“Ibn Taimiyah spent years hunting down any philosophical interpretation that appeared to deviate from the literalist, ‘clear’ interpretation of the Koran. He was especially scathing of the Sufis, the mystics of Islam, who, in earlier ages, had produced some of… — Tarek Osman Copy Share Image
“most intellectually intriguing episode in Ibn Hanbal's life was his fierce struggle with Al-Mutazillah, an isolationist school of Islamic philosophy that flourished in the eighth and ninth centuries in parts of Iraq and the Levant and which started with advocating… — Tarek Osman Copy Share Image
“Even the weighty Salafist voices (for example, Mohamed Seleem Al-Awaa,19 Mohamed Al-Ghazali,20 Fahmi Howeidy21 and Gamal Al-Banna22) were sidelined as ‘too intellectual’.” — Tarek Osman Copy Share Image
“Between 1991 and 1993, the militants had virtually taken complete control of Imbaba, replacing the government as the social arbiter. The situation reached a… — Tarek Osman Copy Share Image
“At that time, a grand Arabic project emanating from Cairo had credibility. That is not true today. The relative standing of Egyptians (the country,… — Tarek Osman Copy Share Image
“There was a major demographic boom in Egypt from the 1980s, in which the population almost doubled from around 45 million to 80 million,… — Tarek Osman Copy Share Image
“the factor that really cemented the Brotherhood's social re-emergence, and founded the Islamic movement's social base, was its highly efficient services infrastructure.” — Tarek Osman Copy Share Image
“Luxor attack in 1997 in which Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya killed fifty-eight tourists and four Egyptians outside a pharaonic temple. In the same year, an ambush… — Tarek Osman Copy Share Image
“Cairo itself was founded under their rule in 969, as was Al-Azhar (whose name is derived from that of Al-Zahraa). The dynasty also inaugurated… — Tarek Osman Copy Share Image
“But the society became characterized by a unique mix of Sunni theology and Shi'ite social traditions. Al-Azhar evolved and consolidated its unique status; and… — Tarek Osman Copy Share Image
“The Alexandria Bourse (the fourth largest worldwide) and the Cairo stock exchange were sizable, international markets. In fact, the story of the Alexandria Bourse… — Tarek Osman Copy Share Image
“In general, the liberal experiment seemed to have failed to put forward a development programme for the country's poor, who continued to constitute more… — Tarek Osman Copy Share Image
