The logjam in the political scene before the revolution transformed professional and student unions into the backyards of politics. These bodies abandoned their services and professional role and became platforms to battle tyranny and exclusion. This was, for example, apparent in the substantial rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in professional unions during the 1990s (including the unions of doctors, engineers, lawyers, educators, pharmacists and others.)

It’s nice that President Morsi and his merry band of Brothers are on top of governing the country. Whether it’s healing the flagging economy or securing the policing of the state amidst growing reports of vigilantism, they are doing an upstanding job of taking a practical approach to finding solutions as well as ensuring they maintain their visibility in front of the nation and keeping everyone’s spirits up. Wait a minute…..

First, the slow but steady reduction in foreign reserves and the pressures it is putting on the country’s monetary situation are threatening Egypt’s economic foundations. Short term management of the reserves becomes very tricky; inflation on basic goods start to rise; and various corresponding social challenges materialize. But the key risk here lies in getting entangled in stop-gap measures that are very detached from an environment of economic growth.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will visit Qatar on 26 and 27 March to attend the 34th summit of the Arab League. His visit is the first to the wealthy natural gas monarchy, but follows numerous visits to Cairo in recent months by various senior Qatari officials, including the country's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem, and the head of the intelligence service, Ahmed Nasser bin Jassem.

At a time when many Egyptian workers are protesting against the chief executives of companies demanding better rights, employees at Orascom Construction Industries demonstrated an unusual display of loyalty against accusations from the government that the company owes EGP 14bn ($2.1bn) in back taxes relating to the 2007 sale of its cement arm to France’s Lafarge.

“Egyptians will not be fooled into participating in a fake democracy, regardless of the internal and external pressures,” opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei said, in response to US Secretary of State John Kerry’s call for opposition parties to take part in upcoming parliamentary elections.

The continuously complex political scene, partially due to the positions and competence of those in power and the opposition, is an expression of the conflict between two visions of governance.

If you follow the annual reports of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), you will read a sad catalog of persecution and discrimination against Christians, Jews and members of other religions around the world.

Patriots boast of their affiliation with a homeland. The desert dweller boasts of his affiliation with non-existence. For the Tuareg, the desert is a paradise of non-existence (recall Ibrahim Al-Koni's Anubis: A Desert Novel and Gold Dust).

Christian Newswire/ -- Dr. Essam Abdallah, an Egyptian liberal intellectual, today stated in his article published onFamilySecurityMatters.org's website, that the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Libya and Jordan now comprise what is becoming the greatest Islamist radical lobby ever to penetrate and infiltrate the White House, Congress, the State Department and the main decision making centers of the US government.

For the first time since 1986, riot police, called the "Central Security Forces" (CSF), as well as police officers, revolted against the regime. Last time, police conscripts of the CSF rebelled because of the inhuman conditions in which they worked; the protest was quickly and brutally subdued by the army. Today, the reasons are much more complicated, the phenomenon broader and the unrest deeper.

A toxic combination is unfolding under the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood. Its bid to take over state apparatuses and, more importantly, follow the former regime’s footsteps in oppressing and besieging the people’s right to expression is an attempt to suppress the revolution’s march toward radical democracy.

With the New York Times reporting on the rise of the risk of a military takeover, Egypt seems destined to enter a further cycle of self-fueling conspiracies and self-fulfilling prophesies.

My first encounter with the concept of “democratic transformation” was in South Africa in 2004, when I attended a seminar in Cape Town at the Center of Higher Education Transformation, and asked why the center was given that name.

Calls for the army to take over power, which come from “revolutionary” and “civil” forces, reveal the failures of those in power and the bankruptcy of the opposition, and thus require closer inspection.

As Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood government slides toward the financial cliff, what’s the right policy for the United States? That’s becoming an urgent question, as Egypt’s financial reserves decline and the country nears a new breaking point.

In his first visit to Egypt since taking office on 2 and 3 March, newly-appointed US Secretary of State John Kerry came to deliver the following message: that the protagonists in Egypt’s political crisis – regime and opposition – must agree on a political map aimed at breaking the deadlock and making the concessions needed to reach common ground to advance the current chaotic transitional period.

Looking for ways to improve my English when I first arrived in the US, I chanced upon a book about strong and weak words. It now strikes me how the reporting and writing about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is replete with weak words.

Nobody could have mistaken the horror this 6-year-old girl was experiencing. Nothing more tells of the fear that gripped her than the warm yellow fluid running down her short legs as her knees started to shake. Her heartbeat escalated as the quiver of her little lips began.

Successive events continue to show confusion among political forces on the relation between the state and religion. Shura Council discussions over the past few weeks were eye opening in this regard. The draft law on “Islamic bonds” — submitted by Islamists — was rejected by Al-Azhar (according to Article 4 of the constitution, senior Azhar scholars are consulted on Sharia issues), not because it contradicts Sharia but because it prevents appeals against decisions that are based on it. Also because it gives foreigners ownership rights, which seems more of a political rather than a religious argument. In reaction, civil groups, which fear the interference of religious institutions in governance, welcomed the move.

Successive events continue to show confusion among political forces on the relation between the state and religion. Shura Council discussions over the past few weeks were eye opening in this regard.