Egypt

Exploring Cairo: Beit El-Umma offers glimpses of Saad Zaghloul's life

Ahram Online. This is a great feature. To view the rest of the article, see Exploring Cairo: Beit El-Umma offers glimpses of Saad Zaghloul's  life

Ahram Online tours Saad Zaghloul's official residence, now a museum, in downtown Cairo

A huge statue for Saad Zaghloul placed at the entrance of the museum (Photo: Ayman Hafez)

Beit El-Umma, or The House of the People, was built as a residence for the nationalist leader and founder of the Wafd party, Saad Zaghloul (1857-1927).

Zaghloul’s exile sparked the events that led to the Egyptian revolution of 1919.  

Ahram Online takes a tour of his home, which has been turned into a museum that narrates a very important era in Egypt`s history.  

The museum is located near downtown, beside Qasr El-Aini Street, close to Saad Zaghloul metro station.

A large statue of Zaghloul stands beside a small green area at the entrance to the museum.

The first hall, named the Small Salon, where Mrs Safia Zaghloul received her guests, is furnished with expensive carpets and furniture. The wall is adorned with family photos of Moustafa Fahmy Pasha – Zaghloul's father-in-law – Safia, and her mother.

 

The Grand Salon is dedicated to Saad Zaghloul’s guests, especially political figures and key members of the Wafd party.

A small salon where Mrs Safia Zaghloul received her guests (Photo: Ayman Hafez)

 

The Grand Salon leads into the grand hall, which witnessed the meetings of different delegations from the Egyptian people. The room contains small statues, and newspapers and magazines that were read by Zaghloul.

ceremonial costumes for Saad Zaghloul. (Photo: Ayman Hafez)

 

The dining room, also located on the ground floor, is adorned with wooden furniture Zaghloul bought from France, comprising 12 seats, a tea car, and an old radio.  

Glasses, Cups and mugs covered with Saad Zaghloul coloured images (Photo: Ayman Hafez)

 

The winter study had a special appeal for Zaghloul, according to his memoirs.

The dinning room which Saad Zaghloul brought from France (Photo: Ayman Hafez)

 

The room includes a desk with a mirror to reveal any potential danger coming from the back window, and three statues of Zaghloul.  

Mr&Mrs Zaghloul's bedroom (Photo: Ayman Hafez)

 

The second floor in the museum represents family life.

The first room is Safia Zaghloul’s dressing room, it was obvious that most of her dresses were in black as she wore it for 19 years.

via english.ahram.org.eg

Interview: Meet the doyenne behind “Women of Egypt”

Egypt Today, by Yasmine Hassan 

CAIRO – 28 September 2017: Capitalizing on the growing power of social media, an inspirational Facebook page, “Women of Egypt” (WOE), has been empowering Egyptian women and reshaping their future perspectives, one post at a time.

Over 2000 women of all ages and professions have been featured on the page since early 2016. The only selection criterion is that they are Egyptians; and each of them is a source of enormous inspiration, challenging all societal and western misconceptions, breaking the taboos and writing their own success stories.

We interviewed Alexandra Kinias, the face and mastermind behind “Women of Egypt,” who has embarked on a mission to change western misconceptions about Egyptian women, highlight the achievements of pioneering women throughout Egyptian history and empower all girls to pursue their wildest dreams.

Born and raised in Egypt, Kinias graduated as a mechanical engineer from Alexandria University. She later went on to pursue her passion for writing and advocacy as she moved to America. All of her work has since addressed women issues, in her books, short stories and even movies.

A dedicated women rights advocate, Kinias first started WOE Facebook page as a tribute to pioneering Egyptian women, who led the Egyptian suffragette movement with the turn of the twentieth century, she tells Egypt Today.

“It saddened me to see not only how the leaders of this movement were marginalized and some even perished from history books, but also how their efforts and the rights they fought for were reversed and how the Egyptian women’s movement that gained momentum in the fifties and sixties in Egypt not only came to a halt, but started moving backwards.

What was even more staggering was how these pioneer women became just names to the young generation, who meant nothing to them. Such women are idolized all over the world and became role models. In Egypt, it seemed there were organized efforts to drop them and their achievements out of history,” Kinias states.

WOE also carries on another mission, to address the West’s misconceptions about Egyptian women, Kianis says.

