Holiday Special: Salafis, Maspero, Iran + the cat who never wanted to fly

WHAT IS THIS?

As you probably know by now, Enterprise is on break this week, and after eight-and-a-half months of publishing five days a week, we’ve had separation anxiety. Anxiety that we’ve quelled by writing the last two days not about news, but about technology and economics. Today, we close out the week with a look at politics — at home and across the region, from Salafis to the implications of the nuclear pact with Iran.

We’re off again tomorrow in observance of the 23 July Revolution, then back on Sunday, 26 July, in our usual format and with our usual focus: A roundup of the news and views that will set the day’s business agenda in Egypt, delivered to your inbox before 7am CLT.

WORTH READING

Bloated, loss-making and ineffective: Is it time to shut Maspero down? With expenses of around EGP 6 bn and revenues of only EGP 1.7 bn, Mada Masr discusses in detail the shortcomings of Maspero,highlighting the EGP 4 bn that the state’s media empire contributes to the national debt, and poses the question of what Egypt gets back in return considering Maspero can’t compete with privately owned stations as a broadcaster, entertainer or service provider.

Will Egypt have a House of Representatives in 2015? Private thinktank the Regional Center for Strategic Studies asks in their report from May which is still relevant today: Will Egypt’s parliament be ready in 2015? The piece provides a good summary explaining more or less where we are at the present (sans the recent approval of the elections law, with two other relevant laws pending ratification) and how we got here. The article theorizes that the elections will be held before October, as Article 115 of the Constitutions stipulates that the first session of the parliament should not be pushed back later than the first week of October. The author also argues that the new legislature will be just as vulnerable to future dissolution by the Constitutional Court. (Read)

Egypt’s political Salafists- Adherence to dogma versus political survival, expediency and encroachment: The bulk of Jacob Olidort’s take on Egypt’s Salafis doesn’t say much for those closely following the group. It is, however, an excellent primer for those trying to understand the basis of why some Salafists have chosen to support President El Sisi’s regime out of survival, while other groups and associated political parties have balked at the idea. For well-versed observers of Salafists, Olidort still has something interesting to say in his conclusions regarding the external influences from countries in the region regarding the domestic political stances of different Salafist groups. (Read Egypt’s Evolving Salafi Bloc: Puritanism and Pragmatism in an Unstable Region)

When Salafists are left unchecked — Rise of the Salafists in Tunisia: Mokhtar Awad, researcher at the Center for American Progress, writes on the cultural, ideological and socioeconomic rift between Tunisia’s more liberal and cosmopolitan coastal cities and its interior, which has fallen into the thrall of Salafists. “The Salafi Jihadist threat now manifests itself in three ways inside Tunisia. Most critical is the AQIM-affiliate Katibat Uqba ibn Nafi (KUIN), based in the forested Chaambi Mountains, which has waged a low-level insurgency for two-and-a-half years.”

… As we’ve noted in previous issues: “The third threat comes from radical Salafis who have taken over certain mosques and attempt to impose their ideology by menacing people who, in their eyes, have sinned, and radicalizing youth through proselytization.” Awad goes on to outline his policy recommendations for the Tunisian government, which includes “Apolitical, moderate sheikhs must launch a proselytization campaign of their own, presenting a tolerant Islamic message based on the dominant Maliki school and the traditions of Ez-Zitouna University. And, as many have argued, Tunisia’s elites (secular and Ennahda) need to play a larger role in cultivating a modern national identity that puts patriotism and liberalism ahead of laicism.” (Read Dawn of the Salafists)

Also from Politico, Michael Hirsh and Jeff Bartholet write on some of the behind-the scenes in US foreign policy decisionmaking with regard to the intervention in Libya, the failed state whose deleterious effect on the security of Tunisia, along with the aforementioned growing impact of Salafists, can no longer be ignored by the international community. Specifically, the piece focuses on former US Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s inability to extricate herself from the 2012 attack on the American embassy in Benghazi and the Libyan intervention in general. (Read: Beyond Benghazi: Hillary, Sid and Libya)

