Egypt

By Andrew Quinn : Reuters | Washington | 12 Jan 2012

The number two official in the U.S. State Department met with a leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday but chose not to see a more hardline Islamist group that has also fared well in Egypt's first free legislative vote in decades.

By Thomas L. Friedman : The New York Times | Cairo | 10 Jan 2012

With the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and the even more puritanical Salafist Al Nour Party having stunned both themselves and Egyptians by garnering more than 60 percent of the seats in Egypt’s parliamentary elections, we’re about to see a unique lab test for the Middle East: What happens when political Islam has to wrestle with modernity and globalization without oil?

By Lin Noueihed and Tom Pfeiffer : Reuters | Cairo | 10 Jan 2012

Islamists aimed to cement control over Egypt's lower house of parliament as a final phase of voting began on Tuesday, while a secular party's plan to boycott elections for the upper chamber threatened to weaken the liberal bloc.

Banned under Hosni Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as a major winner from the uprising that toppled him, exploiting a well-organised support base in the first free legislative vote in decades.

by Cam McGrath : IPS | Cairo | 05 Jan 2012

Raids on the Cairo offices of civil society organisations accused of receiving unauthorised foreign funds are part of a wider campaign by Egypt’s ruling military council to silence its critics, say rights groups.

"The goal of this campaign is clear to everyone, which is gagging us from exposing the violations and oppressive practices which are still being committed until this moment," the Arab Network for Human Rights (ANHRI) said in a statement.

Source : Al Jazeera | Cairo | 27 Dec 2011

Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas in Gaza, has visited headquarters of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt on his first trip outside the blockaded territory since 2007, when it came to power.

"The Brotherhood centre has always embraced issues of liberation, foremost the Palestinian issue," Mohammed Badie, brotherhood leader, said on Monday after meeting the Hamas leader, according to Egypt's state news agency MENA.

By AP | Cairo | 24 Dec 2011

Islamist parties have consolidated earlier gains in Egypt's multistage parliamentary elections, winning nearly 70 percent of the seats determined so far, according to results announced Saturday.

Election commission chief Abdel-Moez Ibrahim announced results from the second round of three rounds, which was held Dec. 14-15, followed by a run-off this week. The second round was held in nine provinces, and Ibrahim said turnout reached 65 percent.

By Mohamed Fadel Fahmy : CNN | Cairo | 20 Dec 2011

Egyptian security forces wielding batons, firearms and tear gas attacked defiant protesters Tuesday on the fifth consecutive day of clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square, witnesses told CNN.

Sherif Barakat, a businessman, heard machine gun fire early in the morning and saw the unrest from the balcony of his home above Tahrir Square. He saw security forces charge, firing tear gas and beating people with batons.

by Cam McGrath : IPS | Cairo | 18 Dec 2011

Activists across the Middle East are reporting a mysterious toxin, possibly a banned nerve agent, in the thick clouds of tear gas used by security forces to suppress anti-government protests in recent months.

By Ernesto Londoño : The Washington Post / Cairo / 26 Nov 2011

Days after Egyptians drove their longtime president from power in February, Mohammad Tolba ordered a latte at an upscale coffeehouse and waited to see whether his scraggly beard was still radioactive in the new Egypt.

He got a grudging welcome, and that was enough to prod the 32-year-old information technology executive — a conservative Islamist with a look that many associate with extremism — into an effort to bridge a divide that threatens to splinter the Egyptian revolution.

by James V. Grimaldi and Robert O’Harrow Jr. : The Washington Post | Cairo / 21 Oct 2011

Beginning two decades ago, the United States government bankrolled an Egyptian think tank dedicated to economic reform. A different outcome is only now becoming visible in the fallout from Egypt’s Arab Spring.