It has long since become cliché to wax poetic about the momentous changes that are now sweeping the Middle East.

With the gathering of students, professors, and large numbers from the non-Columbia Egyptian and Arab community, it was clear that the movement of enthusiasm and energy lit by the revolutions themselves were mirrored by a surge of academic and practical interest among those outside the country.

On Sunday, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Egypt announced that it would nominate Khairat el-Shater as its nominee for the presidential elections in May.

With Egypt’s constitutional assembly beginning the following day, Saturday’s Egypt Symposium, hosted by Turath, the Arab Students Association, could not have been hosted at a better time.

Over the weekend, Coptic Christians all over the world mourned the death of their Church’s leader, known as Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria.

The facile idea of a pure dichotomy of America and Israel against its enemies is too simplistic. Recalibrating this perspective is even more urgent now that its power is being applied to drive Israel and Iran toward a potentially disastrous war.

Last column, I wrote about the events in the Middle East as a sort of “grand game” between Israel and the United States against Iran. Recently, some commentators and writers have gone as far as to insinuate that what we are seeing is an attempt to destabilize and overthrow a regime that is, in some fashion, legitimate.

This week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran asserted that Iran was ready for negotiations on its nuclear (weapons) program. Indeed, he insisted that it always had been, and that European and American declarations to the contrary were, in fact, “excuses.”

Dr. Wahhab or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love (Or At Least, Not Fear) the Islamists

Syria's Suspension

Qaddafi's Death on Display

This week, the long captured soldier Gilad Shalit will be released in exchange for nearly 1,000 Palestinian prisoners convicted – in Israeli courts – for list of crimes of varying degrees of violence.

Syria: The Danger of Diversity

The age of the Arab dictator is over. The current wave of unrest sweeping the Middle East has deposed two dictators, spilt much blood and fundamentally shaken the status quo. Already, the movement that began with a few street demonstrations in Tunis has led to a regime change in Egypt and threatens to overthrow the monarchy in Bahrain, a military regime in Libya, a dictatorship in Yemen and many other governments throughout the region. What could possibly have caused this stunning political shockwave across the Arab world?