H.A. Hellyer

Egyptian public opinion finally counts for something. But it's being sorely underestimated by the activists who came from Tahrir. Therein lies a great challenge as Egypt strives to move forward.

The lessons were there from almost day one. The no-vote in the constitutional referendum a year ago was the first...

The Muslim Brotherhood (MB), until after the Egyptian revolution began in 2011, was a civil society movement. It wasn't founded as a militant movement, for martial resistance, nor was it founded as a political movement in order to take power. It was founded out of a civil impulse to reform...

It's been an interesting month in Egypt -- and many are ringing alarm bells about the apparent conversion of Egypt into a theocracy. But the reality may be different -- and we may be heralding the end of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as a political force completely.

I'm writing...

In the decade I spent at the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations at the University of Warwick, I explored the story of pluralism in Europe. It has, historically, been less than positive. Centuries ago, the continent was engaged in religious warfare between different adherents to the mantle of Christianity....

Cairo - There's a new Egypt now -- an Egypt where public opinion actually matters. The country has gone through a tumultuous seven months, and Ramadan provides something of a break from politics, as Muslim communities engage in a month of fasting and spiritual contemplation.

But parliamentary elections are...

It was argued by a number of commentators that there were two issues that the Prime Minister (David Cameron of the Conservative Party) and the Deputy Prime Minister (Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats) had to agree to disagree on in their coalition government in the UK. The first was...

Academia is a good analogy to keep in mind for discussing religious authority in Islam because it is sometimes scholars who operate solely in academic institutions that have just as much (if not more) authority than those scholars who are appointed to religious authority positions within the state. Top scholars...

The Egyptian Revolution Does Not Request, It Demands.

That was one of the public statements of the imam at the Omar Makram mosque in Cairo. That mosque did not use to be so well known -- there are many older, larger, even more beautifully designed mosques all over Cairo...