Noura's thoughts

For many Muslims, the sudden rise of ISIS has posed a dilemma and triggered a need for introspection. On an official level, condemnations have flowed، effortless and abundant: Egypt’s Mofti, Dr. Shawky Allam , called upon western media to refrain from using the self-declared “Islamic State”’s chosen title, because “it is misleading… Islam has nothing to do with such atrocities”. His Saudi counterpart, Sheikh Abdel Aziz Aal Al Sheikh , described ISIS as “Islam’s number one enemy”.  Denouncing ISIS has been easy enough for the establishment. All scholars have to do is stick to indisputable generalities: terrorising the innocent is an unspeakable crime, human life is sacred, etc. But it is away from the safety of generalisation that scholars do not come across too confident. Should an average, non-scholarly muslim pose an essential question like: “how did we wake up to ISIS then?” or, “what do they base their rhetoric upon?” the establishment would find itself obliged to answer:...

A few weeks from now, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will head to the US for the first time since his inauguration in June. The purpose of the visit is to attend the 69th UN general assembly in New York City. This comes after Sisi turned down a number of invitations to visit the US. Instead he has opted to visit other countries, notably Russia. It remains to be seen whether Sisi’s impending visit will include a meeting with American president Barak Obama. Meeting or no meeting, the Americans are bound to find that the rules of the game have witnessed a remarkable change - a change introduced by Sisi.  The Egyptian-brokered peace agreement that stopped Israel from attacking Gaza has been one such game changer - a major political victory for the Egyptians. Cairo has shown that it still holds the biggest influence in the region, and that would-be powers such as Qatar do not really stand a chance no matter how much money they are willing to throw on the Gaza pr...