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.

Late President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Minister of Industry Aziz Sedky had opened a new Steel Rolling Plant two days before celebrating Workers Day in 1969. The plant became a part of the Iron and Steel Complex and the first of its kind in the Middle East.

I have carefully read the draft constitution and I call on people to vote for it although I have some reservations. The preamble looks more like political charters than a national constitution as it states selective historical narratives more than the priorities and requirements of the current period. A preamble of a constitution should not include names of specific historical leaders and not to mention the wording which seems journalistic rather than legal. The committee should have consulted non-member legal specialists in the matter.

Halal (permitted by Islam) and haram (forbidden by Islam) are distinct in accordance to Islamic Sharia laws and jurists’ provisions; that is what we know and what the preachers informed us from the pulpits during Friday prayers.

Egypt is just weeks ahead of the referendum on the newly amended constitution after Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawy assured that the referendum would take place during the second half of January.

There is no better place to begin than to go back to the 1940s — in fact 1945 and 1948 when Washington lay down the strategic foundations for its presence and interests in the Arab world through unique special relations with two countries: Saudi Arabia and Israel. Today, these two special relationships continue to control the thought process of any US president on Middle East issues. The issue of Egypt is no exception.

Political powers in Egypt exchange their seats, despite their differences, and they use the same method to deal with constitution referendums, convincing people to vote “yes,” no matter the content of the constitution.

I may have personal remarks on the protest law, but fortunately I am not an official in the current ministry. That is why it astonishes me when an official in the government, whether a deputy Prime Minister or a minister, objects the issuance of the protest law.

Religion was not an issue at the start of Arab Spring revolutions three years ago. Islamist groups and parties were not key instigators of these revolutions, but one of several forces that benefited from the overthrow of corrupt and oppressive regimes. Nonetheless, the struggle over religion was a decisive factor in the dynamics of political transformation that accompanied efforts to form new political systems in the Middle East.

Are train accidents a normal thing, that when you hear the news you apathetically continue with whatever you were doing? Do assassinations and murders on the streets leave you unsurprised and unfazed? Do the wails and screams of mothers over their murdered children not affect your feelings?

This article is neither in solidarity with nor against satirical star Bassem Youssef or his famous show "El-Bernameg." It is rather about the suspending of the show as part and parcel of the efforts of the interim government to restrict freedoms during the current interim phase.

Since the start of Mohamed Morsi's trial on 4 November, the question arises of the strategy to be followed by the Muslim Brotherhood. This question arose in reality since his removal as president on 3 July.

When I read statements by Russia’s foreign minister about the visit by himself and Russia’s defence minister to Cairo in preparation for a higher-level visit, I recalled the events of 30 June. Egyptian citizens in several squares raised pictures of presidents Abdel-Nasser, Sadat, and Russian President Putin alongside General Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.