For all the criticism it unleashed, the blast appears to have forged a consensus that Egypt, despite its historic tradition of moderate Islamic thinking and multicultural tolerance, has in recent years become overwhelmed by fundamentalist religious identification, a position that until now the government strongly denied.**********
“There is no room for political participation, which makes them susceptible to the conservative religious discourse. If there were real elections, if there was real representation, if there was any real participation by the people, then the political decisions could be more appropriate and address all these problems.”
“I think that 2010 was a very, very bad year in the history of Egypt,” said Mona Makram-Ebeid, a former member of Parliament from a prominent Christian family. “Will this be a national awakening? If not, it might portend very, very dangerous days to come.”
UPDATE: Just heard the CBC 11:00 news
Apparently half of the 5,000 people taking continuing education (Ontario government subsidised, btw) language programs in Ottawa... are studying Arabic.
Not sure I even believe that number... but, if it's true... why are we, the taxpayer, footing this particular bill?