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.

The 50-member constitutional committee is done with identifying all the sections of the constitution , and the total number of its 241 atricles.

Rise Up, Egypt’s first major entrepreneurial summit held in Cairo on November 24- 25 was a resounding success. It brought together many different and important players from the entrepreneurial ecosystem: investors, accelerators, corporates, civil actors and entrepreneurs. Between the panels, talks, workshops, hackathons, makeathons, and ideathons, it was hard not to be inspired or to walk away without better ideas and connections. Entrepreneurs are changing Egypt for the better.

I spent a few months this year studying how the US foreign policy machine has been responding to the avalanche of developments in the Middle East since December 2010 when the ostensibly stable region erupted into turmoil that brought its peoples to the streets in an upheaval that has not ended yet. Through written material, documents and interviews in Washington DC and New York, these articles are an attempt to piece together how US foreign policy was formulated and why in this period.

The Cairo elite are making noises today to spotlight the issue of illiteracy and its link to citizens exercising their political rights. Some have said they do not object to the idea and in fact demand that illiterates should not be allowed to vote. Tweets by writer Alaa Al-Aswany and earlier press statements by Mohamed ElBaradei have said as much. More recently, several judges have joined this campaign, which not only wants to block illiterates but even suggests limiting voting to those with at least a middle education. They argue that people voting for their parliamentary or presidential representative should have a certain level of awareness and culture.