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Date of source: 31 Dec 2005
On March 3, 2004, the Muslim Brotherhood launched an initiative concerning internal reforms in Egypt, stating that the reforms made by previous governments have been small and slow.
According to several observers, even though ‘Ākif who announced this initiative belongs to the old guard, his...
Date of source: 28 Dec 2005
Ten years ago, a court ruling separated Egyptian intellectual and Cairo University lecturer, Dr. Nasr Hāmid Abu Zayd from his wife, Dr. Ibtihāl Younus, on the grounds that he was an apostate. Following a number of death threats, Dr. Abu Zayd and his wife had to leave their home and teaching posts...
Date of source: 29 Dec 2005
Dr. Nabīl Louqā Bibāwī welcomes President Mubārak’s decision to reform the Hamayouni Decree, an Ottoman law dating back to 1856 which required the approval of the head of state for the construction and renovation of churches.
Adopting the slogan “Religion is for God and the homeland is for all”, Dr...
Date of source: 30 Dec 2005
The U.S. Embassy in Cairo [http://egypt.usembassy.gov/] has denied rumours published on an internet website, al-Misrīyoun [Reviewer: No link found], that it has been under pressure to dismiss 20 Muslim employees working at the embassy.
An informed source has revealed that the embassy has no...
Date of source: 30 Dec 2005
The Grand Imām of the Azhar, Shaykh Muhammad Sayyid Tantāwī has recently met with a delegation of U.S. Copts, which included four Copts and a Muslim woman [Editor: The inclusion of a Muslim could be explained as a gesture towards the shaykh of the Azhar, since the declaration was headed byMājid...
Date of source: 30 Dec 2005
Abiding by President Mubārak’s decision on the restoration of churches, [See AWR 2005, 50, art. 14 and AWR 2005, 51, arts. 17 - 18] the governor of al-Qalyoubīya, Judge ‘Adlī Husayn has recently ordered that all requests for the renovation of churches be referred to the Legal Affairs Committee of...
Date of source: 31 Dec 2006
In an interview given to the Egyptian English-language publication Al-Ahram Weekly [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/748/profile.htm], Coptic researcher and co-founder of the Coptic Center for Social Studies Samīr Marqus commented on the question of whether Copts are persecuted in contemporary Egypt...
Date of source: 31 Dec 2005
[Dr. Wolfram Reiss teaches at the University of Rostock, Germany].
This report is based on the experiences of a German research project on school textbooks in several countries in the Middle East. It presents a summary of a broader evaluation of obstacles and opportunities, which was part of my Ph....
Date of source: 28 Dec 2005
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hamās leader Khālid Mash‘al courted controversy when they publicly denied the Nazi genocide against the Jews.
The Iranian president provoked worldwide anger when he described the Holocaust as a "myth," promoted to defend Israel. As a result, Ahmadinejad’s...
Date of source: 28 Dec 2005
During the first half of the twentieth century, Jews suffered from brutal persecution and oppression in Europe. At that time, Jews in Egypt assumed high positions in the Egyptian state. Among them were politicians, movie stars and businessmen.
‘Abd al-Hamīdwrites that the 1950 Arab League...
Date of source: 28 Dec 2005
Apart from the Jews, the Nazis persecuted many groups, including gays, gypsies and people with disabilities. During these mass killings, about six million Polish citizens, half of whom were Jewish, were killed.
During Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, ‘Abd al-Hamīd writes...
Date of source: 28 Dec 2005
Ihāb ‘Abd al-Hamīd examines the etymology of the word “Holocaust,” stating that the word derives from the Greek word holokauston, meaning a burnt sacrifice offered to God. ‘Abd al-Hamīd argues that other words are used to describe the Nazi massacres but “Holocaust” is the most common term used. He...
Date of source: 31 Dec 2005
[Editor: To read the full English translation of L’Express’s article, check out the following link: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://atheisme.free...
On the occasion of Christmas and New Year, the French magazine L’Express has published a controversial article...
Date of source: 31 Dec 2005
[Janique Blattmann: For AWR 2005, week 53, we are completing the publication of articles concerning the year 2005 and we found this text that we had received from the author highly relevant. The author of this article is an American Christian serving in Egypt for three years through the Mennonite...
