mr. karim haggag, who is a career egyptian diplomat spending this year as a visiting faculty member at the near east south asia center of the national defense university here in washington, d.c., where he is focusing on the implications of the arab revolutions. prior to this, he was at the egyptian press information office in washington, d.c., from 2007 to 2011. from 2002 to 2007 he served in the office of the presidency in cairo, responsible for u.s./egyptian relations and economic policy coordination. he did a previous stint in washington at the egyptian embassy where he was responsible for political military affairs and arab/israeli issues. he holds a bachelor's degree in international politics from the american university of cairo and a masters degree in war studies from kings college in london. thank you for being here. to my far right is mr. thomas groguissian, who has been a journalist and writer for the past 30 years and has written extensively about egyptian politics and u.s. policy. he has written for a number of egyptian arab publications. in addition, he has appeared frequently

mr. haggag explained it, this is the platform on which -- or the case which is in front of us. there is history, there is politics, there is religion factor or the use of religion as a factor in shaping things or misshaping things. in the same time, all these factors are now, as a matter of fact, they are acting or reacting or preaching or cheating people in the name of the revolution. which is reyal pi. i mean, everybody

mr. haggag explained it, this is the platform on which -- or the case which is in front of us. there is history, there is politics, there is religion factor or the use of religion as a factor in shaping things or misshaping things. in the same time, all these factors are now, as a matter of fact, they are acting or reacting or preaching or cheating people in the name of the revolution. which is reality. i mean, everybody has agree, which means the people want. they usually say what they want to say, and they say this is what the people want. so in the coming four weeks, why it's important? as a matter of fact, i will start from this week. two days later -- i mean thursday -- today is tuesday. thursday the parliament will decide if they are going to extend another year of emergency law, and this is going to be another bargain between them and scaf. saturday it is expected that somehow, somehow a verdict of something will come regarding to mubarak trial. and we will see what will happen as a reaction. as a matter of fact, two days ago, it was announced that -- some news, any way.