Egypt's Military Rulers Retreat on NGO Crackdown After US Intervention: Reports

Field Marshal Tantawi has reportedly told US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that NGOs recently raided would be allowed to operate as before. Egypt’s military rulers have pledged to allow NGOs recently raided by security forces to reopen and operate after the US voiced disgruntlement over a security crackdown on 17 NGOs, according to The New York Times.   Speaking to anonymous US officials, the Times reported that Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling Supreme Council of the ...

The Most Bizarre Egyptian Quotes of 2011

A prime minister admits getting killed; a salafist compares bikinis on the beach to the brakes on a car; an ex-general in the army wants protesters to fry in Hitler's ovens; a Mubarak-lover actress prefers pizza to revolution ... People of Priorities “I’m quite fanatic about my scotch in the evening, so I don’t like anybody telling me that I can’t drink.” Not possible economic reforms or bank restrictions, but alcohol was the first thing to cross the mind of Coptic telecommunications tycoon Naguib ...

War on Iran

Copts Protest Church's Christmas Invitation to SCAF and Islamists

Dissent erupts among Coptic activists enraged over the Church inviting the military council and Salafist leaders to Christmas celebrations. Tens of Coptic activists staged a demonstration inside the Coptic Cathedral, the main Coptic Church, on Thursday. The protesters who included members of Coptic activism group Coalition of Maspero Youth was protesting the Church’s invitation to the ruling military council as well as Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists figures to attend Christian celebrations on the 6 ...

Human Rights Organizations Condemn Mass Raids of NGOs in Egypt

Twenty-seven human rights organizations describe raid of seventeen NGOs by public prosecution office, police and military personnel as an 'unprecedented campaign' against political activists and rights entities. In a press conference held at the premises of Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) on Thursday, twenty-seven human rights organizations denounced the raids earlier in the day of the Cairo offices of 17 non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The raids were carried out on Thursday ...

My Lonely and Beautiful Country: Recent Work on the Cinema of Turkey (Part Two)

Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Turkish Cinema: Identity, Distance, and Belonging. London: Reaktion Books and Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. Asuman Suner, New Turkish Cinema: Belonging, Identity, and Memory. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2010. Deniz Bayrakdar, Aslı Kotaman, and Ahu Samav Uğursoy, editors, Cinema and Politics: Turkish Cinema and the New Europe. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009. [Part One of this review essay, which considers Gönül Dönmez-Colin's Turkish ...

Field Marshal Tantawi Orders Military Prosecutors to Investigate 'Brutality'

Amid accusations of human rights violations, Egypt's de facto ruler directs army to look into "media allegations"; calls upon citizens to report any incidents to military prosecutors. Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), has ordered the military prosecution to investigate what he describes as “media allegations.” The allegations relate to the use of extreme violence by military and police forces during the recent clashes in Tahrir Square in the ...

Court Acquits Officers Accused of Killing Revolution Protesters

Officers found inncoent - they were charged with killing protesters in front of the Sayeda Zeinab Police Station during the eighteen-day uprising against ousted president Mubarak.  Four police officers and one non-commissioned police officer accused of killing protesters in Sayeda Zeinab have been acquitted by the Cairo Criminal Court on Thursday. The officers were facing charges of killing five protesters and intending to kill another six protesters. The incidents in question took place in front ...

"We Insist on Hearing Anan's Testimony," Says Lawyer Ashour

Lawyer for injured and martyrs will pressure court to hear key testimony of Sami Anan, the ruling military council's number two. One of the lawyers representing the injured and families of martyrs in Egypt’s revolution said that he would insist upon the court hearing the testimony of the Egyptian military's Chief-of-Staff Sami Anan in the trial of ousted president Hosni Mubarak. But the court has yet to ask Anan to appear, said the lawyer, Sami Ashour. Anan is considered one of the most vital ...

Book Review: Stories of the Streets Around Tahrir Square

Egyptian Days continues excavating the history of downtown with an issue about the streets surrounding Tahrir, where battles continue to take place.  Selselet Ayam Masreya (Egyptian Days series) edited by Mohamed Kamaly, Cairo: Ayam Masreya, 2011. pp. 66. The new issue of the Egyptian Days series chose the streets of Tahrir Square as its theme. Indeed, it is the theme around which many events are taking place: political movements, angry youth, and masses refusing the policies of the Supreme ...