The Brotherhood’s Man in London

Out of all the places to meet Zuheir Salem, the number two man of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood (SMB), a David Brent-style office in Alperton, north London, is probably the least expected. The office of the SMB is so elusive that even the security guard does not know what the SMB are or what they do. According to him, it is some sort of charity where lots of Middle Eastern-looking types come in for meetings and leave late. “I don’t ask any questions, boss—if you know what I mean,” he say...

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Copts’ Uneasy State Relations

“The Muslims and Copts are one hand” was one slogan that could be heard ringing out across Tahrir Square throughout the Egyptian revolution. More than two years later, a mob of Egyptian Muslims doused Copt Saber Helal with gasoline and set him on fire in a town north of Cairo. How times change—or not. In reality, the Tahrir Square unity was the aberration, not last week’s sectarian violence. Egypt’s Coptic community—comprising approximately ten percent of the overall populatio...

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