Mubarak criminal liability: is it a fair trial after the revolution or a drama series?

Divided in four parts, this article will describe a succinct background of former President Mubarak in history, military, and politics and why the Egyptian Revolution had been broken against him and his regime as well. Then will provide the main rules and principles of the leadership’s liability through comparing this concept under Islamic law and the domestic law (Egyptian Penal Code) and how to apply those legal principles to the recent case of Mubarak’s trial which known by the Media as a “Trial of the Century.” At the end of the article looks to the future of this responsibility in light of recent developments throughout the whole Middle East

A question to the President of the United States, Donald Trump: is it a travel ban, or a Muslim ban, or a travel Muslim ban?

Recently, the United States Supreme Court passed a victory to the current President Donald J. Trump by revitalizing parts of a travel ban on individuals from six Muslim-majority countries that he alleged is needed for national security and the interests of the United States but that adversaries criticize and claim as biased and discriminatory. The justices lessened the scope of lower court decisions that had entirely blocked crucial parts of a March 6, 2017 executive order that Trump had said was required to avert terrorism attacks, permitting his temporary ban to go into effect for folks with no strong ties to the United States. In this domain, the court issued its order on the last day of its current term and agreed to hear oral arguments again at a later stage, so it can decide lastly whether the ban is legitimate in a foremost test of presidential powers and controls

Corruption and Bribery in Islamic Law: Are Islamic Ideals Being Met in Practice?

Islam looks to a significant degree to moral development within the individual to strengthen resolve and foster self-restraint. The focus is upon shaping the higher-order preferences elaborated in the Qur’an and the Sunnah through the law of Sharie‘a, reinforced by a powerful spiritual incentive system. Both legal systems—domestic and international—can learn from the Islamic legal system. To get a better understanding of this law, Part I will present a brief survey of Islamic law and Fiqh (“Islamic Jurisprudence”), sources of this law, the famous Islamic schools of jurisprudence (“Fiqh Al-Mazaheb/madhhabs”), and then an overview of the fundamental legal principles in the Sharie‘a penal system. The purpose of this article is to present a comprehensive Islamic legal description on corruption in so far as its definition, elements and types of crimes, causes, and remedies are concerned, which will be covered in Parts II and III. Part V concludes that like positive criminal laws, bribery and corruption are taboo in Sharie‘a law because they are considered grave criminal offenses and a great sin. However, Muslim nations have been deficient in addressing the issue in their national laws and have failed to meet the lofty standards of Islam. Cite as: 18 Annl. Survey Int\u27l. Comp. L. 171 (2012)

Perception of women in Egyptian advertising

This research investigates the relationship between Egyptian Mass Media coverage and the perception of the Egyptian audience towards women’s physical appearance in Egyptian Advertising (TV and Magazines). In TV commercials, stereotypes are associated with women. Research indicates that media can generate a continued negative imagery and stereotypes, in particular towards women. There is an obvious inconsistency in the way women dress demonstrating that they are habitually portrayed as more sexual objects than are men. Hopefully, this research would move ahead feminist view towards disparity in the depiction of sexuality and roles of women along the years. In spite of the fact that the study has shown an indication towards the emergence of an innovative tendency towards revealing women equal to men; nevertheless, stereotyping towards women still exists. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of research were applied in this research, which is the ‘perception of women in Egyptian advertising’. In this research, the sample was a “Purposive Non-Random” composed of both genders. Qualitative research was used to gain the insight into the Egyptian society perception of women in Egyptian Media. Then a quantitative research was used to conclude the results and be able to describe the perception of the population under study

The prohibition of wearing veil in public schools in Egypt: an analysis of the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court jurisprudence

Case No.8 of 1996 is a landmark decision of the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court (“SCC”) and represents one of the most significant judicial rulings of a structural remedy for the interpretation of Article 2 of Egypt 2014 Constitution. The jurisprudence of the SCC is essential to advance a moderate (liberal), rights-protecting interpretation of Sharie‘a. In this case, the SCC held that a rule on face-veiling in public schools is compatible not only with Islamic law, but with certain human rights guaranteed by the Constitution:, as freedom of expression and freedom of religion. This decision dealt with the SCC’s view on Islamic ijtihad (legal reasoning), and, gives insight into the Court’s views on civil and political rights context

Non-Linear Finite Element Analysis of RC Beams With Special Detailing of Stirrups

1 ABSTRACT The paper includes the development and application of a non-linear finite element model for studying the structural behavior of beams designed using a flexure-shear interaction model. A two-dimensional material model with elasto-plastic and quadratic hardening function is used for concrete. The model takes the influence of confinement due to stirrups into considerations. The cracks propagation is modeled using a rotating crack smeared model. A modified quadratic Lagrange isoparametric element is used for modeling the concrete. This modeling allows variable positions of the interior nodes on both the edge and within the element. A bilinear elasto-plastic model is used for steel. The effect of tension stiffening and tension softening is considered in the analysis. Each bar of the reinforcement is modeled using either a discrete or a smeared model. A quadratic one dimensional isoparametric element is used for steel. The flexure-shear interaction design model considers the influence of shear force on reducing the flexural capacity of beams. The full flexural capacity is achieved by providing the load path within the beam with confinement stirrups. The beneficial influence of confinement on the strength and ductility of concrete is utilized in preventing the brittle shear failure. The test results have confirmed the applicability of the developed non-linear finite element and the flexure-shear interaction models. There was a good matching between the test results and the finite element analysis. 2 INTRODUCTION Normal size and short beams subjected to transverse loading may fail by diagonal cracking due to shear if they are not provided with web reinforcement. Traditional design methods for shear [1,2] are based on truss analogy developed by Mrsh one century ago [3]. These approaches do not necessary represent actual behavior of beams. They ignore the shear-flexure interaction behavior. The beam is first designed for flexure then checked for shear. The nominal (average) shear strength " bd V v = " assumed to occur on a section perpendicular to the beam axis is not a real indicator for shear strength of the beam since failure occurs along diagonal surface due the development of tensile stresses. The applied shear is assumed to be resisted by the concrete shear strength through beam and/or arch actions while the remaining shear is resisted by shear reinforcement through a truss action. The assumption of simultaneous occurrence of three actions to resist applied shear is totally unrealistic since this would result in strain incompatibility. Recognizing these limitations, a more realistic approach for shear design "flexure-shear interaction design model" has been developed based on actual behavior of beams [4]

