Egypt’s final round of elections earlier this month confirmed our greatest fear: victory by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) received 41% of the parliament. Together with other parties, Islamists dominate two-thirds of the new Egyptian legislature, and elected a strong Brotherhood leader Mohamed al-Katatni, as Speaker of the...
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Turning and turning in the widening gyre, The falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart; The centre cannot hold, Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world … — William Butler Yeats By all accounts, 2011 has been a cataclysmic year in the Middle East. What began with a government official’s harassment of Mohamed Bouazizi,...
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Once again, we at EMET wish that we had been proven wrong. As soon as the demonstrators took to the streets in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt last winter, we had been alone on Capitol Hill arguing that  the United States should immediately halt, or at least temporarily suspend, all U.S. military aid and...
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Sunday morning, an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps missile commander and sixteen other IRGC officials were killed in an explosion at a base southwest of Teheran. Iranian officials called the explosion an accident during the transport of munitions, but there are a number of reasons to believe it was not. Firstly, the commander killed...
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Summary: Over the past year, events in the Middle East, including most notably the Arab Spring, have dramatically altered the security landscape facing the nation of Israel, as well as the national security interests of the United States in the region.  While each of these events have been well cataloged separately and in greater...
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As part of her national tour, on October 5, 2011, author, speaker, human rights activist, and blogger Nonie Darwish spoke at the George Mason University (GMU) Law School concerning human rights in the Muslim world and the problems stemming from the Muslim world’s use of Islamic law, often called “Sharia.”  Ms. Darwish is descended...
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Last Sunday, as Coptic Christians assembled peacefully in Maspero, Egypt to protest the burning of a Coptic church. The army responded by opening fire on protesters and deliberately driving armored vehicles into the crowd. Video (Warning: graphic), shows military vehicles plowing into the crowds, actively attempting to run down protestors at high speeds. According...
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Last Friday in Cairo, a throng of thousands of Egyptians gathered in Tahrir Square, marching two miles to the Israeli embassy, proceeding to demolish a protective wall, entering and ransacking the embassy and the building, climbing up and tearing up the Israeli flag, urinating on the building, and concludingby shredding and throwing  Israeli documents...
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On the 9th of March, 1916, Pancho Villa led 100 members of his Mexican revolutionary army across the United States border and attacked the town of Columbus, New Mexico.  Eighteen Americans were killed in the attack and the Mexicans took 100 horses and military supplies stored in the town.  Incensed by this invasion of...
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As the Arab Spring has transformed itself into the long, hot Islamic summer, optimism about the Arab world has had to undergo a significant reality check in America and the West. First off, the sobering results of a recent poll, taken by  Zogby International together with the Arab American Institute; this poll, which was...
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