolic message articulated by four rams’ heads as an iconographic form. Ultimately, the four-headed ram as an iconographic type during the late New Kingdom was applied to both solar and netherworld divinities, constituting a demiurge par excellence. Four rams’ heads, as a composite motif, also show us that Egyptians of the late New Kingdom perceived many similarities between their individual ram gods, in particular, Banebdjed of Mendes and Amun-Ra of Thebes, who were each depicted in art by the Ramesside period occasionally as a tetracephalic ram deity.

The Arab uprisings ushered an unrealistic level of euphoria across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA); however, ten years on, most of the same dictatorships continue to rule and reactionary forces have only become more powerful. For many, the Arab street has become a more dangerous, even dystopic, place. With democracy curtailed and economic prosperity an unlikely possibility in the near future, some writers and artists in the MENA region are turning away from the nightmares of the present towards the futuristic lands of science fiction and fantasy, imaginary places where they have the freedom to openly reflect upon their predicament. Indeed, it is reported that dystopian literature in Arabic fiction has proliferated in recent years. The same trend can be seen in art: a 2016 exhibition in London billed itself as 'a dazzling journey into the future of Palestine-through both utopian and dystopian visions of what lies ahead'. In this article, I first briefly detail the recent oppression in Egypt and Palestine-what I call the dystopian present-including against artists and writers. I then look at the contemporary role of art and literature as social critique.

With a focus on the role of religion in the politics of communal and national identity and also the impact of media on sectarian conflict, the author examines in depth the processes through which identity and belonging are negotiated via the media within the wider framework of changing socio-economic and political realities in Egypt. Using a combination of methodological approaches, including comprehensive surveys and discourse analysis, the research offers a fresh perspective on the politics of identity in Egypt.

In several previous articles, I examined the parallel characteristics of the fake colonial states of Sudan (real Ethiopia) and Abyssinia (fake Ethiopia) that have been the end result of the Freemasonic Orientalist fallacies of Pan-Arabism and Ethiopianism.

In this article, I will examine a bogus-historical term that has been constructed by the Freemasonic Orientalist ateliers and academia of France and England to further spread confusion in the wider region, and – more importantly – consolidate the two fallacies in the area, namely the pseudo-doctrines of Pan-Arabism and Ethiopianism: Nubia.
First published in:
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/143394

Republished here:
http://www.oromoparliamentarians.org/English/Facts%20about%20Oromo/Ethiopia%20Kushati%20land.htm
and
http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=006830;p=1

Egypt has become the third largest arms importer in the world, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The institute’s “Trends in International Arms Transfers” report reveals that Egypt’s imports of major arms increased in volume by 136 percent from the periods 2011-2015 to 2016-2020. Over the past decade, Egypt spent approximately $44 billion on defense and national security. Since seizing power in 2014, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi has concluded arms deals with major countries including France, Germany, Italy, the United States, and Russia. With at least one third of Egypt’s population living below the poverty line, Sisi’s unprecedented military spending raises questions about its purposes, priorities, and objectives.

This chapter argues that the perception of foreigners in Egypt was influenced by the rise of Egyptian nationalism. The protection of foreigners by the British occupation, as well as the long standing privileges of the Capitulations, made the khawagat (foreigners) a major concern against the hoped-for Egyptian independent nation state for many of the nationalist activists. However, this chapter tries to show that the negative perception against the foreigners in Egypt, when found, was not due to xenophobia. It was the result of two factors; first: foreign economic dominance and exploitation, and second: the political activities of many foreigners who expressed a stance against Egypt's nationalist movement.

The Hittite Kingdom was plagued in the reign of Šuppiluliuma I. Plague led to killing the king himself, his son Arnuwanda II, and many people in the Hittite Kingdom. The reasons of plague in Hittite were different, but prayers of Muršili II determine some reasons, such as his father's sins. For example; transgressing the treaty with the Egyptians and occupation of some territories, and captured plagued captives, led to spread plague in the capital of Hittite and Anatolia. Another Šuppiluliuma I crime is killing his brother Tudhaliya III. According to prayers of Muršili II, the plague was a divine punishment resulted from Šuppiluliuma sins. The Plague continued for 20 years approximately. Muršili II made to preventive procedures, such as pleading to gods personal cleanness, non-reusing food tools, and hiring some physicians from neighboring countries such as Egypt and Mesopotamia and their prescriptions.

