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Routledge Library Editions: Egypt brings together as one set, or individual volumes, a series of previously out-of-print classics from a variety of academic imprints. With titles ranging from Education in Egypt to Egypt in Transition, from Egyptian Religion to Egypt's Economic Potential, this set provides in one place a wealth of important reference sources from a wide range of authors expert in the field.

"Egypt is one of the few great empires of antiquity that exists today as a nation state. Despite its extraordinary record of national endurance, the pressures to which Egypt currently is subjected and which are bound to intensify are already straining the ties that hold its political community together, while rendering ever more difficult the task of governing it. In this timely book, leading expert on Egyptian affairs Robert Springborg explains how a country with such a long and impressive history has now arrived at this parlous condition. As Egyptians become steadily more divided by class, religion, region, ethnicity, gender and contrasting views of how, by whom and for what purposes they should be governed, so their rulers become ever more fearful, repressive and unrepresentative. Caught in a downward spiral in which poor governance is both cause and consequence, Egypt is facing a future so uncertain that it could end up resembling neighboring countries that have collapsed under similar loads. The Egyptian "hot spot", Springborg argues, is destined to become steadily hotter, with ominous implications for its peoples, the Middle East and North Africa, and the wider world." (Publisher's description)

Ayman Nour, a former member of the Egyptian parliament & the founder of the Al-Ghad (Tomorrow) party, was arrested & imprisoned in January 2005 on charges of forging signatures in connection with the establishment of the party, charges that he strongly denied & that were widely regarded as spurious. Released in March 2005 & allowed to run for the presidency, Nour finished second in the September presidential elections with more than seven percent of the vote. In December 2005, however, he was sentenced to five years in prison. In June 2006, the letter below from Nour to Edward McMillan-Scott, vice-president of the European Parliament, was smuggled out of prison. Adapted from the source document.