A few Egypt-related odds and ends that have caught my eye of late:
– Check out a reliably sane analysis of the situation by my friend Aziz Abu Sarah from an interview broadcast yesterday on Washington’s Fox 5 News (above).
– Below: a picture from Nevine Zaki’s Twitter feed: Egyptian Christians protecting Muslims during their prayers amidst the demonstration. (It appears they’re returning the favor – see my blog post from 1/8).
– For a change, some non-fear-based background on the Muslim Brotherhood:
To be blunt and colloquial, this is not your grandmother’s Muslim Brotherhood. And this isn’t their revolution. What we talking about is a group with has evolved over the years into a middle-class, conservative organization. They made a bet against radical change and instead became a systemic player. Their goals are limited. And there is not a shred of evidence that they would become radical in an open democracy because it is a sure way to reduce themselves to fringe players. They are very shrewd about. And that’s why they’re not going to upset the apple cart. (Samer Shehata, Assistant Professor of Arab politics at Georgetown University)
– And one more tweet for good measure:
MitchellPlit Mitchell Plitnick
Oy. Stop calling them “Mubarak supporters.” They are Mubarak’s goons, and we know that many of them are on the Mubarak payroll.
Shalom Rav 
Aziz could use a hair cut. Thanks for sending this out.
If the reporter asked Aziz about being “on the right side of history” with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I wonder how would Aziz advise the U.S.? Should we abandon Netanyahu as he suggests we do with Mubarak (correctly, in my opinion)? Netanyahu and the majority in the Knesset are definitely on the wrong side of history in the I-P conflict, unless they intend to destroy Palestinian culture like the U.S. destroyed Native American culture. Even then, they will live as we do: eternally regretting it.
For some excellent, very well-informed analysis of events in Egypt, I strongly recommend Helena Cobban’s blog, and her other pieces on the subject. Unlike so many “Middle East experts” she is very in touch with the Arab world and understands its people as well as its history, politics, society, and systems.
She also has some well-researched, non-scary information on the MB, which is based in part on face-to-face interviews with MB leadership figures over a number of years, including this recent piece.
Neil,
Marie made me get a hair cut before my fox interview today 🙂