The head of the Coptic Church in Egypt, Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria, has been leading a process of reform since he assumed the papacy in 2012. His reformist approach includes both internal measures related to religious rituals and an external one linked to rapprochement with the Catholic and Protestant churches. However, his reformist ideas […]

As the Chinese government showcases its success in controlling the pandemic, much media attention has called into question the accuracy of the government-reported official count of coronavirus cases in China. However, beyond the Chinese government’s campaign to downplay the severity of the pandemic in China, the lack of transparency in authoritarian regimes around the world […]

Many Egyptian intellectuals celebrated the appointment of Ahmed Al-Tayeb as head of al-Azhar in March 2010. With his Sufi background and his career in education as a professor of philosophy who studied in France, Al-Tayeb was presented as a reformist scholar who could lead a renewal process in Egypt’s oldest religious institution. This image was […]