By Barry Rubin

Egyptian President Husni Mubarak is 80. After over a quarter-century in office he is ready for more. But how much longer will his rule–or regime–continue?

And under him, Egypt has not done so badly, or has it?

Well that depends. He has kept Egypt stable and out of war, no mean feat, and even delivered a bit of economic development, though recently there have been bread riots. But there has been no big improvement.

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by Daniel Pipes*

“Listen to me carefully,” President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt instructed an interviewer on Jan. 30. “Gaza is not part of Egypt, nor will it ever be …. I hear talk of a proposal to turn the Strip into an extension of the Sinai peninsula, of offloading responsibility for it onto Egypt” but Mubarak dismissed this as “nothing but a dream.”

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By Barry Rubin

If you want to understand the Middle East’s path over the last decade and why the area is stagnating at best or entering an era of radical Islamist upheaval at worst, consider the tale of Egypt’s Kifaya movement. This is the kind of thing Western politicians, officials, academics, and journalists must comprehend to know how things really work.

There are two bad ideas at the core of misunderstanding the Middle East. First, when people try to graft Western history onto the region to think the advance of progress unstoppable; second, accepting radical Arab nationalist and Islamist doctrine that everything wrong is the fault of the West and Israel. Put them together and what do you get: The progress expected doesn’t happen due to bad Western policy and Israel’s existence.

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By Adel Guindy

The following article discusses the impact of the Egyptian Family Status Law of 1955 (which is still in effect) on the country’s Coptic population. It provides a concise overview of these laws, especially in light of the dearth of resources in English on the topic. While the Family Status Law is considered part of the "civil" code of law, it still has religious elements, referring to the Shari’a as a basis for Muslims, and to the corresponding religious principles or regulations for each of the non-Muslim communities. However, due to the general constitutional stipulation "Islam is the religion of State and principles of Shari’a are the main source of legislation," courts quite often ignore the law and rule based on Shari’a. Thus the situation is a reflection of the difficulties of being a non-Muslim minority in an "Islamic" country and society.

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by Jeffrey Azarva*

On November 6, 2006, Egyptian security forces in Alexandria arrested 22-year-old Abdul Karim Nabil Sulayman, better known by his pen name Karim Amir, for posting articles critical of the state and Islam on a personal blog. His arrest occurred the same day Reporters without Borders added Egypt to its “worst suppressors of Internet expression” list.[1]

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