Soft power comes from official institutions that can influence the outside world, in Egypt these institutions are Al-Azhar, the Coptic Church, universities, and grand museums that hold human legacy. One such museum is in Luxor and holds a quarter of all human legacy according to UNESCO’s reports.

The new draft constitution whose fate Egyptian voters will decide in a few days is a relatively better document than its short-lived predecessor, but is ultimately disappointing and less than what could have been realistically achieved to enhance the civil, political and economic rights of Egyptian citizens.

Anyone who wants to know the magnitude of transformation in Arab-Arab relations after upheavals and revolutions should consider how the Egyptian Foreign Ministry summoned Qatar’s ambassador in Cairo to register its fervent rejection of any interference in Egypt’s domestic affairs.

You are too kind: kind enough to think that reading Utopia is enough to allow you to deal with Egypt’s confusing situation, without trying to study reality during the past three years after the 2011 revolution. Reality is far from being a dream land where good wishes come true just by hopes and mobilizing in squares to demand their fulfillment.

Two days ago circumstances led me to a dialogue with a young man who I knew well. He was not one of the ousted president Mohamed Morsi’s supporters in the first round of the presidential elections, but he supported him in the second when Morsi was competing with Ahmed Shafiq, who was one of the former president Hosni Mubarak’s allies.

By declaring the Muslim Brotherhood "terrorist organisation," the interim government seems to have put an end to any possibility of reconciliation with this group and to any potential participation by its members in legal political activities, including the upcoming legislative and presidential elections, scheduled in the first half of 2014.

Western colonization will remain the same no matter how much people with good intentions think it changes in response to the will of the people.

Prominent authors, columnists and media figures that are affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood have been deliberately overacting following the recent decision of the Egyptian government declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a “terrorist” organization.

Arab countries in general, and Egypt in particular, seem too concerned and are overreacting to Western criticism to the point that we misguidedly view the West’s censure as a declaration of war declaration while its approval is the way to avoid intervention in our internal policy.

When mass media deal with the issue of fake medication, their treatment of such a critical health problem is usually timid and superficial. Media lack the necessary follow up to recognize the reaction of people and affiliated officials and to realize the dimensions of the problem and suggestions to overcome it.

Behind each bomb there are ideas of incitement. The pictures aired by Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis of suicide bombers smiling as they think that worshipping God is killing citizens reveal the extent of brainwashing that lead youths to make bombs and explosive tools.

The indications of the frequent terrorist attacks targeting civilians, security personnel and security facilities in Sinai and nationwide go beyond Egypt’s internal conflict and represent a link in a chain of political and economic interests operated by a mafia with which terrorist organizations have interests too.

While diplomacy is a means to apply a state’s foreign policy, media is the means to present this policy internally and externally. That’s why we have to realize that there is political discourse to address the outside world other than the one used internally and mixing both is counterproductive. Many of contemporary political regimes fabricate and present a good image of their achievements to bolster internal public opinion or, in other words, for local consumption. But if those regimes try to export such fabricated images to foreign countries, their discourse will sound pale and feeble and will not have its intended effect.

Secretary Hillary Clinton made the argument in early February “that the right path was to pressure Mubarak for change ... but not to pull the rug from beneath him.” She tried to balance strategic security interests in the one hand and soft human rights and democratization issues on the other.

The Sudanese author Mohamed Bahnas’ death of hunger and cold out on Cairo’s streets has made people speak of his virtues, although nobody cared for him while he was alive.

Illiteracy does not mean ignorance since many illiterate people can handle their lives maybe better than many literates. Illiteracy falls under the umbrella of lack of education, and some literate people might not have finished their education process.

Egypt's new draft constitution provides better protection for fundamental freedoms and human and minority rights as well as for women and youth, and gives special attention to socio-economic rights, such as education and health.

Egypt is about to enter another period in which it will attempt to push past its political crisis through democratic elections. A 50 member committee recently drafted a new constitution, and a referendum will be held on January 14-15 as a first step toward holding new presidential and parliamentary elections in 2014. But election experts are concerned that Egypt may be about to repeat the same mistakes as the last presidential election.

President Obama made it clear that, unlike Bush, he was not interested in imposing a change in governance systems from outside. Obama’s senior Middle East adviser was Dennis Ross, a staunch realist. Even those who have a strong position on human rights and the responsibility to defend them overseas, such as Samantha Power (at the time a staff member of the National Security Council and currently US ambassador to the UN), were pragmatic enough to know that any such intervention should not undermine hard US interests.

Three Coptic Christians in Egypt were given long prison sentences on Sunday over the death of a Muslim in a sectarian clash even though no one has been prosecuted in the deaths of at least five Christians in the same clash, raising allegations that the military-backed government was breaking its promise to curb bias against Christians.

It’s an odd thing about the interim government, and I don’t just mean Beblawi’s cabinet. It is unfair to blame the cabinet and prime minister, despite their appalling performance and lack of revolutionary drive. The interim president and now the judiciary are also to blame here.