Since its discovery by Battiscombe Gunn, it is believed that Saqqara's Ostrakon is able to improve our understanding of how Egyptians designed curved elements, but the geometric significance of the hieratic values is still uncertain. Indeed, in order to obtain an indisputable result, the distance between the vertical ordinates is required, and this distance is not explicitly indicated on the limestone artefact.
But since there were no algebraic formulas at the time of the Pharaohs, a simple grid-based procedure was developed such as those used by the Egyptians to reproduce the scale drawings, to try to decipher the geometric meaning of the curve drawn on the find.
To conclude, this simple process permits to understand that the five hieratic values of the Saqqara Ostrakon describe a segmental arch whose span and rise correspond to the architectural proportions of several Egyptian tombs and arches, and that the numerical sequence of the artefact could be considered the most "ancient" mathematical formula of the circle.

This article examines how and why the strategy of occupying Tahrir Square went from being the central mode of action and defining image of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 to an ineffective strategy read by many as symbolic of the revolution’s ultimate failure during the transitional period of 2011–2012. This question speaks to a lacuna in the literature on repertoires, specifically a lack of attention to their temporality and the lessons to be learned from their failure. I propose a framework that examines the trajectory of repertoires and traces their 1) meaning; 2) internal composition; 3) relationality vis-à-vis the regime in relation to which the repertoire is practiced; and 4) temporal momentum. Using this framework, I chart the rise and fall of the Tahrir repertoire in a very short period: from February 12, 2011, to December 5, 2012. The article draws on ethnographic, qualitative, and historical data collected over three research trips taken between February 4, 2011, and January 7, 2015

Why do advanced nuclear states agree to legally forswear nuclear weapons? Many international relations studies have explored why states seek to develop nuclear weapons. Yet, the literature does not address why states would participate in multilateral nuclear arms control treaties that tie their hands against doing so. This gap in the existing scholarship matters because nuclear weapons are one of few tools that can effectively guarantee a state's sovereignty and national survival.

My dissertation disaggregates the process of entering multilateral nuclear arms control treaties into two phases. Previous studies have discussed either treaty signature or ratification, overlooking the often lengthy delays between them. However, motivations for signing and ratifying are often distinct because these actions carry different legal weights and political consequences. I discover that signing a treaty can reflect a variety of "type signaling" motivations about a state's views on the distribution of power the agreement reifies. Indeed, signatories signal to the international community their advocacy for the treaty or subordinate status to a powerful patron that compels them to sign. Non-signatories signal a desire for enhanced status or interest in considering the nuclear option. But ultimately, states will only engage in legal “commitment signaling” not to pursue nuclear weapons through ratification if their security environment permits it. Accession to a treaty once it has already entered into force—and signature is no longer possible—requires a “joint signal” pertaining to both necessary conditions.

To demonstrate the applicability of my theory, I investigate four case studies of states with advanced civilian nuclear energy capabilities or weapons proliferation aspirations. I examine the causal pathways that led Brazil, Egypt, Japan, and Romania to embrace the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968 and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty (CTBT) of 1996. These states acted in accordance with the two-step process of type and commitment signaling described in my theory despite varying regime types, alliance commitments, levels of industrialization, and more. The case studies shed new light on international nuclear politics by drawing on diverse sources, including archival documents and original elite interviews I conducted with decision-makers.

Taken together, this dissertation makes three primary contributions to the scholarly and policy-making domains. First, it offers a new process-based theory explaining an understudied phenomenon in international security. Second, it provides evidence and insights that challenge dominant narratives surrounding historical cases of legal nuclear forbearance. Third, it suggests novel approaches to understanding incentive structures behind differing levels of commitment to multilateral nuclear arms control.

‬ مجلة أحوال مصرية، ‫صيف‬ 69 ‫العدد‬ 16، السنة 2018
تجادل الدراسة بأن البيئة العامة للرياضة في مصر قد تغيرت  بصدور قانون الرياضة الجديد في عام 2018، ولكن ذلك يحتاج خطوات مكملة خاصة في اتجاه إصدار استراتيجية وطنية للرياضة في مصر، وتطوير اختصاص وزارة الرياضة، ومأسسة عملية التنسيق بين الأجهزة والكيانات العاملة في مجال الرياضة، وجذب موارد إضافية لتمويل العمل الرياضي.

Since its discovery by Battiscombe Gunn, it is believed that Saqqara's Ostrakon is able to improve our understanding of how Egyptians designed curved elements, but the geometric significance of the hieratic values is still uncertain. Indeed, in order to obtain an indisputable result, the distance between the vertical ordinates is required, and this distance is not explicitly indicated on the limestone artefact.
But since there were no algebraic formulas at the time of the Pharaohs, a simple grid-based procedure was developed such as those used by the Egyptians to reproduce the scale drawings, to try to decipher the geometric meaning of the curve drawn on the find.
To conclude, this simple process permits to understand that the five hieratic values of the Saqqara Ostrakon describe a segmental arch whose span and rise correspond to the architectural proportions of several Egyptian tombs and arches, and that the numerical sequence of the artefact could be considered the most "ancient" mathematical formula of the circle.