AUTHOR'S BIO
Saad Eddin Ibrahim
Saad Eddin Ibrahim is Professor of Political Sociology at the American University in Cairo and Chairman of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies. Dr. Ibrahim gained global attention after he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment at a trial Amnesty International described as politically motivated to punish him for his human rights activism. His conviction was overturned in 2003.
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After the Guns of August
Saad Eddin Ibrahim Series: The World in Words 2006-08-25The Middle East is a place where the dust hardly ever settles. When it occasionally does, even for a short interval – as UN Resolution 1701 for cessation of hostilities in Lebanon seems to be holding – it is time to take stock of events in the hopes that a responsible debate may influence those in power. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 17448
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The Domestic Wars of Hosni Mubarak
Saad Eddin Ibrahim Series: Into Africa 2006-06-01The decision by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s government to try two senior judges for blowing the whistle on vote rigging in last autumn’s parliamentary elections has rocked the country. Massive crowds have gathered to support the judges – and have caught Mubarak’s regime completely unaware. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 34758
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Engaging the Islamists
Saad Eddin Ibrahim Series: Islam 2006-02-07The massive victory of Hamas in the Palestinian parliamentary elections stunned much of the world, but the outcome should not have been so surprising. Indeed, Hamas’s moment of triumph is part of a growing regional pattern. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 37533
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Historic Election in Egypt?
Saad Eddin Ibrahim Series: The World in Words 2005-09-03Egyptians go to the polls on September 7th to elect a president from among ten contenders, including the incumbent of 24 years, Hosni Mubarak. While few doubt the outcome will be his re-election, many are intensely following the process. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 23621
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The Middle East’s Springtime of Democracy
Saad Eddin Ibrahim Series: The World in Words 2005-05-19Election results around the Middle East mark a new trend: Islamist political parties – those that base their platforms on Islamic law – are highly popular. Where elections are held, Islamists do well: Hamas among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza; the religiously-oriented Shi’ite coalition in Iraq; a parliamentary faction in Morocco and, most significantly, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 23412
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Democracy on the Nile?
Saad Eddin Ibrahim Series: The World in Words 2005-02-28The surprise decision by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to propose a constitutional amendment that would allow direct and competitive presidential elections may be a giant step for democracy in Egypt and the Arab World. Westerners used to pluralistic democracy may find it hard to understand what a potentially huge shift this will be in a country accustomed to military rule for over 50 years. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 23830
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Saudi Arabia’s Democratic Baby Step
Saad Eddin Ibrahim Series: The World in Words 2005-01-12This month’s elections in Iraq and for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority may be claiming all the world’s headlines, but another potentially far-reaching ballot is also underway, albeit to far less acclaim: the registration process for the municipal elections in Saudi Arabia in mid-February. As the heartland of some of the strongest Islamist forces anywhere, this Saudi effort – if successful and a harbinger of other needed changes – may have an even more profound impact than the elections in Iraq and Palestine. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 27844
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Arafat’s Last Hurrrah
Saad Eddin Ibrahim Series: The World in Words 2004-11-12In his protracted moment of death, Yasir Arafat performed his last act of duty to the Palestinian cause to which he devoted his entire life. Everything about the man was, indeed, protracted. He carried out a protracted war of national liberation. He withstood a series of protracted sieges – in Amman (1970), Beirut (1982), and in Ramallah (2002-2004). Arafat’s leadership was the most protracted among his counterparts in the Arab World, as he outlived three Egyptian Presidents (Naguib, Nasser, Sadat and spanned all of Mubarak’s quarter of a century), five Lebanese Presidents, three Iraqis, five Algerians, three Syrians, three Saudi Monarchs, and two in Morocco, not to mention other world leaders, from Eisenhower to Bush in the US, from de Gaulle to Chirac in France, and from Maó to three successors in China. Probably no other political figure alive today met and endured as many world leaders as Arafat. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 21158
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Egypt Needs a President, Not a Pharaoh
Saad Eddin Ibrahim Series: Islam 2004-10-20Egypt is undergoing a heated nationwide debate over political reform. The central issue is a demand by all opposition parties and civil society groups to amend the 1971 constitution and abolish the 23-year-old State of Emergency that was imposed following Anwar Sadat's assassination in 1981. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 23259