“Unfortunately, many in the west put all the women in the Middle East in the same basket. With this misunderstanding, they perceive Egyptian women through the same lens as other women in the region, which is totally false. Women in Egypt, and going back to more than 7000 years enjoyed more rights and freedoms that any of their peers in neighboring lands. The suffragette movement in the region started in Egypt. The fact that they encountered some challenges in the last few decades, doesn’t mean, with all due respect to women elsewhere in the middle east, that their status is comparable with them.”

“These two issues were always in the back of my mind. I wanted to start a page to address them. The swearing in of the 89 female parliament members in January 2016, the largest number of female presentation ever in the Egyptian Parliament, was the omen to put WOE in action.”

Women of Egypt features inspirational public figures and success stories of young entrepreneurs, as well as “stories from women whom are absolutely inspiring, but no one knows about them,” Kinias says.

“Due to various social and political changes in Egypt the last few decades, women have lost some of their rights, and their status had reached a point of stagnation. WOE initiative advocates and empowers women by featuring their stories … We are giving a voice to women to share their success stories with the world, to motivate, empower and inspire others to follow suit.”

Less than two years since it was first launched, WOE has already become an active and renowned actor in the field of women empowerment.

“The page became a source to several renowned television programs, newspapers and magazines,” Kinias says proudly.

Major women organizations like UN Women, UNESCO, and other local and international organizations and programs also reach out to WOE as a source, to make announcements or to share their news and programs on the page. “These global organizations approach us because they believe in our mission and message, and they view us as a reputable and informative source, not to mention that we have a huge audience, which is defiantly an asset,” she states.

Listing few of the many accomplishments of WOE, Kinias recalls that they helped furniture designer Shosha Kamal, whose Pharaonic inspired sofa won first place in the International Product Design Awards for the year 2016 in London, adding that UN Women requested WOE’s assistance to announce their need for volunteers for the Wikipedia Writing Workshops they organized - to develop and edit Wikipedia articles about women - .

“We read comments from fathers wishing for their daughters to become pilots or Olympic champions … A school teacher asked permission to print the material for her class to teach her students about the amazing women who fought and are fighting for women’s rights,” Kinias says.

For Kinias, all the women featured on the page and the affiliated website are impressive models. “Egyptian women are smart, hard-working, innovative, feisty, they are fighting very hard to break the social and cultural taboos,” she affirms.

“There is Esraa El Bably who was born with hearing impairment, yet she grew up to become a successful dentist. After we published her story, BBC featured her.
We interviewed Ghada Wali after she was selected on the Forbes’ List 30 under 30 Europe – Arts 2017, making her the first Egyptian to ever be included on the European list, Amany Khalil, the Ironwoman, the art teacher in Samanoud who founded an art center to teach kids how to draw and craft.”

“One of the impressive stories I would like to share is of Manal Abdel Hamid, an author from Upper Egypt who published 11 books, the first two without the knowledge of her family. Manal is still fighting her conservative society that believes that writing for women is an indecent profession.”



WOE started as a Facebook page but it has now developed into an initiative, including two online publications, one in English and one in Arabic. It also published two e-books and offered them for free to the WOE page followers: “Pearls of the Nile,” offered in March 2017, in celebration of Women’s International Day, and “Pearls of the Nile – The Pioneers,” which was given away during the months of June and July to celebrate Huda Sharawy’s 136th birthday.

“WOE is not affiliated with any organization or campaign. It’s a personal initiative with an objective to motivate women to stand up and fight for their rights,” Kinias says.

“It’s a message for women to be strong and confident, to dream big and to break whatever taboos holding them back. The future of Egypt lies in the hands of women. We want them to be happy, to walk in harassment free streets, to enjoy a work environment with no gender discrimination. We want little girls to dream of becoming the president or an astronaut or a war correspondent or whatever their hearts desire, with no one telling them they can’t because they are girls.”

WOE has recently started a writing internship, to help aspiring writers to develop and improve their writing skills, by writing about women’s issues, Kinias reveals.