Date of source: 26 Mar 2007
Downtown Cairo is experiencing another episode of Christian extremism that aims to renew sectarian strife between Muslims and Christians.The author was walking through al-Tahrīr Square, three days ago, when a bearded man stopped him, and gave him a CD entitled, ’The Dream Wake Me Up – Volume One.’...
Date of source: 28 Dec 2005
This year, the Evangelical Church celebrates 150 years of ministry in Egypt [See AWR 2005, 47, art. 44]. Diana al-Dabc writes that since the church was first established in Egypt, it has become part and parcel of Egyptian society.
The head of the Evangelical Church in Egypt [Editor: This is a...
Date of source: 28 Dec 2005
Dr. Nabīl Louqā Bibāwī argues that article 5 of the Egyptian constitution permits political, and not religious, plurality. [Reviewer: Article 5 of the Egyptian constitution reads: "The political system of the Arab Republic of Egypt is a multiparty one, within the framework of the basic elements and...
Date of source: 30 Dec 2005
The writer is extremely pessimistic about the future of Egypt. He laments the current situation in today’s society, where corruption and nepotism are rampant.
Tharwat al-Kharbāwī writes that the unprecedented level of corruption in Egypt has pushed millions of Egyptians below the poverty line. He...
Date of source: 16 Mar 2006
The American Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has joined the campaign denouncing the cartoons that insulted the Prophet Muhammad.Jewish Times newspaper, an offshoot of the ADL, wrote in an editorial that the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten’s publication of those cartoons, in a very naïve...
Date of source: 15 Mar 2006
‘Abd al-Mun‘im Sa‘īd [Reviewer: Sa‘īd is the head of the al-Ahrām Center for Political and Strategic Studies] says in an editorial in Al-Sharq-Awsat dated March 15, 2006 that he has been following up exchanged rebukes between [Muslim Dā‘īya] ‘Amr Khālid and his group on one hand and Shaykh Yousuf...
Date of source: 15 Mar 2006
The parliament in Kuwait has declared a law that prevents the arrest of journalists in publishing-related cases, but in Egypt, though the government has promised to declare a law of freedom, journalists are still arrested in publishing-related cases.Ibrāhīm Mansour states that it is strange that...
Date of source: 15 Mar 2006
Twelve years ago, Fātima, an American, became a Muslim. She states that she found Islam a religion of mercy, equality and tolerance and since then, she has become an ambassador to the world. She decided to come to Egypt because she believes it is land of peace.Her father is from Morocco, her mother...
Date of source: 17 Mar 2006
Wahīd Sha‘bān discusses the important problem of Christians who convert to Islam and then change their minds and want to return back to Christianity.There have been more than 250 lawsuits before the Egyptian judicial system in the last couple of weeks, whereby people wishing to return to...
Date of source: 19 Mar 2006
Father Hananya al-Mahruki, the head of Dār al-‘Adhra [The Virgin Monastery] refused to remove the huge iron crosses he built on the top of the western mountain near Asyout.It was proved that he had built huge metal crosses on the state’s property about two kilometers from the monastery.Hananya...
Date of source: 19 Mar 2006
Three weeks ago, Dr. Wafa Sultan was a largely unknown Syrian-American psychiatrist living outside Los Angeles, nursing a deep anger and despair about her fellow Muslims.Today, thanks to an unusually blunt and provocative interview on Al Jazeera television on Feb. 21, she is an international...
Date of source: 18 Mar 2006
Bahrain hosted an Islamic conference on March 22-23, 2006 with aim of defending the Prophet Muhammad. The conference was attended by several scholars including Shaykh Yousuf al-Qaradāwī and Dr. Salmān Bin Fahd al-‘Uda.Preparations for the meeting started in January under the auspices of five...
Date of source: 18 Mar 2006 to 24 Mar 2006
Three weeks ago Wafā’ Sultān was just an unknown psychiatrist living outside Los Angeles until she appeared on Al-Jazeera news channel and expressed her controversial opinions about Islam, according to author Dālyā Hilāl.It is understood that Sultān has supporters from the West, just like other...
Date of source: 21 Mar 2006
The author says that what concerns the Arabs and Muslims about improving their image is confronting the ways of shaping public opinion in the West, such as the business of public relations and mind manipulation.There are attempts on the part of some Arabs to keep on and on using certain misleading...
