Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

Wael Abbas: the Arab Internet’s unlikely superhero

He is the first blogger ever to be given the Knight International Journalism Award, next Thursday in Washington. Menassat.com tracked down Egypt’s Wael Abbas in Beirut and sat him down for an exclusive interview. ..

Secret email that freed the mole at the Foreign Office

The case against Derek Pasquill, accused of handing a journalist secret papers, collapsed dramatically as it became clear it could embarrass the government. Peter Beaumont reports ..

Qatar feels the chill

The objectivity of historians can be judged by what they include and what they omit in their narratives. The same criterion can be applied to evaluate the bias of politicians in power. Note, for example, that after becoming the interim prime minister of Iraq in June 2004, Ayad Allawi visited the capitals of all the neighbouring countries except Tehran. This omission endeared him to Washington...

The virginity dialogues

Experience is valued in everything, it would seem, except in the world of traditional courtship. I am no anthropologist, but it strikes me that most of human societies, either now or historically, place a premium on premarital sexual chastity, or "purity", particularly when it comes to women: from the Bantu of southern Africa, to the various faiths of South Asia, to the monotheistic religions of the Middle East. ..

The Brotherhood opens up

In an unprecedented initiative, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has circulated a draft of its manifesto for widespread consultation..

Pakistan’s flawed and feudal princess

It’s wrong for the West simply to mourn Benazir Bhutto as a martyred democrat, says this acclaimed south Asia expert. Her legacy is far murkier and more complex ..

Reuters World News Highlights 1410 GMT Dec 29

Benazir Bhutto’s party challenged official versions of the opposition leader’s assassination and accused Pakistan’s government on Saturday of trying to cover up failures just days before planned elections. Fresh violence brought the death toll since Bhutto’s assassination in a gun and bomb attack on Thursday to 40, stoking fears a Jan. 8 election meant to restore civilian rule could be put off. ..

Graft Cited in Deadly Egypt Collapse

Shoddy materials, illegal construction and a culture of corruption were blamed Saturday for the deaths of more than three dozen people buried when a 12-story apartment building crumbled to the ground...

A tragedy born of military despotism and anarchy

Even those of us sharply critical of Benazir Bhutto’s behaviour and policies - both while she was in office and more recently - are stunned and angered by her death. Indignation and fear stalk the country once again...

Forgetting to remember

When the MCB leadership emerged from their meeting on Saturday with the news that they had decided to end their boycott of the Holocaust memorial day, I expected to hear that something significant had occurred that led to this shift in position. The decision not to accept the invitation of the organising committee over recent years has led to immense pressure and often censure from a variety of sources, including the government, as well as a barrage of attacks from the media brigade, a..

Bhutto: the new Chalabi

By projecting Benazir Bhutto as the future saviour of crisis-ridden Pakistan, the Bush White House is repeating the blunder it made five years ago by presenting Ahmad Chalabi as the redeemer of post-Saddam Iraq. ..

Sheikh with laughter

You could say that writing about humour is like joking about quantum physics - unlikely to trigger even a subatomic ripple of laughter from people. Nevertheless, I have decided to venture where comics fears to tread..

Behind closed doors

The justice systems in Britain and the US may not be perfect. But viewed from Egypt, the jurisprudence and transparency that attend the vast majority of trials there are very much to be envied...

God is not dead

No subject seems to generate more heated discussion these days than religion. And this is by no means confined to Comment is Free, where articles on God, atheism, secularism, evolution and creationism consistently attract floods of comments within hours of being published...

Inside Hamas

Last month in a safe house in Gaza City, Clancy Chassay had dinner with two senior Hamas leaders - and was a rare western witness to a debate on the issues that divide the Palestinian organisation..

Inside Gaza: the main players

Hamas leaders have seemed genuinely surprised by their successes in recent years: they won the 2006 elections for the Palestinian legislative council and, earlier this year..

The government trumpets free speech while trampling on it

The very week of the Labour conference a man named Derek Pasquill, an official at the Foreign Office, was charged under the Official Secrets Act. The authorities have been playing the usual cat-and-mouse game with Pasquill, but finally they moved on 27 September...

Egyptian editors jailed for defaming Mubarak

Four outspoken Egyptian newspaper editors have been sentenced to a year in prison and fined for defaming President Hosni Mubarak and his son Gamal, who is widely expected to succeed him...

Democracy, not terror, is the engine of political Islam

Neocon policies designed to promote liberal opinion in the Middle East have in fact played into the hands of the religious parties ..

Hamas is ready to talk

The Palestinians have been abandoned by the international community. The cruelty of this treatment will go down in history. It is time to create a new history for the region, and to recognise the real representatives of the Palestinian people. ..