Facebook to Mobilize, Twitter to Coordinate Protests, and YouTube to Tell the World : New Media, Cyberactivism, and the Arab Spring

Research on media and contentious politics in the Arab world point to the vital role that social media played in the Arab Spring. For the purposes of this article, the Arab Spring is defined as a series of demonstrations and democratic uprisings—and in the cases of Libya, Syria, and Yemen armed rebel movements—that arose independently and spread across the Arab world from Tunisia and Egypt to Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, and Syria in 2010-2011 and beyond. This article advances the theoretical assumption that while not causing the Arab uprisings, New Media (defined here as all forms of digital communication technology including satellite television, cell phones, social networking, video-blogging, and citizen journalism platforms that allow broader dissemination and participation than traditional print or broadcast media) provided the technical infrastructure for these uprisings to develop, sustain, and intensify over relatively short periods. With this assumption at its focus, this paper digs out the political, economic, social, and cultural roots of the Arab Spring. It explores how Arabs’ hunger for decentralized news and information paved the road for the organic growth of a new breed of Arab “citizen journalists.” It describes how New Media technologies, which Larry Diamond (2012) of Stanford University calls “Liberation Technologies” have combined words and images on iPhones, Blackberries, laptops, and social media platforms and managed to turn previously underground oppositions in several Arab countries into Virtual Public Spheres. It explains how the so-called “Generation-in-Waiting” who could no longer wait and took to the streets in waves of demonstrations against police brutality, economic deprivation, corruption and dictatorship. It then examines how these Liberation Technologies helped to convert Arab subjects into engaged citizens. It assesses how these revolutionaries broke the government monopoly on traditional media and used New Media to mobilize, organize, and take to the streets. Furthermore, it explains how this enabled the Arab revolutionaries to “occupy” in a matter of days, not just the virtual cyber-space, but also the physical space including Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis, Tahrir Square in Cairo, Pearl Square in Manama, and the University Quarter in Sanaa, which ultimately brought the fall of entrenched dictators Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. Finally, the paper addresses the challenges academics have, and will likely continue to face, as we seek to measure, analyze, and assess the role of social media in political dissent and revolution

Enhancing FastSLAM 2.0 performance using a DE Algorithm with Multi-mutation Strategies

FastSLAM 2.0 is considered one of the popular approaches that utilizes a Rao-Blackwellized particle filter for solving simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) problems. It is computationally efficient, robust and can be used to handle large and complex environments. However, the conventional FastSLAM 2.0 algorithm is known to degenerate over time in terms of accuracy because of the particle depletion problem that arises in the resampling phase. In this work, we introduce an enhanced variant of the FastSLAM 2.0 algorithm based on an enhanced differential evolution (DE) algorithm with multi-mutation strategies to improve its performance and reduce the effect of the particle depletion problem. The Enhanced DE algorithm is used to optimize the particle weights and conserve diversity among particles. A comparison has been made with other two common algorithms to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm in estimating the robot and landmarks positions for a SLAM problem. Results are accomplished in terms of accuracy represented by the positioning errors of robot and landmark positions as well as their root mean square errors. All results show that the proposed algorithm is more accurate than the other compared algorithms in estimating the robot and landmark positions for all the considered cases. It can reduce the effect of the particle depletion problem and improve the performance of the FastSLAM 2.0 algorithm in solving SLAM problem

After the Revolution: Egypt\u27s Changing Forms of Corruption

Egypt’s revolution of January 25, 2011 was impelled by a desire to eliminate “conventional corruption,” a particular kind of corruption that occurs when government officials illegally abuse public office for private gain. Illegal quid pro quo transactions, including acts of bribery, are prominent examples of conventional corruption. This form of corruption is to be contrasted with “unconventional corruption,” a form of corruption that has (thus far) been absent in Egypt. Unconventional corruption occurs when elected officials put personal campaign finances ahead of the public interest without engaging in a quid pro quo transaction. These different forms, conventional and unconventional corruption, are not necessarily exhaustive of the universe of corruption. However, classification of corruption in these terms serves a purpose: when conventional corruption decreases, there is often a correlating increase in unconventional corruption. This relationship is relevant for purposes of analyzing corruption in Egypt because Egypt’s new constitution, although imperfect, provides for greater restraints on executive power, and thus, in turn provides a foundation for a reduction in conventional corruption. However, as a result, problems of unconventional corruption are likely to emerge. Fortunately, unconventional corruption is not an inevitable side effect of progress—it can be contained. With a certain bit of insight and courage, the people of Egypt can reform their campaign finance system and bring forth a true democracy—one where elected officials make decisions not for the benefit of potential political funders, but rather, for the benefit of the people