Stories Archive | Page 68 of 72

Analyses

After surpassing 90 percent approval in the first round of the presidential elections on October 6, incumbent Tunisian leader Kais Saied faces his new term in a political, social, and economic climate vastly different from that of 2019. We discussed this shift with writer and essayist Hatem Nafty, whose latest work, Notre ami Kaïs Saïed. Essai sur la démocrature tunisienne (Our Friend Kais Saied: An Essay on the Tunisian Dictatorship), was presented in late September.

Political Theory
Erdoğan and Secularism
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Nicola Mirenzi 27 September 2011
During his visit to Cairo, Erdoğan calmly repeated what he thought about democracy, pluralism of faiths and Islam. “I am a non-secular Muslim,” he said, “but I am the prime minister of a secular state and I say, ‘I hope there will be a secular state in Egypt.’ One must not be afraid of secularism. Egypt will grow in democracy and those called upon to draw up the constitution must understand it must respect all religions, while also keep themselves equidistant from the followers of all religions so that people can live in security.”
Books
Mostafa Mastur’s “Pig Bone and Leper’s Hands”. A powerful introduction to contemporary Iranian society
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Roberto Toscano 19 September 2011
One is immediately captured by an incredible rhythm, a narration that is apparently broken but is on the contrary coherent and fully unitary. It is almost a script ready for a movie. What came to my mind was Altman’s “Short cuts”, which is not surprising, since Mastur is the Farsi translator of Raymond Carver, the author of the literary work from which that movie was drawn.
Political Theory
Egypt: the post-Mubarak period is a work in progress
Francesco Aloisi de Larderel, former Italian ambassador to Egypt 14 September 2011

Almost nine months after the fall of Mohamed Hosni Mubarak’s regime, the Egyptian political situation is still hostage to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), and therefore to the military leaders who have been the real holders and guarantors of political power in Egypt since the 1952 coup d’état by the Free Officers Movement. Under pressure from protesters, the SCAF decided to depose President Mubarak, appoint a new government, and is preparing to call parliamentary and presidential elections on the basis of rules it is drafting, announcing that it will soon promulgate the criteria for drafting a new constitution.
Sociology
Muslims in Italy after 9/11
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Amara Lakhous 12 September 2011
The show goes on. In Italy we continue to see “theocons” on TV, improvised experts, not Islamologues but Islam-demagogues, with no knowledge of languages spoken in the Islamic area and who have never attended courses on Islam. They do however publish books with great publishing houses and are invited on television as experts on Islamic subjects.
Sociology
Norway Incident: Theoretical and Cultural Backgrounds
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Interview with Dr. Gholamali Khoshroo, Senior Editor of the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Islam 1 September 2011
Following the terrorist incident in Norway, its political and human aspects were more in focus while a correct analysis would be impossible without due attention to its cultural and theoretical root causes. The main factor which claimed the lives of about 100 human beings in a few hours was product of a long process which has been going on for years in Europe. In the following interview with Iranian Diplomacy, Gholamali Khoshroo, Senior Editor of the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Islam, has talked about theoretical and cultural backgrounds of the incident.
Political Theory
Al-Shorouk’s Spring
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An interview by Elisa Pierandrei 30 August 2011
“Al-Shorouk newspaper was first issued in February 2009 as an independent newspaper aimed to promote the values of liberalism and modernism…During the paper’s preparation period, which lasted about a year, the idea that objectivity, accuracy and truth in everything would be published in the newspaper was the dominant idea of each meeting.” These are the words of Ashraf Al-Barbary, News Desk Chief of Al-Shorouk newspaper. In a conversation with Elisa Pierandrei Al-Barbary, he says he is convinced that the adherence to these principles makes everyone, whether at the local, regional or even international level, deal seriously with what is published in Al-Shorouk. This newspaper is part of a company linked to Dar Al Shorouk, the largest independent publishing house in Egypt, which was established in 1968 by Mohamed El Moallem, one of the founding fathers of modern publishing in Egypt and the Arab World, who started his publishing career in 1942.
Religion
Shirin Ebadi, battling for rights
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5 August 2011
By Nicola Missaglia Jurist and Nobel Prize winner Ebadi took the lead in sponsoring an International Women’s Day in Iran, as well as a series of protest events against Iranian family law. In addition to having published numerous books, among them, Iran Awakening, A Memoir of Revolution and Hope (Milan 2006), as well as The Golden Cage, Three Brothers, Three Choices, One Destiny (Milan 2008), Ebadi founded the Defenders of Human Rights Centre in Iran and the Society for Protecting the Child’s Rights. These two organizations are NGOs for the defence of human rights, which focus on strengthening the legal status of women and children in Iran.
Political Theory
Hope After the Dictators
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Silvio Fagiolo 19 July 2011
In Egypt, as in Tunisia, democracy is something still to be shaped, but these societies are not voiceless, nor are they without public opinion. The oppositions consist of a broad galaxy of movements, but they are not burning Israeli or American flags in the streets. They are demanding rights, transparency and legality. Resetdoc presents an article by our late and much missed friend Silvio Fagiolo, a scholar and former ambassador to Egypt, who died a few days ago. This article was published in the March-April 2011 issue of our magazine Reset, devoted to the Arab Spring.
Political Theory
The Arab revolutions and nonviolence
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Amara Lakhous 14 July 2011
The young Egyptians have decided to return to Tahrir Square (Liberation) to defend the revolution. The strategy is always the same: to demonstrate peacefully in order to achieve the objectives.
Religion
Mohamed Abed Al-Jabri’s new Averroism
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11 July 2011
By Nicola Missaglia From a scientific and philosophical perspective, Al-Jabri believes that the Arab-Islamic school of thought’s current problems in entertaining a harmonious and balanced relationship with the demands of the contemporary world depend on the progressive loss of a rational and scientific dimension that had instead inspired philosophers such as Averroes, Ibn Hazm and Avempace and with which the Islamic religion is, in his opinion, intimately permeated.