academics-from-egypt

"Rather like the way the Hubble Space Telescope has made a significant contribution to astronomy in enabling astronomers to discover hidden structures and properties of our distant universe, dynamic geometry software has allowed new worlds to become viewable and tangible in mathematics and particularly in geometry."

"The culture was foreign, the language was difficult, but my hopes were high."

"Arriving in the States, I had the feeling of being thrown into an ocean. The ocean was full of knowledge, culture and opportunities, and the choice was clear: I could either learn to swim or sink."

"The intensive exchange of information between the 40 scientists and the way in which research methods and experiments were very closely linked with theoretical models really impressed me"

"If we want to improve the current conditions of Muslims, we must first liberate them from the men of religion."

"Religion, in itself, does not require an institution, for it is a very personal relation between man and God."

"Every religious institution will strive to deform the image of religion."

"Rising extremism can only be fought by reviving Islamic philosophy and modernist thinking."

"This is not true of Islam only but of Judaism and Christianity."

"The intellectual, social and political context is affected by the deep impregnation of societies by Salafist currents which have succeeded, even partially, to suppress the recourse to common sense and dialogue.."

"When I returned to Cairo, I would ideally have liked to have taken the University of Ulm with me."

"No revenge acts were taken during my mayorship."

"The objective now is not to renegotiate our dreams, but to emphasize the accountability of all actors through detailed discussions of goals, targets, achievements and failures. We are no longer seeking promises, but are demanding action."

"The Beijing platform should no longer be viewed as a set of simple goals and aspirations, but must be used as a tool to push for the adoption of gender-sensitive policies."

"The majority of African women are still denied education and employment, and have limited opportunities in trade, industry and government."

"Gender disparities still exist. Such disparities undermine not only women's capacity to participate in and benefit from development, but also the effectiveness of development as a whole. This is the reason for the president's insistence that illiteracy must be eliminated within a short period of time."

"Hikmat recounted that although Ms. Nazla was against her involvement in the demonstrations, and even suspended her as a result, Ms. Nazla sent a letter to the League of Nations, on Hikmat’s behalf, protesting against the brutal treatment of the demonstrating citizens."

"Hikmat recalled that she travelled to the distant villages and precincts to revive the spirit of national resistance and perseverance. She devoted her articles in al-Gomhouria Newspaper to raise political awareness, and spread the national spirit by discussing models and representations from Egyptian history."

"Hikmat recalled Ms. Ihsan al-Qousi, as well as Ms. Nazla al-Hakim, who cared a lot about her students, both personally and academically, and was keen to listen to their complaints, and to encourage them to give their opinions."

"The real danger that the world faces is Islam, in its prevalent form in our Arab and Islamic world."

"Islamic heritage froze a thousand years ago, in the fourth century of Islam. Since then it has not moved forward, has not evolved, and has not renewed itself."

"I’m talking about our defeat and about realizing that we are worthless, that we are the dregs of the Earth’s nations. I was still a student when I said that we were in the garbage bin of nations. We are in the garbage bin of nations, and we don’t even know it. We feel as if we are like the Pharaohs, like Ramesses, and so on."

"All scorpions sting. Some scorpions have actually killed someone, while other scorpions have not killed yet. The only difference between them is that the latter have not had the chance to kill yet. They have not had the chance to perform the best act that brings you close to Allah. The best act that brings you close to Allah is storming into the enemy's midst. The best act that brings you close to Allah is the duty of jihad."

"I do believe that encyclopedias are dead as dodos in the old fashioned way. Let me just go back, because earlier around I was interviewed and I said: The book will always be with us. Books - we used to read in scrolls and then they got invented the codex which is basically the form of the book. It has not been improved on. It's like scissors, like a spoon, and like a hammer. It's technology that's perfect in itself and will remain very good. But: What about the content inside of it? Now, there are books that you read for information. And there what you want to do is how to get the information. And it is infinitely more efficient, of higher quality, to use digital sources rather than the published sources for references. So dictionaries and encyclopedias are not going to be done in this very ponderous way of having old books that by the time they come out the information in them is obsolete. Second, you have to search in all of these and open the pages and then you go to an index and come back whereas you can type to search in. [...] But if you want to hold in your hand a slim volume, nicely bound, of the love sonnets of Shakespeare or historical romans, that's a different story. There is the book as artifact, there is the joy in holding the book. And there is an efficiency in the book that you can carry with you in different ways. But I think that the encyclopedias and the dictionaries really are providing a service. And that service can be provided so much more efficiently online that they are bound to change. And if they don't change themselves and go online themselves … I mean, the old providers, like Britannica, will go online, will provide it, and will try to, in fact, compete with the model that Wikipedia pioneered."