Reviving Middle Eastern Liberalism

From Ottoman times in the 1850s until the rise of Nasser and the Free Officers' regime in the mid-20th century, Egypt and other countries in the Middle East enjoyed a kind of Liberal Age that saw civil society, NGOs, and the rule of law advance. Some institutions born during the Liberal Age endure. In March 2003, one of these, the Egyptian Court of Cassation, overturned the Hosni Mubarak government's jailing of Saad Eddin Ibrahim and its June 2000 shutdown of his Cairo-based Ibn Khaldun Center. Dr. Ibrahim spoke at the NED about his prison sentence, his winning legal case, and his hopes for a rebirth of Middle Eastern liberalism.