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April 30, 2005
Cairo: a world of bad.
Well, hard to read what is going precisely at the moment in Cairo, but since the mass football mania next door to me has driven me to the office, a word on Cairo.
I won't bother with links at this early date, suffice it to say a bomb, possibly thrown, killed an Egyptian (or alternately he was the bomber) near the Egyptian Museum, and then two muhajabat (hijab wearing cows) tried to shoot up a tour bus in the old city. The last has some small novelty value, although for the same of women's rights and all that, one would have wished they had not proven such awful shots. This sets back women's tourism by years. At least one had the presence of mind to shoot her companion, although she proved less skilled in committing suicide (as of this hour). (Alternate versions have them being gunned down by police, although given the shitty nature of Egyptian police I prefer the more amusing semi-competence in suicide)
Reflecting on the meaning, there are two main streams of thought, besides my disappointment at the inauspicious beginnings for women's tourism in Egypt. Equal rights and all that. Algerians did it much better. This aside, the two main thoughts are: (i) kefayah (enough) feelings are running rather hotter than Mubarek the Fat Shrimp Eater thought and you're seeing the extremist expression now, (ii) seems a trifle convenient for the Fat Shrimp Eater, this niggling thought occurs that security apparatus might have loosened up and let some bunglers move ahead to give pretext for a big ass crack down on the nice and appropriately scary Islamists as well as, conveniently enough, everyone else. Stability and all that. While perhaps a bit too cynical, I do point to Algeria and the dark things "le Pouvoir" did there.
However, overall I would opine you're seeing the harvest of radicalization post Iraq - not surprising in basket case Egypt.
Of course, I note that none of the three ideas expressed are mutually exclusive.
PS: I recall in this connexion with amusement attending a public event some five years ago in New York where the speaker - someone prominent in the current Admin circles - opined forcefully and confidently that women in the Muslim world were too repressed to ever play a role in terrorism. The speaker knew that they were only kept at home.....
Posted by The Lounsbury at April 30, 2005 05:50 PM
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Jan-July 2005
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