a well rounded blog.
by the end of the day, i hope i leave a marc.
Twitter Devolutions
by Marc Lynch
Tahrir Square launched a thousand dissertations on how social media drove the frenetic mobilization of the Arab Spring. Egyptian activists may rage at the notion that the revolution was driven by technology rather than by their determined efforts, but there’s a good case to be made that social media did matter — at least a bit — in shaping the uprisings across the Arab world. But the celebratory narrative about social media needs to be tempered by the reality of the struggles that have befallen most of these countries in transition. Whether or not Twitter made the Arab revolutions, is it now helping to kill them?
Why is the Arab world so easily offended?
by Fouad Ajami
Modernity requires the willingness to be offended. And as anti-American violence across the Middle East and beyond shows, that willingness is something the Arab world, the heartland of Islam, still lacks.
Egypt's Parliament Disbanded: A Coup, or More Regime Bumbling and Chaos?
by Max Fisher
First Mubarak and now his military say they offer a choice between their own stern rule or chaos, but it looks increasingly as if they are the source of the chaos.
There Be Dragons
by Thomas Friedman
“The Arab/Muslim awakening phase is over. Now we are deep into the counter-revolutionary phase, as the dead hands of the past try to strangle the future. I am ready to consider any ideas of how we in the West can help the forces of democracy and decency win. But, ultimately, this is their fight. They have to own it, and I just hope it doesn’t end — as it often does in the land of dragons — with extremists going all the way and the moderates just going away.”
In Crowded Cairo Quarter, Islamists Try to Seize Mantle of Revolution
by Anthony Shadid
CAIRO — In one of Cairo’s most crowded quarters, where streets are so filled with trash that bulldozers scoop it up, the Muslim Brotherhood has opened not one but two offices. Its most conservative counterpart has followed suit. An Islamist do-gooder with forearms as broad as the Nile has vowed to win a seat in Parliament.
Egypt Promises to Address Coptic Christians’ Concerns
by David Kirkpatrick
Egyptian officials announced they would investigate disputes over the construction of churches as hundreds gathered in Cairo to mourn the Coptic Christians killed on Sunday.
good. -marc
What's next for the Arab Spring?
by Marwan Muasher
(CNN) — Moammar Gadhafi’s exit from Libya is a reminder that the Arab awakening will not just fizzle out, despite what some observers are saying. Recently, commentators pointed to the public cheers heard in Egypt as the army pushed protesters out of Tahrir Square as a signal that the uprisings were petering out and the hope of the Arab Spring would soon be lost. The doomsayers were wrong.
The woman who wants to be Egypt’s first female president
(CNN) — During a protest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square a month after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, Bothaina Kamel spotted a slogan supporting womens’ right to be president of Egypt.
She said: “At that moment, I thought we shouldn’t just be saying that, we should be putting it into practice.”
A month later, Kamel announced she was to become Egypt’s first female presidential candidate for elections expected to be held early next year.
Watch a short documentary on Kamel’s efforts to promote transparency through a movement called Shayfeen.
Egypt and Israel: Springtime in Sinai
Israel is worried by extremists on its desert border and political changes in Cairo
Attacks Near Israeli Resort Heighten Tensions With Egypt and Gaza
by Isabel Kershner and David D. Kirkpatrick
JERUSALEM — Armed attackers, described by the authorities as Gazans who had crossed into Israel from Egypt, carried out multiple deadly attacks near the popular Red Sea resort of Eilat on Thursday, prompting a fierce Israeli bombing raid on Gaza and threatening to escalate tensions there.
How Arab youth found its voice
by Ibrahim Mothana
When Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in Tunisia in January, he did not only ignite a series of unpredicted revolts but also heralded the first appearance of Arab youth on the stage of modern history.
A Revolutionary Ramadan
by Foreign Policy
A great slideshow summarizing where the uprisings in the Arab world stand today.
Egyptians See Signs of a Reckoning in Mubarak Trial
by Anthony Shadid
MIT KENANA, Egypt — In this town of unfinished brick buildings, along parcels of corn and rice watered by the Nile, the elation, suspicion and introspection of a country played out along one street a day after residents witnessed the unthinkable: former President Hosni Mubarak put on trial.
Robert Fisk: The Arab world’s dictators cling on, but for how long?
by Robert Fisk
Ever a weathervane of passing fortunes, Walid Jumblatt has begun to make some very pessimistic comments about Syria. Druze leader, head of the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party, “warlord”, he it was who suggested that the international UN tribunal into the 2005 assassination of ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri might be set aside in the interests of “stability before justice”. Howls of rage from Saad Hariri, the ex-premier’s son, currently perambulating around the world to stay out of Lebanon – understandably, because of his own fears of being murdered – while Sister Syria sits silently to the east. Now Jumblatt is saying that some in Syria are impeding reform.
NIGHTNIGHT by DEDDY
