Arab-West Report hosted a Dutch SG-Party delegation.

In December 2012 we received a delegation from the Dutch, conservative Christian SG Party. Together with them we had interesting meetings with a host of political and religious leaders in Egypt.

We met with Assistant President Emad Abdel Ghafour, then the head of the Salafi Nour Party (leading the new Watan Party as of January 1), Freedom and Justice Party spokesperson, Waleed el-Haddad, as well as liberal and Christian leaders.  Discussions then focused to a large extent on the new constitution.

Reports on these meetings awaited approval for some time and will now only appear in Arab-West Report. The reports are highly interesting because they represent the views of the various political actors in Egypt very well.

We are presenting here the agenda of the SG delegation and in this text links are made to the report of the various meetings we have had.

The visit of the Egyptian multi-party delegation to the Netherlands and this visit of a Dutch delegation to Egypt show that Arab-West Report is able to present the delegations with a highly interesting program.  In such a case we always ask for permission to make reports of meetings and present them to a wider audience through AWR.  Providing well-written reports of meetings informs a wider public on the positions of the different actors. We of course hope that will help to facilitate a better understanding between peoples of different political and religious convictions.

We are too often primarily influenced by media reporting, which tends to provide a selection of what was said and, unfortunately, is not always accurate. In-depth transcriptions of important meetings will provide more background and context. Of course above all it is always preferable to meet people in person.

Prior to and during the referendum on the Constitution last December there were clashes.

Today it is quiet in Cairo. All parties are preparing for the coming parliamentary elections. It is feared, though, that these may be spoiled again by clashes.

In the next newsletter we hope to present some interesting interviews with Salafis conducted by Jayson Casper.

We unfortunately could not renew the contract with CIDT Managing Director Hany Labib starting January 1 and we will soon be advertising for an office manager. 

Sincerely,

Cornelis Hulsman,

Editor-in-chief of Arab-West Report