“We want to engage as many people as we can to become advocates for women’s rights, give them a voice and a platform to express themselves. We have writers as young as 17 years old. Our next step is to call on male writers to join. We need men on board who support and advocate women’s rights and equality.”

via www.egypttoday.com

GE Installing 50 MW Solar Power Plant In Egypt

Daily News Egypt, via Clean Technica, by Steve Hanley 

The first utility-scale solar power facility in Egypt will be provided by General Electric and feature the company’s 1,500 volt inverters. Thanks to a new government-sponsored feed-in tariff policy, Egypt is rapidly becoming a focus of solar power in the region. Because of that, General Electric Power Conversion, a division of GE, will build a 50 megawatt solar power plant for the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC). GE will provide both the equipment and the financing for the project, which will generate enough power for up to 15,000 homes.

Lamya Yousef, an executive at EETC, says that Egypt’s New & Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) has set a target of generating 20% of its energy from renewable sources by the year 2020. Solar will play a vital part in meeting that objective. “In order to achieve the government’s renewable target, it requires partners that have strong financing capacity and technology expertise,” says Sabri Asfour, general manager at FAS ENERGY. “We are impressed to find GE as a reliable partner that embodies both capabilities. Furthermore, Egypt is an excellent market for the renewable projects, FAS is expanding our investment portfolio to install on their roof top and car park as well. Now FAS ENERGY already signed a few PPA’s in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.”

This will be GE’s first full turnkey contract for a solar power plant. Azeez Mohammed, CEO of GE Power Conversion, notes that taking an integrated approach helps limit risk and and enhance reliability and revenues. “With the digital technology coming as the next piece among our solar solution portfolio, we are committed to building tomorrow’s solar farms that are set to bring greater efficiency and productivity.”

General Electric’s 1,500 volt high-efficiency inverters help improve annual energy production, leading to increased project revenues. The integrated system will result in 3% lower system costs and reduce maintenance costs by 15% compared to 1,000 volt systems. They also help reduce costs associated with infrastructure, deployment, and operation expenditures.

GE will be responsible for obtaining the solar modules, trackers, and cables needed to create the completed system. It will also be responsible for the civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering solutions needed to ensure the successful asset deployment and commissioning of the power plant, in addition to providing a favorable financing program to assist EETC in getting the project funded and moving forward in a timely fashion.

GE Installing 50 MW Solar Power Plant in Egypt

Egypt's El Gouna shines with promising film gala

Xinhua/English.news.cn

by Mahmoud Fouly

HURGHADA, Egypt, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The entrance of the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of El Gouna as well as its streets, squares and even hotels all have featured colored or light posters of the first edition of El Gouna Film Festival (GFF), a new event that is meant to revive the cinema industry in most populous Arab country.

Held from Sept. 22 to 29, the GFF is mainly founded and funded by business tycoons Naguib Sawiris and his brother Samih Sawiris who is the founder of the two-decade-old town of El Gouna north of Egypt's world famous Hurghada resort city.

"The cinema is among the oldest industries that entered Egypt, at the same time when Hollywood started its black-and-white cinema. So, my brother and I have always had the desire to revive such a heritage and return Egypt to its filmmaking leading role in the Middle East at least," Samih Sawiris told Xinhua during the gala.

Under the slogan of "Cinema for Humanity," the GFF screens at least 69 films from about 40 countries around the world, including 16 feature films, 18 short films and 12 long documentaries, in addition to 19 films outside the official competition and four in a special program.

The GFF's opening film is "Sheikh Jackson" for promising Egyptian filmmaker Amr Salama. It tackles the issue of human inner conflict inside a society of contradictions through the life of a bearded young cleric who has an old passion for pop music and was once nicknamed by his friends as "Jackson," referring to his former idol, late pop star Michael Jackson.

"The festival actually looks glamorous and impressive and my expectations of it are very high. I am proud that the opening film of the first GFF is mine and I hope that the audience will like it when it is screened today," Salama told Xinhua on the red carpet.

The new festival brings together Egyptian, Arab and international superstars and moviemakers including top Egyptian and Arab comedian Adel Imam, who has received the Career Achievement Award during the opening night, veteran Egyptian actresses Yousra and Elham Shahin, Arab stars Hend Sabry and Hiam Abbass and Hollywood stars Michael Madsen, Dylan McDermott and Oscar-winning actor-director Forest Whitaker who will receive an honorary award later during the gala.

Golden Globe Award winner McDermott told Xinhua that the opening ceremony is beautiful, the event is very well organized and the GFF "has a chance of becoming the Cannes of the Middle East," referring to France's renowned Cannes Film Festival.

