In 1959, Elie Moreno, then a 19-year-old sophomore engineering student at Purdue University in Indiana, visited the Egyptian port city of Alexandria on his summer vacation, and brought his camera. Moreno, an Egyptian of Sephardic Jewish descent, had been born in Alexandria and raised in Cairo. But the Egypt in which he had grown up, the milieu of the country’s multi-ethnic urban elite, was fast disappearing; the summer of 1959 was the last Moreno would see of it.

The pictures from Moreno’s collection, taken on the 1959 visit and several beach trips in previous years, capture the last days of an Alexandria that would be all but unrecognizable today, in which affluent young Egyptians of Arab, Sephardic, and European descent frolic in a landscape of white sand beaches, sailboats, and seaside cabanas. Two years later, in 1961, the structural steel company Moreno’s father ran was nationalized by Nasser, and his family left for the United States shortly thereafter. Moreno, who went on to found a semiconductor company in Los Angeles, wouldn’t visit his birthplace until he was well into middle age.But the memories aren’t all bittersweet. The woman on the far left in the above photograph, taken on Alexandria’s Mediterranean coast in 1955, is Odette Tawil, whom Moreno first met in Alexandria in the summer of 1959. Reunited in the United States years later, they visited Egypt together in 1998, to get married.

Foreign Policy: Once Upon a Time in Egypt – SE også Once Upon a Time in Afghanistan… – længe før Anders Fogh og nu Nick Hækkerup og svenske soldater med løst krudt ville demokratisere det. Foto-essays af de mægtiges afmægtighed. – (Massakren den 9. oktober i Cairo var måske værre end Krystalnatten 1938 i Nazityskland. JP Leder: Kopternes kvaler. Islamistiske partier står til at vinde det kommende valg stort: From Arab Spring to Islamist summer) En ven af bloggen, Cherif El-Ayouty, der er født i Egypten, men bor i Danmark, skriver til os:

Many countries throughout human history have been destroyed by one mean or another. It could have been nature, it could have been wars, it could have been famine, it could have been economic ruin but I have experienced first hand a country that has been destroyed systematically by persons who appear to have graduated from universities in which their Ph.D’s were all based on the science of country destruction.For 60 years, the leaders of Egypt have managed to turn around a perfectly healthy country on all fronts, into a country with no future, no money, no principles, no values, no religion, no law, no order, no industry, no health, no education, no knowledge, no social fabric, no morals, no intelligence, no leadership, no hygiene, no vision, no weight, no planning, no organisation, no character, no beauty, no taste, no freedom, no justice and no hope.Egypt is dying and the fanatic dogs are eating it alive.My Egypt does not exist anymore

Interview med en eksileret egyptisk jøde: Bat Ye’or

Less well known is the saga of Bat Ye’or’s family ejection from Egypt as stateless persons following the first Sinai War in 1956. Deprived of resources they made their way to exile in England. This interview with Bat Ye’or focuses on her experience and that of her family as Jews in Egypt during this tumultuous period following the founding of the State of Israel and the Free Officers Movement coup in Egypt. It touches on her family heritage; her meeting with her future husband while both were students at London University’s Institute of Archeology, their marriage and their little known exploits in clandestinely saving Moroccan Jewish children and enabling their emigration to Israel. Both Bat Ye’or and her husband David Littman were honored in 2009 for this rescue known by Littman’s code name, Operation Mural. An Egyptian Jew in Exile: An Interview with Bat Ye’or (Foto: David, Gisèle and Diana Littman – Casablanca (June 22, 1961) – Snaphanens fotos af Bat Ye ‘ or her, her og her.

Somaliere forårsager racespændinger i finske Karelen

Muslim prayers begin on the ground floor of the Lieksa workers’ hall, where a room has been converted into a mosque. Pieces of tape on the rugs indicate the direction of Mecca. Perhaps it is the harsh October weather that keeps the turnout low. There are about 20 people there now; on the busiest days up to 90 people will show up.The popularity of the mosque, which opened in the summer, has not gone unnoticed in the small North Karelian town.With its population of just over 12,500, the number of asylum seekers who have been granted residence permits has rapidly risen to about 220 [..]

The proportion of approved asylum seekers is much lower than in Helsinki, for instance, but especially the appearance of Somalis in the community has led to a major heightening of tensions.The Chief of Police of North Karelia, Kai Markkula, is worried. Racial tensions heighten in North Karelian town of Lieksa.

Kreativ hån og spot af pænheden, men det forkerte sted

Man kan altid debattere hvornår forstyrrende indgreb i fredelige og lovlige aktiviteter kunne være berettiget – eksempelvis ved et kønsadskilt Hizb ut-Tahrir-arrangement. Men at forstyrre en af de cirkler som pænheden er så glade for (jfr. min billedgoogling af “multicultural” i går) bringer os kun ned på de autonomes niveau. Grisemasker og manisk dans kunne være den perfekte parodi, bare ikke lige her. Let the Circle be Unbroken (LFPC).

Every month in Cannes, France, xenomaniac do-gooders hold a ‘Circle of Silence’ to protest against the repatriation of illegal immigrants. They hold up placards calling for passers-by to stop and join the ‘Circle of Silence’ for a few minutes. Last week, some activists from the French nationalist group Cannes-Identitaire took up the offer. French Nationalists Enter the ‘Circle of Silence’