Business as Usual in Our Region

Now that Christmas (at least the Western one) is past, I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday as you try to figure out what to do  with all those partridges and lords-a-leaping and other gifts, but I fear the Middle East does not spend very long focused on peace on earth,

Egypt has, of course, banned the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization in the wake of the bombing of the Reichstag Security HQ in Mansura, even though credit for that attack was claimed  by the Jihadi Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, and the referendum on the new constitution is being pushed as a test of loyalty; in Iraq, Christmas saw multiple attacks on churches; and South Sudan is coming apart.

Back to business as usual.