Hand in hand, Syrian actress Kinda Alloush and her husband, Egyptian actor Amr Youssef, walked on the red carpet and waved to their fans and the media while seeming very excited and enthusiastic about the GFF.

"We are very enthusiastic as the organization of the event is so wonderful and universal. Also, El Gouna is a very special place for us that we love so much and we are so proud that it hosts such a high level film festival," Alloush said.

Some world superstars would think twice about visiting Egypt due to what they hear from the media about the country's security conditions after going through political instability followed by a wave of terrorist activities over the past few years.

"This is a wrong belief and the media does not necessarily tell the truth," said Egyptian actress Bushra, one of the initiators of the GFF idea, stressing that art is a strong weapon against terror and violence.

She added that holding such film festivals in Egypt as communication bridges through a peaceful common language like cinema conveys the message that Egypt is a safe country with friendly people.

The GFF seeks to bring filmmakers together from around the globe in a cinematic event with various activities and panel discussions that would provide further opportunities for filmmaking joint projects.

Among the gala's activities is "Tayarah" workshop that is meant 

to encourage young filmmakers and screenwriters to produce online-based short films. Tayarah received more than 700 short film projects that have been narrowed down to five before the festival kicked off.

The workshop concluded with announcing "Fork and Knife" short film project by Adam Abdel-Ghaffar as winner and Tayarah will produce it for online distribution in 2018.

Cairo-based Tunisian actress Hend Sabry, Tayarah jury panel member, said that the workshop has held partnership with the GFF to provide opportunities every year to screenwriting talents who might be unable to communicate with production companies to bring their works to light.

"The winning script will be produced by Tayarah and will be screened at the following GFF every year. So, Tayarah workshop celebrates talented scriptwriters and filmmakers to prepare them to meet the needs of regional online TV networks planned to open in the near future," the Tunisian actress told Xinhua.

via news.xinhuanet.com

Social media – blessing or curse?

Al Ahram Weekly, by Azza Radwan Sedky

Have the new social media improved or worsened the way we access news and information, asks Azza Radwan Sedky

Two decades ago, neither the World Wide Web nor the Internet was a household name, and we didn’t carry phones, smart or otherwise, either. 15 years back, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks were unknown entities, too.

The mass media remained the sole agent of news. Television channels and the print media acted as the prime sources of information.

Void of rules or guidelines and with never-ending implications, the new social media have now sprung on the world to reshape its access to news. Today, as news consumption via social media grows, the way the news is dispersed, the speed by which it is disseminated, and its sometimes opaque character can leave us agape.

In August 2017, the world’s social-media users reached three billion, equalling about 40 per cent of the global population, with Facebook being the most prominent network. In Egypt, too, Facebook takes the lion’s share of social-media followers, with 89 per cent using it.

The reality is that the social media are here to stay, if not to evolve further. But have they improved or worsened the way we access news and information? Are they a curse or a blessing?

It all depends on how they are used. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, blogging sites and many more are radical tools of communication that bring people together, add to their personal knowledge, and get them involved politically, socially, and culturally in their countries and the world. This is true for people of all ages and walks of life, for young people and even more so for the elderly and those confined to a sedentary life.

Today, social media act in lieu of the standard media in many respects. Presidents utilise it, for example. Former US president Barack Obama was the first presidential candidate in the US to boost his campaign via social media. US President Donald Trump rants and raves daily on Twitter, while avoiding the standard media and calling it “fake news.”

Activists capitalise on the social media. Some believe Egyptian activist Wael Ghoneim’s page may have jumpstarted the “Facebook Revolution,” as the 25 January Revolution in Egypt is often called. Even if this were untrue, social media were used during the revolution to schedule protests, coordinate events and report back to others.

Social media also provide immediate access to the news as it happens. The term “breaking” is a new one, for example, entailing a crisis that is happening this minute. As an earthquake hits an area or hurricane gains strength, footage circulates on social media.

Social media can act as a backdrop from which to transmit views in ways that were not possible before. Whether such views are fair and square or twisted and antagonistic is a different question. But the social media have given the ordinary person a voice that can reach others everywhere.

On the other hand, social media are often abused and overused, with Twitter and Facebook awash with gossip and rumours, inundating people with a plethora of dubious, unsubstantiated information.

