Harry's Place

Although it is unclear exactly how many Copts have left Egypt in the wake of a string of violent incidents and many deaths, it is hardly surprising that a good number of those who are able to move – generally the wealthier and more educated – are choosing to do so.
Coptic Christians celebrated Easter yesterday, [...]

Well done to Egyptian TV host Riham Said for removing her headscarf and generally getting in the face of an intolerant cleric she was interviewing.

This is a cross-post by Paul Canning

This horrific image, which I make no apologies for posting, comes from the Ugandan Parliament.
The Ugandan lesbian activist Kasha Jacqueline posted it on Twitter. It is an example of the sort of disgusting anti-gay crap being distributed to Ugandan Members of Parliament. Kasha said it left her “sobbing” and pleading [...]

After being charged by the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government of Egypt with insulting President Mohamed Morsi and Islam (the charges were dropped thanks to publicity from Jon Stewart and others), TV political satirist Bassem Youssef was not intimidated:

While I am generally skeptical of comparisons to Nazi Germany, in the case of Egypt’s MB there is a [...]

After the Egyptian government arrested TV political satirist Bassem Youssef on charges of insulting President Mohamed Morsi and Islam (he has been released on bail), his fellow TV political satirist, Jon Stewart, came to Youssef’s defense in a brilliant segment on “The Daily Show” (available on YouTube for a change):

The US embassy in Cairo tweeted [...]

First, via UN Watch’s email briefings, here is a report which is more surreal than surprising: 
GENEVA, March 13 - At the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, Syria accused Israel of violating human rights of children in the Golan, while diplomats met in another chamber on the same day to discuss a Syrian-drafted resolution, to be adopted [...]

Writing at The New Republic, Paul Berman picks up on something that I think clear-eyed observers of the Arab Spring will have sensed:
It appears to be the case that, in one zone after another, the vast regional revolution that used to be known as the Arab Spring (except that springtime has lasted two years now, [...]

Like Herbert Hoover, another Republican president with a record of calamitous economic failure, George W. Bush also deserves to be remembered for a tremendous foreign humanitarian success.

Tens of thousands of Tunisians turned out for the funeral of the assassinated opposition leader Chokri Belaid– a leftwing secularist and a staunch critic of the Islamist Ennahda Party government.

Many of those mourning Belaid expressed anger at the government, which they accuse of allowing a climate of political violence to spread unchecked.
On the capital’s central [...]

That would appear to be the message of Seumas Milne and the Stop the War Coalition to the people of Timbuktu and elsewhere in northern Mali recently liberated with the help of French forces from the rule of Islamist extremists.