Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

French specialist on Islamist movements Olivier Roy has a very interesting op-ed in the FT, reproduced below.Hizbollah has redrawn the Middle EastPublished: August 17 2006 20:29 | Last updated: August 18 2006 01:49The perceived victory of Hizbollah in Lebanon may be short term but has highlighted some new and important developments. For the first time, [...]

Leftist lawyer and friend Gamal Eid has issued a statement today calling for the release of Dr. Essam el-Erian, Dr. Mohamed Morsi, and the other Muslim Brotherhood detainees.

This is what is being said in the more cooky corners of the internet:JERUSALEM – Egypt has arrested a leader of a major domestic opposition group who allegedly confessed to plotting the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, an Egyptian official told the Galil Report.The suspect, identified as Abed al-Munemhem Abu al-Futuh of the Egyptian Muslim [...]

I bumped tonight into an Islamist lawyer I know who is a former member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. We chatted about several issues including Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri’s latest video, current political situation, and more importantly (for me) the issue of Islamist political detainees–those terror suspects who’ve been languishing in Egypt’s Gulags since the 1990s [...]

I thought Arabist readers would be interested in reading a translation of Hassan Nasrallah’s recent “victory speech.” It’s reproduced below (from BBC Monitoring). I found the passage about where he condemned some of the statements of parts of the political elite particularly interesting: they express both a great deal of anger at unnamed politicians (Jumblatt [...]

I’ve just received an SMS from a journalist friend saying “Egyptian court has struck down release order for Essam Erian and Morsi. They will be detained for another 15 days.”This is just sad… really sad…

Finally Dr. Essam el-Erian is to be released, after he was detained during the pro-democracy demos last May.Dr. Essam is someone I and many other secularists have so much appreciation for. He is a respectable citizen and a principled politician who should not have been taken away from his family and work, for demonstrating in [...]

My friend Ahmad al-Khateeb of Al-Masri Al-Youm had a long interview with Dr. Nageh Ibrahim, member of the Gamaa Islamiya’s Shoura Council, and one of the militant group’s historical leaders. Unfortunately I have little time to translate it, but if you can read Arabic, please check it out. Today’s interview will be the first in [...]

UPI has an update on the merger between Al Qaeda and the Egyptian Gamaa Islamiya announced by Ayman Zawahri a few days ago. Having now been denied by several former Gamaa leader — including repentant leaders Karam Zohdy and Nagueh Ibrahim in Egypt — it looks like Zawahri’s statement was either a fake or he [...]

Ayman Al Zawahri just showed up on Al Jazeera with a tape saying that several members of the Egyptian Gamaa Islamiya had now joined Al Qaeda. Here’s an initial wire report:AP 05.08.06 | 22h14Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader announced in a new videotape aired Saturday that an Egyptian militant group has joined the terror network. The [...]

Brave talk from the head of the Muslim Brotherhood:“I am ready to send immediately 10,000 mujahedeen to fight the Zionists alongside Hezbollah,” Mohammed Mehdi Akef told AFP.He admitted though that the chances were more than slim that any volunteers from Egypt would ever reach Lebanon.“There are enough people but you would need Arab regimes to [...]

Read this MERIP piece for a background on Hizbullah, which shows the following: there is no distinct “Hizbullah” before 1985, it is not clear what Hizbullah’s responsibility with the 1982 Marine barracks bombing is, and it cannot honestly be called a terrorist group like Al Qaeda.

According to an IslamOnline article:CAIRO — Egypt’s Copts have hailed the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah and its chief Hassan Nasrallah as a source of pride to Muslims and the Arab world, and launched a fund-raising campaign to help the Lebanese people in their current trial.“All Arabs must be proud of Hizbullah’s gallantry,” Bishop Rafiq Gris, [...]

As with every single posting Baheyya writes, this is a must read…

As with every single posting Baheyya writes, this is a must read…

Does anyone know whether this has any credibility?A senior member of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Iraqi Shi’ite militia, the Mahdi Army, says the group is forming a squadron of up to 1,500 elite fighters to go to Lebanon. The plan reflects the potential of the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah to strengthen radical elements [...]