Hate speech is also common across social media as integrity disappears. Cyber-bullying, bogus information, and high-handed manipulation exist freely too, and very little can be done about them.

Many schemers exploit social media for their own devious uses. The Islamic State (IS) group and other extremist groups use Twitter to promote atrocities and the killing of innocent people and to announce their responsibility after a terrorist attack.

The notion of privacy has gone out the window, too. Befriended strangers join a person’s private world as the fine line between private and public fades. Political developments are juxtaposed against weddings and grandchildren’s photographs.

The consequences of misinformation are compounded on social media. Standard media gurus verify the information they pass on, but social-media users simply pass it on with no thought given to possible repercussions.

In Egypt, many people use social media to shout into the void, even substituting it for real life. Almost addicted to social media and fascinated by the number of followers they gain, some people talk to their deceased kin, reminisce nostalgically, or pass on unverified but damaging accusations, all on the same Facebook page.

Two of the most contentious issues on social media are politics and religion. Egyptian people are often divided on such topics, and they take to social media to voice their views. It is very easy to get caught up in a feud where brawls can ensue. And despite the breadth of freedom that Egyptian tweeters have gained, they continue to demand more freedom of speech, while confusing it with slander or name-calling.

Armchair protesters, among them those who incite from the comfort of their homes abroad and who will never be affected by the challenges Egypt faces, are given a platform from which to speak.

So some words of caution are necessary. Profanity, slander, cursing or hearsay are as libellous on social media as they are in any newspaper. Tweeters can be held accountable for inciting others and tweeting unauthenticated information.

Social-media users must remain vigilant not only about their right to speak freely, but also about the rights of the public. They must ask themselves if their stories add up and can stand up in court. They could be sued for defamation of character.

They must also differentiate between fact and fiction, question information, and verify anything they post, for their own sanity as much as that of those who follow them.

---

The writer is a political analyst.

 

 

via weekly.ahram.org.eg

Egypt: The Economy Is Gathering Strength

International Monetary Funds

Street corner in Cairo, Egypt. The reform program has helped the economy take a turn for the better (photo: Baloncici/iStock by Getty Images)

“The Egyptian authorities have embarked on an ambitious reform program and have taken decisive measures aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and sustainable public finances. At the same time, by strengthening social protection measures, they have sought to protect the most vulnerable. We have seen that economic activity has been gathering strength and efforts at reining in the budget deficit have begun to bear fruit. With the liberalization of the foreign exchange market, foreign currency shortages have disappeared. Looking ahead through the end of this year and into next year, the policy mix is also supportive of a decline in inflation from the high levels in the summer,” said Subir Lall, the head of the team dealing with Egypt at the IMF. 

Egypt launched a reform program when its economy faced rising imbalances that led to high public debt, a widening current account deficit, and declining official reserves. To support the home-grown reforms, the government embarked in November 2016 on an IMF-supported program to restore the stability of its finances, promote growth and employment, while shielding the poor from the adverse effects of the changes. 

Here is a stocktaking of what the government has achieved since the start of the work. 

• Flexible exchange rate regime: With the floating of the Egyptian pound, the foreign exchange market normalized, and the parallel market for foreign currency disappeared. The focus of monetary policy is to bring down inflation, which reached more than 30 percent since April, mainly due to the sharp depreciation of the pound and the impact of energy and tax reforms. 
• Reducing the budget deficit: The government implemented a value-added tax (VAT) as part of its reform program which aims to increase tax revenues sustainably. The government also took steps to reform expenditures, including notably energy subsidies. Resources from the higher VAT and more efficient spending will slow the accumulation of public debt, which had been rising rapidly. 
• Energy subsidy reform: The government has taken bold steps to reduce energy subsidies which benefit mostly the rich, and also skew production to energy-intensive industries. The government reallocated part of the resources to social spending, including on health and education, and for targeted cash transfers. 
• The inclusion of women and youth is critical to share the benefits of growth more broadly: The government has taken measures to increase employment and labor force participation for women and youth. It has allocated budget resources to increase access to and the quality of public nurseries to help women join the labor force. It is also planning to improve the safety of public transportation. The government has also implemented specialized training programs and job search schemes for youth. 
• Higher growth through wide-ranging structural reforms: The parliament approved several measures to improve the business climate such as less red tape in industrial licensing, and easier access to financing for small and medium-sized enterprises. These measures should create more new jobs and help alleviate unemployment, which is particularly concentrated among women and young people.

