“Some of the key pillars of Nasser's project proved greatly lacking. The public sector evolved into a Soviet-style system of sterile thinking, a deathbed for talent, a site of mediocre resource allocation, inefficiency, suffocating bureaucracy, waste and decrepit management; in… — Tarek Osman Copy Share Image
“The combination of the land-reform programme and the creation of the public sector resulted in around 75 per cent of Egypt's gross domestic product (GDP) being transferred from the hands of the country's rich either to the state or to… — 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
“Paris on the Nile’ or the ‘finery of Cairo’, Al-Ismailiya – a district to which Ismael gave his name – comprised large, wide avenues,… — Tarek Osman Copy Share Image
“With the sole exception of Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, every single invasion the country witnessed in its history had come from the East. Sinai,… — Tarek Osman Copy Share Image
“Khaled Yousef's Hina Maysara a voyeuristic, smash-hit film, produced in 2007, recounts of the story of Cairene slums – such as Imbaba – in… — Tarek Osman Copy Share Image