Date of source: 18 Mar 2006 to 24 Mar 2006
Impostors who feign extraordinary psychic powers to heal patients are now using the Internet, web cams, and visa cards to accept payment for their services, writes author ‘Isām ‘Abd al-Jawwād.One of these psychics is called Shaykh Muhammad, who lives in an alley in Nāhyā street, in the downtown...
Date of source: 15 Mar 2006
An Indonesian woman has read Qur’ānic verses at the opening of an international conference at the Azhar University, causing controversy among participants, both male and female.The dean of the Faculty of Islamic Studies at the Azhar University, Dr. Su‘ād Salīh said that she asked the Shaykh of the...
Date of source: 18 Mar 2006
Grand Imām of the Azhar Shaykh Muhammad Sayyid Tantāwī attacked the new draft law on personal status on the grounds that it runs counter to the sharī‘a, particularly in matters pertaining to the family, marriage and gender equality.Islamtoday.com quoted Tantāwī in a conference on Muslim women’s...
Date of source: 21 Mar 2006
Several scholars of the Azhar University opposed granting an honorary doctorate to Prince Charles during his last visit to Egypt on the grounds that he has not offered Islam and Muslims anything to warrant such an honor.Nothing is known about Prince Charles except his famous phrase that Islam is...
Date of source: 21 Mar 2006
Husām Tammām investigates the phenomenon of new preachers and Sufism in Sudan portraying their rites and what he calls “Modern Sufism.”Tammām says that the past few years witnessed the appearance of new preachers, first in Egypt and then in other Arab countries.Shaykh al-Amin ‘Umar al-Amin is one...
Date of source: 16 Mar 2006
A huge number of ‘ulama’ and thinkers of Islam have urged Iraqi Muslims, Sunnis and Shi’ites, to forget their confessional conflicts and eliminate all sectarian strife that is destroying Iraqi national unity.Islamic da‘īya Dr. Yousuf al-Qaradāwī says that dialogue is extremely important for Muslims...
Date of source: 16 Mar 2006
The Muslim Brotherhood have been accumulating funds since the 1960s when the group was confronted by late Egyptian president Jamāl ‘Abd al-Nāsir.Many of the group’s members left Egypt during this period, and emigrated to the Gulf where their investments grew enormously. When ‘Abd al-Nāsir’s...
Date of source: 17 Mar 2006
‘Imād Taha draws a comparison between nationalism and belief, asserting that the first should be considered a common base for a normal community, whereby all citizens are equal regardless of their sects, or races.He argues that the Muslim Brotherhood has rejected nationalism and accuses the group...
Date of source: 17 Mar 2006
The author says that the twisted theories adopted by the Muslim Brotherhood have resulted in several terrorist operations perpetrated by the outlawed group, namely during the time of founder and first supreme guide Hasan al-Bannā.The author, who introduced himself at the end of the article as...
Date of source: 18 Mar 2006
Commenting on the closure of the headquarters of a company owned by ‘Abd al-Hamīd Mashālī, a top leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the arrest of Mashālī and 26 other members of the group for allegedly holding secret meetings, and the closure of the offices of some of the Brotherhood’s lawyers,...
Date of source: 18 Mar 2006 to 24 Mar 2006
Talāl al-Ansārī was the second defendant in the first terrorist organization that emerged in Egypt during the 1970s, known widely in the Egyptian mass media as the Tanzīm al-Fanīyya al-‘Askarīya [The Armed Forces Technical College Organization].
Al-Ansārī had been sentenced to death by hanging...
Date of source: 13 Mar 2006
Majdī Khalīl received an email message concerning Dr. Sālim Ahmad Sālim who is a Muslim professor of pediatrics at al-Minia University school of medicine. Recently, Dr. Sālim resigned from his position at the university because a Coptic student was mistreated. The author believes that Dr. Sālim’s...
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Emerging Perspectives on Intercultural and Interreligious Relations
Dialogue Across Borders is a database of summary translations of Arabic newspaper articles with references to their sources about intercultural and interreligious relations, focusing primarily but not exclusively on Muslim-Christian relations. The database also contains articles with editorial analysis and interviews on the subject.