 The way forward

Building on the ongoing reform efforts and the restoration of confidence, Egypt has the opportunity to transition to a higher growth trajectory, and increase prosperity for all, by locking in the gains from macroeconomic stabilization and harnessing its full growth potential. 

 

 

 

via www.imf.org

World Bank arm to invest $150 million in Egypt’s agriculture sector

Arab News

IFC's $150 million investment in Egypt's agriculture sector aims to provide new job opportunities for the youth. (Reuters)

DUBAI: International Finance Corporation (IFC) has agreed to invest $150 million (SR562.5 million) in Egypt’s agriculture sector in partnership with the country’s private sector, UAE state news agency WAM reported late Saturday.
The investment aims at developing the country’s nutrition sector, introducing the newest technologies in manufacturing, as well as providing new job opportunities for the youth, WAM said, quoting investment and international cooperation minister Sahar Nasr’s interview with Ahram Online.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, focuses on developing the private sector in developing countries.
The agreement comes following a meeting between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim in New York on Thursday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings, where the two discussed cooperation between Egypt and the bank.

World Bank currently has a commitment of $5.92 billion in Egypt, spread in 26 projects. Foreign direct investments in Egypt are up 14.5 percent to $7.9 billion for the fiscal year 2016-2017.

Similarly, a UK trade delegation representing 14 companies is now in Cairo to explore investment opportunities in Egypt’s key sectors from infrastructure, agriculture, health care to defense.

The companies, including Rolls Royce and Bombardier, were attracted by the Egyptian government’s spate of economic reforms and improve the economic climate, said Jeffrey Donaldson, the UK’s trade envoy to Egypt.

“The recent reforms that have been implemented have brought about stronger economic growth in Egypt and this has heightened the interest of British companies in doing business with Egypt,” Donaldson said.

Ratings agency Moody’s in its latest annual report has credited Egypt’s strong reform momentum, despite weak government finances, which has resulted into a pick-up in economic growth and improved investor sentiment.

 

via www.arabnews.com

UK: We will not talk to the Muslim Brotherhood

The National 

Officials refuse to engage with exiled elected officials of Mohamed Morsi’s Freedom and Justice Party because of the Brotherhood’s “highly ambiguous relationship with violent extremism”.

The UK says Mohamed Morsi's leadership had not done enough to pursue democratic commitments while in power. He was jailed for 25 years in 2016. Amr Nabil/AP Photo

The UK government has rejected calls by an all-party group of MPs to engage more closely with the Muslim Brotherhood because of the group’s “highly ambiguous relationship with violent extremism”, according to a document released Thursday.

Officials said that the former Egyptian government of Mohamed Morsi had not done enough while in power to demonstrate political moderation or a commitment to democratic values. Events since then had done nothing to change their view, according to the paper.

The government was responding to a report published last year by an influential group of lawmakers on the parliamentary foreign affairs committee [FAC], which had called on the UK to begin “discreet relations” with exiled officials from the former Morsi government, which was ousted in a military coup in 2013 after only one year in power.

The government rejected the call and said that any group’s attitude towards the use of violence was one of three key principles in deciding whether diplomats should begin talks. Since losing power, Mr Morsi’s Freedom and Justice Party had stoked sectarianism with comments about Pope Francis, the government claimed without giving further detail.

It also said that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood had in recent months denied ISIL involvement in attacks on Coptic Christians in Europe, even though the group had claimed responsibility. Instead it had accused the current Egyptian government of Abdel Fattah El Sisi – the current president who led the 2013 military coup - of “organising or facilitating the attacks,” according to the government’s response.  Scores of Christians have been killed in sectarian violence in 2017 with the population, who make up an eighth of Egyptians, targeted repeatedly by ISIL.

“The Government does not agree with the FAC that we should be engaging with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood at this time,” the government said in its latest response to the MPs’ report “Political Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood Review”.

It said that there was a “fundamental requirement for any organization to reject violence unambiguously, confront violent extremism and commit to constitutional politics” before it entered into discussions.

