Date of source: Monday, February 20, 2012
Dutch scholar Johannes Jansen contributed an essay – ‘The Religious Roots of Muslim Violence’ – to a 2011 anthology entitled, ‘Terrorism: Ideology, Law, and Policy’. In it he makes the case that violence and terrorism are part and parcel of the Islamic religion, traceable to its root sources at...
Date of source: Saturday, January 21, 2012
Salafi politics has taken Egypt by storm. This has surprised many commentators who underestimated their base of thought and non-political nature. For others, it has been a validation of years of Salafi work in mosques and surrounding communities to preach Islam and help the poor.
As an aid to...
Date of source: Saturday, December 31, 2011
Previously, I have written in Arab-West Report about people who have influenced me, such as former Dutch Consul-General to Saudi Arabia, Daniel van der Meulen (1894–1989), who stimulated my interest in the Arab world and Muslim-Christian relations. Syrian-Orthodox Bishop, Samuel Aktash of the Tur...
Date of source: Sunday, January 1, 2012
[This is a full transcript of an interview made on December 2, 2011]
The results of the first round of the Egyptian elections show that Islamist parties appear to have won by a landslide. The Muslim Brotherhood created the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) that has apparently received 40-45 percent...
Date of source: Friday, April 15, 2011
Text presented for the European-Arab Dialogue Conference at Crete, April 14-16, 2011.
In the past 50 years millions of migrants from southern Mediterranean countries have entered Europe. Of course Europe has witnessed migration gulfs earlier but this one was the first with so many people coming...
Date of source: Saturday, December 10, 2011
News is almost never as it appears. On December 1st I went with investigative researcher and former lieutenant with the Egyptian coastal security Intelligence Rā’id al-Sharqāwī to Tahrīr square. The square is currently blocked for traffic by perhaps 2,000 demonstrators asking people wanting to...
Date of source: Sunday, August 28, 2011
Last Sunday, Pope Shenouda III inaugurated the first Coptic Orthodox Church in Hungary, in Budapest’s eighteenth district. The Pope presided over an evening service ceremony during which he anointed and consecrated the altar and the icons of the church which was named for the Holy Virgin and the...
Date of source: Wednesday, August 17, 2011
A proposed U.S. envoy designated to advocate for the rights of religious minorities in the Middle East is stirring controversy in Egypt, but supporters of the position in Washington say it is not meant to interfere in Egypt’s policies.
Date of source: Sunday, August 7, 2011
What had been planned as a “Friday of unifying the ranks” ended, as unanimously agreed by the Egyptian media, as a “Friday of splitting the ranks”. While the day began with various political groups, including Islamists, converging on Tahrir Square in numbers that came close to a million, it ended...
Date of source: Thursday, July 28, 2011
The first time there was chatter about the establishment of a Coptic state was during the time of late President Anwar al-Sadāt, when the idea of setting up the so-called State of Assiut had first emerged.