The double-edged sword of technology on the forthcoming nuclear inspections regime in Iran:written by Patrick Tucker of Defense One, How Technology Will Help Enforce the Iran [Agreement]…And Cheat On It takes a look at how technology is set to both facilitate and obfuscate Iran’s nuclear activities once the inspection regime is in place. Tucker cites as examples the swapping of paper seals on containers and facilities that once required physical inspection, for seals that instead continuously transmit data back to the IAEA in Vienna, along with live camera feeds, as greatly improving the inspection process, along with a host of improved sensory equipment.

What the nuclear agreement may mean to Iran’s proxies: Michael Weiss and Nancy A. Youssef write for The Daily Beast on a focus of concern shared among the Arab states in light of the nuclear accord reached with Iran: the expectation that Iran will use sanction relief not to primarily focus on the development of its country, but rather increasing its support to its proxies, such as Bashar Al Assad. Following the announcement of the nuclear agreement on Tuesday, Assad released a statement addressed to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying “We are confident Iran will continue, and with greater momentum, to support the peoples’ just issues and to work towards establishing peace and stability in the region and the world.” (Read in The Daily Beast)

Saudi’s former spy chief has no kind words on the agreement: Prince Bandar Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, the Saudi ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2005 and the former director general of the Saudi Intelligence Agency, wrote in Thursday’s edition of the Daily Star of Lebanon on his disbelief at the conclusion of the nuclear agreement between the P5+1 and Iran. He argues against comparisons with former US President Bill Clinton’s agreement with North Korea, which the latter of course later reneged. “It will wreak havoc in the Middle East which is already living in a disastrous environment, whereby Iran is a major player in the destabilisation of the region.” (Read Deja vu again)

WORTH WATCHING

The Future of Egypt: A Somalia on the Nile or a Stable, Robust U.S. Ally in the Region? Setting aside the overly-dramatic title, D.C.-based Hudson Institute hosted on Friday, 17 July a panel including Samuel Tadros, (also of the Hudson Institute) Mokhtar Awad of the Center for American Progress, and analyst Jantzen Garnett to discuss the various security challenges facing Egypt. The hour and a half panel is available both as a video and a podcast (links to both on the same page).

PODCAST

Peter Hessler of the New Yorker interviewed by his magazine in 2014 on reporting from Egypt and China: Peter Hessler first made waves in Egypt with his polarizing piece What the Garbageman Knows in October of 2014. During his podcast with The New Yorker, cultural similarities between the Arab world’s most populous nation and the most populous state on earth. While the podcast was posted last week, the interview took place sometime before the presidential election in 2014, as Hessler is still referring to President El Sisi is the minister of defense. (Listen, running time: 30 minutes, the interview with Hessler starts at the 4:21 mark)

ON YOUR WAY OUT

A parting look at Omar Sharif’s life and career from us here at Enterprise, this interview conducted by Daily News Egypt in 2008 is possibly the last filmed interview that Sharif appeared to have given in English. (Watch Omar Sharif on acting, religion, and the future, running time: 8:02)

History of the Internet, Vol. III: Remove cat before flight: What was supposed to be a filmed, 20-minute flight in a light aircraft is cut short when the pilot realizes that a stray cat has stowed away, sandwiching itself inside the left wing, and looking a little worse for wear by the time the plane lands minutes later. (Watch, running time: 2:57)

… and Tom Cruise fills in for the role of the cat in the above video for a stunt he performed himself for the new Mission Impossible movie “Rogue Nation,” as can be seen in the movie’s trailer: (Watch, running time: 2:31). The movie is set for a release date at the end of July in the United States and on 12 August in Egypt. Oddly enough, it would seem that the film’s damsel in distress is the IMF (?), which is under threat of being disbanded (?) in the movie due to the machinations of a shadowy group referred to as the Syndicate. OK…