Then prime minister David Cameron commissioned a report in 2015 which concluded that association with the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered a possible indicator of extremism, but stopped short of banning the organisation. It said Thursday that it was keeping that decision under review while continuing to assess developments in the Muslim Brotherhood movement in the UK “including its statements and actions”.

It said that it was refusing visas to members and associates who were on record of having made extremist comments, and ensuring that charities with links to the Brotherhood were not misusing assets.

The government response also denied suggestions by the MPs that its 2015 report into the Muslim Brotherhood had been undermined by the impression that it had been influenced by the group’s critics in the Gulf. Critics had pointed to a potential conflict with the review conducted by Sir John Jenkins, a former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia until 2015.

The choice of Sir John was made as he was one of the Foreign Office’s most senior and respected diplomats and reflected “his extensive experience and knowledge of the Arab world,” said the government in its response.

Link to The National 

Cairo city guide: How to spend a weekend in Egypt’s big, bold capital

The Independent, by Sarah Reid

Cairo used to be known as the Paris of the Middle East / Getty Images

Cairo might be a big, noisy, traffic-logged city, but exploring its revived downtown core is one of Egypt’s most underrated experiences

Why go now?

It was once known as the Paris of the Middle East, and thanks to Egypt’s National Committee for the Protection and Renovation of Cairo’s Heritage, it’s now easier to see why. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of former ruler Ismail Khedive’s remodelling of Cairo in the style of the French capital, the Committee has been busy restoring many of the city’s heritage buildings to their former glory this year. 

With big savings to be had in Egypt due to the downturn in tourism combined with the still-flagging Egyptian pound, now’s a great time to rediscover the splendour of the capital’s bustling core, its historic buildings and institutions now sitting alongside a wave of hip new galleries, restaurants and hotels. Take a taxi to Cairo’s Citadel (1), the dramatic medieval Islamic fortification (open 8am-5pm daily; entry E£40/£1.70) dominating a limestone hill in the city’s southeast. The resplendent 19th century Mosque of Muhammad Ali is the key sight in the complex, but you can also visit two smaller mosques, and several small museums. From the outdoor terrace, you can see the pyramids of Giza across the urban sprawl of the city on a clear day. 

Take a hike

Start at Cairo Opera House (2) (0020 227 390 299; cairoopera.org), the city’s performing arts hub, at the southern end of Gezira Island. Designed in the Islamic style, the huge domed cultural complex opened in 1988 to replace the resplendent mid 19th-century Khedivial Royal Opera House, which burned to the ground in 1971. Several arts institutions are clustered within the Opera House grounds, including the Museum of Modern Egyptian Art (3) (0020 227 366 667), which is currently undergoing a facelift. 

Walk across the Kasr Al Nile Bridge (4) towards Tahrir Square (5). Best known as the centre of mass protests during Egypt’s 2011 revolution, this historic square (actually more of a traffic circle) is now attractively grassed, a huge Egyptian flag flapping at its centre. Note the intricate Italian-designed Omar Makram Mosque (6) to the southwest of the square, and the downtown campus of the American University Cairo (7), which was built around the neo-Mamluk Khairy Pasha Palace in the 1920s, to the southeast. 

Head northeast along historic Talaat Harb St (8), which contains remnants of Cairo’s multi-colonial past including the Egyptian Diplomatic Club (9) on the corner of Al Bustan St, and Cafe Riche (10), thought to be Cairo’s oldest restaurant, on the edge of Talaat Harb Square (11), which is encircled by elegant, French neoclassical buildings.

Take a left onto Mahmoud Bassiouny St (12), past Groppi (13), a Swiss cafe that has been trading since 1892. When you hit Champollion Rd (14), head one block north to ogle the late-19th century palace of former Ottoman statesman Said Halim (15), arguably Cairo’s grandest abandoned mansion.

Lunch on the run

Just a block north of Said Halim’s Palace, Abou Tarek (16), 16 Champollion Rd (open 7am-11pm daily) is one of the city’s most famous kushari restaurants. A mix of rice, lentils, chickpeas and macaroni topped with cumin-scented tomato sauce and crunchy fried onions, this vegetarian comfort food is considered the national dish, and a great, cheap filler (less than £1). A warning: the house-made chilli sauce has serious kick. 

