Understanding Egypt's Islamist Turn. Egypt’s temporary ruling government, or Supreme Military Council, decided against publishing the results of the first round of elections to the People's Assembly, or parliamentary lower house.
This reflected shock and worry over the unexpected success of the Salafist Al Nour movement—which, according to Al Jazeera and other knowledgable observers, won 24.4 percent of the popular vote in first-round districts, including Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. While the 36.6 percent reportedly won by the Muslim Brotherhood's "Freedom and Justice" list was no surprise, it was considered remarkable that the two Islamist parties together apparently netted almost two-thirds of the popular vote (which may, in the end, give them an even larger proportion of the seats in the lower house).
Egypt's other districts, by and large more rural and less educated, are expected to produce results at least as favorable, if not more so for the fundamentalists. Kristof’s Dinner With Islamists. The New York Times has a long history of publishing disingenuous articles and columns that whitewashed totalitarians and tyrants.
It’s not easy to top Walter Duranty’s Pulitzer Prize-winning lies about Stalin and the terror famine in the Ukraine which took the lives of millions; Herbert Matthews’s portrayal of Fidel Castro as a democrat freedom-fighter; or, more recently, Roger Cohen’s attempt to depict the Islamist regime in Iran as unthreatening philo-Semites who were not oppressing that country’s tiny Jewish remnant.
And it must be said that as bad as it was, Nicholas Kristof’s column today depicting members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood as just an updated Middle Eastern version of “Ozzie and Harriet,” falls short of those epic frauds. But we can’t say that Kristof isn’t trying hard to equal their feats of dishonesty. Kristof listens and transcribes meekly when his Brotherhood hosts tell him with a straight face all they care about is jobs.
Ultraconservative Islamist Party Reshapes Egypt’s Politics. The comedian and filmmaker has been the smartest and funniest person in the room since he was in high school (maybe even earlier).
Here he's profiled just after making his first film. Albert Brooks’ second album, A Star is Bought, is the best comedy record most of you have probably never heart. It was never released on CD and it’s not available on ITunes. And that’s a shame because the record—which was made in collaboration with Harry Shearer—is one of the finest comedy albums ever made.
Never mind that it was nominated for a Grammy or that it was in many ways a precursor to faux-documentary style of This Is Spinal Tap, it Albert in top form. According to Paul Slansky, who wrote “Everybody Should Have an Albert” for The Village Voice in March 1979, Brooks owns the rights to A Star is Bought, he just isn’t motivated to re-release it. C'mon, Albert: Please. He knows funny when he sees it which is why he was a beauty fit to write about Albert. So whatever happened to Albert Brooks? Political Islam: Everywhere on the rise.