Not that you didn’t know it already, but Jihadists are crazy. Apparently they think Hizbullah is faking this war with Israel to lure Sunnis to the Shia heresy.

Leftist blogger 3alaa Seif sent a message to the Muslim Brothers youth, that Ikhwan Web ran today.Please read…

William wrote a good article in today’s Financial Times on the Arab regimes’ impotence, the Sunni-Shiite divide in the region, and how the (Sunni) Islamists’ solidarity with the Lebanese Shiite group is boosting their influence.Arab regimes fear Islamists’ political dividendBy William Wallis in CairoJuly 21 2006For Islamist groups beyond the immediate reach of Israeli firepower, [...]

Photographer and friend Nasser Nouri sent me pix of a pro-Gaza protest, held by Muslim Brotherhood students at Cairo University last Monday. The students organized a “surprise demo” that took place from 1 to 2pm. Security showed up quickly and surrounded the protestors, but did not crackdown.I’ve put up a slideshow of the demo pix [...]

Earlier today I put a post that a very critical of Hizbullah — too critical, I thought after some well thought-out comments from friends — and I decided to pull it down.I find the current frustration incredibly frustrating, partly because of the never-ending despair of the situation in Palestine, but also because of a fundamental [...]

Remember the leaked British Foreign Office memos about discussions between London and the embassy in Cairo on approaching the Muslim Brotherhood? Well, it seems there’s a lot more where that came from.The panda-eyed Observer columnist Nick Cohen — a Hitchens-like leftist turned Defender of the Western Enlightenment, the Books of George Orwell and Secular Humanism [...]

The debate around the identity of Zarqawi’s successor is getting really “Kafkaesque” as Arabist reader SP described to me in an email exchange.Now Islamist lawyer, and former Egyptian Islamic Jihad activist, Mamdouh Ismail is saying Abu Ayub al-Masri, Zarqawi’s alleged successor, actually is and has been in an Egyptian prison for the past seven years.This [...]

The Muslim Brotherhood’s official English website reported that State Security prosecutor ordered the release of 98 Muslim Brothers detainees. The detainees, however refused to pay the LE200 bail “set by the Prosecution to be paid by each detainees before being released, (MB lawyer 3abdel Mon3eim) Abdel Maqsoud deplored this attitude on the part of the [...]

Sorry for the lack of formatting in the article below and the absence of a link (I got it from a newsfeed), but I thought this could be a notable development in Iraq:Shiite militant group announces Iraq debut, pledges to fight US and UK forces, but not Iraqi onesAP 02.07.06 | 22h38A self-styled Shiite Muslim [...]

I received the full list of Muslim Brothers detainees, from Mr. El-Sa3id Ramadan of Ikhwan Web.com.The list, put together by the group’s lawyer Mr. 3abdel Mon3eim 3abdel Maqsoud, is available in Arabic, and includes the names of 725 detainees. The majority were stopped at pro-democracy demos. Other cases are included like the Alexandria Commercial [...]

I came across an interesting article on Marxism and Terrorism. I recommend reading all of it, but if you don’t have time, then scroll down to the section on “Today’s Islamist terrorists.”Here are excerpts from that section: The vast majority of Bin Laden’s public statements provide secular, not religious, rationales for 9/11. The principal purpose [...]

Al-Jazeera reported 10,000 took part in a Muslim Brothers-led demo at Al-Azhar Mosque today, denouncing the Israeli military operations in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. Dr. Mohamed Habib, the Supreme Guide’s deputy, spoke to protestors denouncing US support for Israel.

The Muslim Brothers’ website ran a feature on torture in Egypt, which included allegations that “torture machines” are imported from Western countries.

I came across an interesting article on Al-Qa3da’s As-Sahab media productions. We can never know for sure if the interviewed cameraman indeed met Dr. Ayman el-Zawahiri, as he alleges. After all, you would think those guys are under constant monitoring, by Pakistani and US intelligence services, and Zawahiri’s hideout could have been found a long [...]