Kushari is a mix of rice, lentils, chickpeas and macaroni (iStock)

Cultural afternoon

Don’t miss the opportunity to explore the brilliant original Egyptian Museum (17) (0020 225 794 596; sca-egypt.org) while you can, as its ancient bounty is destined for a new home near the pyramids in the coming years. Beyond the main draw – the treasures of Tutankhamen’s tomb – don’t miss the bizarre mummified pets gallery, and the minute statuette of Khufu, the only three-dimensional depiction of the builder behind the Great Pyramid that survives today. The museum is open 9am-7pm daily; entry is E£60 (£2.60). 

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via www.independent.co.uk

Trump's UN Speech

Trump’s UN Speech, by Paul Craig Roberts

I listened to part of Trump’s UN speech this morning. I was so embarrassed for him and for my country that I had to turn it off.

I wonder if whoever wrote the deplorable speech intended to embarrass Trump and inadvertently embarrassed America as well, or whether the speechwriter(s) is so imbued with the neoconservative arrogance and hubris of our time that the speechwriter was simply blind to the extraordinary contradictions that stood out like sore thumbs all through the speech.

I am not going to describe all of them, just a couple of examples.

Trump went on at great length about how America respects the sovereignty of every country and the people’s will of every country, and how the US, despite its overwhelming military power, never tries to impose its will on any country. What was the administration thinking, or can it think? What about Yugoslavia/Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Crimea, Ukraine, Venezuela, Honduras, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, just to mention countries in the 21st century that have been subjected to US military attacks, government overthrows, and removals of political leaders who did not conform to US interests?

Is it respect for the sovereignty of countries to force them to support US sanctions against Iran, Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela? Is it respect for the sovereignty of countries to impose sanctions on the countries? If this is not imposing Washington’s will on other countries, what is?

Is it respect for other countries to inform them that unless they do as they are told, “we will bomb you into the stone age”?

I heard Trump complain that the UN Human Rights commission had as members countries with the worst human rights records of our time, and I wondered if he was talking about the United States. Clearly, Trump, the speechwriter(s), the State Department, the National Security Council, the US Ambassador to the UN, indeed the entire administration, do not think that the endless slaughter, maiming, orphaning, widowing, and dispossessing of millions of peoples in many countries, producing waves of refugees, comprise human rights violations.

The arrogance conveyed by Trump’s speech is unprecedented.

After assurances that America respects everyone, Trump then made demand after demand and threat after threat against the sovereignty of Iran and North Korea, demanding that the rest of the world back him up.

Neither country is a threat to the US. Unlike the US and Israel, Korea has not been at war since 1953. Iran’s last war was in the 1980s when Iran was attacked by Iraq. Yet both North Korea and Iran are subjected to constant threats from the US. At the UN Trump threatened North Korea with destruction, and Washington is telling more lies about Iran in order to justify military action.

Here is what former Secretary of State Colin Powell says about how carefully Washington thinks about other peoples:

“We thought we knew what would happen in Libya. We thought we knew what would happen in Egypt. We thought we knew what would happen in Iraq, and we guessed wrong. In each one of these countries the thing we have to consider is that there is some structure that’s holding the society together. And as we learned, especially in Libya, when you remove the top and the whole thing falls apart . . . you get chaos.”

That’s what Washington does. It brings chaos to tens of millions of peoples, destroying their 

lives and the prospects of their countries. This is the behavior that Trump described as American compassion for others. This is what Trump says is respecting others and the sovereignty of their countries. Washington dresses up its crimes against humanity as a “war on terror.” The tens of millions of slaughtered, maimed, and displaced persons are merely “collateral damage.

This is why the US is considered the greatest threat to peace. International polls show that the world regards the US as a much greater threat to peace than North Korea and Iran. Yet Trump described the US, universally regarded as the greatest threat to the world, as the great protector of peace. Has there ever been a greater disturber of peace?

One wonders if the rest of the world, especially Russia and China, got Washington’s message. Washington’s plan for UN “reform” is a plan to turn the organization into another instrument of US foreign policy, like NATO and the EU. The message that Trump was sent to deliver to the UN is that henceforth the UN is expected to support Washington’s foreign policy agenda. Opponents to Washington’s war policy are to be isolated and lumped together with the bad countries as defined by Washington.

In other words Washington accepts no limits on its unilateralism. This means war for every country that does not accept Washington’s hegemony.

via www.paulcraigroberts.org