This is the paper that I have prepared during my second stint as a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution (October 2005-March 2006). It, too, was too whimsical for publication as a Brookings policy paper. So, here it is. Continue reading “Secularists & Islamists – The Promise & the Dread”
Tag: Secularism
Copts, Women & Beer
First posted on my short-lived blog Tharwalizations.
In a conference on civil dialogue that took place a few years ago, participants discussed the possibility of conducting a serious dialogue between Islamists and secularists. I remember that, at the time and in response to an Egyptian colleague who advocated dialogue with the Muslim Brotherhood in his country, we coined the term “Copts, Women and Beer” to reefer to three main issues that one needs to deal with, which are: diversity issues, gender issues and privacy issue. Continue reading “Copts, Women & Beer”
Rallying around a Corpse!
The Syrian journalist Shaaban Abboud is not at all a friend of the ruling Syrian regime, but like many journalists and opposition members these days, he finds himself defending the regime presenting it as the only viable alternative around. Continue reading “Rallying around a Corpse!”
Secularists, Islamists unite against Baathists in Syria
“The secularists and Islamists are talking to each other,” says Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian analyst. “The whole discourse is about organizing ourselves and putting on more pressure.”
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 