Readers' corner

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A right

Sir-- Good for you Egypt. Democracy does not mean daily chaos and deaths. Egypt has every right -- especially under the current exceptional circumstances the country is experiencing -- to scrutinise who is being funded to do what on its soil. As for the $1.3 billion in annual aid, the US should realise that her interests in and around stable and friendly Egypt far exceed the $1.3 billion a year.

Samhan Berney
Jeddah
Saudi Arabia

Behind the scenes

Sir-- This makes me wonder what is going on in the background that is not being revealed. For Egypt to be taking the chance on missing out on all of the foreign aid money slated to go to it from the US seems to indicate that there have been deals made with other countries. Part of whatever deal Egypt might have made may include making an example out of the Americans who are involved in the democratic movement in Egypt.

Linda Watt
Texas
USA

Must continue

Sir-- Seems like somebody in Egypt resents Obama meddling in Egypt's affairs. We cannot have that. Obama cannot have his new world order run by the Islamists if we stopped meddling.

Tommy Howard
California
USA

Violence the answer

Sir-- So the people are fighting the police because they are "outraged" that the police did not stop the people from killing 74 people over a soccer game. When there are numerous influential organisations spewing hate and violence from every direction, violence becomes the tool to which every problem gets solved.

Philip Frye
Washington
USA

Strange behaviour

Sir-- The police can tear gas the protesters but couldn't tear gas those on a murderous rampage in the sports stadium? Protesters angry at police because they couldn't handle a riot... riot again?

Ron Schmidt
New York
USA

Not from abroad

Sir-- It's a shame that Egypt and other countries are now following and using the comments of a brutal Syrian dictator, that all the unrest and violence is due to foreigners. It's not foreigners who moved the Egyptians into protesting for a better country. It was the examples in the Middle East, the Arab Spring, not "Western and European" foreigners as the Armed Forces are attempting to suggest.

Aimee Youssef
Cairo
Egypt

Waking up

Sir-- Maybe El-Baradei finally figured out that in a country in which 80 per cent of the population support basing the country's laws on Sharia he can't be elected or supported by the population.

John Kooperstein
New York
USA

Man in Canada

Sir-- Re 'Where is the sense of honour?' (Al-Ahram Weekly 2-8 February) the author says, "The flip side of honour crime is rape." No. The flip side is men who cannot control themselves. In all instances. Muslim women move to Canada and discover freedom from archaic traditions. It's the men who have a difficult time with modern Canadian culture as they see their empty authority diminished. One cannot move to another country, another culture and not expect life to change. That would be very foolish, or delusional, to think your children and family will be unaffected. If you don't like the morals and values of Canadians, don't come here. Go somewhere else.

Kathleen O'Grady
Vancouver
Canada

Never to improve

Sir-- You wrote 'The Afghan dust is settling' (Al-Ahram Weekly 19-25 January) presumably well before the recent event of an Afghan officer killing and wounding many French occupying forces. Sarkozy is all upset, saying that this is not fair, and he will bring French forces home early.

It is probably the case, nowadays, that nation states, once broken into pieces, cannot be restored. Nations rest on the state having a monopoly on violence, or at least more violence capability than criminals or rebels. In our current world, with the availability of weapons and communications, it is very hard for a national government to achieve that advantage. Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan soonÂê¦ once a nation is broken it cannot easily go back together again. The moral is, do not destroy a nation in order to make it better. It will never become better.

Floyd Rudmin
Oslo
Norway