Manar Mohsen - Managing Editor

Ramy Yehia was taken into military police custody on February 4 at the height of the popular uprising that eventually unseated the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak.

Yehia was blindfolded, handcuffed and electro-shocked during his two-day detention at a military camp.

The Caravan sat down with renowned political scientist Norman Finkelstein during his trip to Cairo for a one-on-one interview where he candidly shared his views on the Third Intifada, Obama and the future of the Arab World. Edited excerpts below:

You are here obviously at a very critical time in the Arab World and there are all of these changes going on, so generally speaking how do you feel this so called Arab Spring is going to impact the Palestinian struggle?

It is not just the impact on the Palestinian struggle, it is an historic event, you know. Everybody who participated has participated in an historic event, part of history. I think September 11 will be forgotten much faster than the Egyptian revolution, so it is a stirring moment for all humanity People saying that, it is not just about Hosni Mubarak and Suzy Mubarak, but ordinary people, simple people, that they also are somebody. It is a thrilling thing to behold. [...]

What began as a ramshackle uprising on February 17 in Libya, 34 days after the ousting of former Tunisian president Ben Ali and six days after former Egyptian president Mubarak resigned, has quickly become another Arab country on the brink of revolution.

Last week, The Caravan ran the first excerpts of a two-part interview with AUC President Lisa Anderson who discussed staff rights and the university’s role in the post-revolution period.

The following are excerpts from that interview:

For the first half, click here

Are the changes taking place in Egypt going to affect the administration’s policies regarding student activities?

Absolutely, I think the Office of Student De­velopment tended to be extremely conservative about the kinds of things that it was comfortable encouraging students to do. Even at the time, last year, when I was Provost, OSD was more conserva­tive than I would have been.

As I said at the time, I am a political scientist, and I think the best ways to learn about politics is to practice them. So I’ve always thought that stu­dents should always be involved in voter registration, debating political issues of moment on campus, and so forth and so on. I do think that there has been a conservative approach to that in the past, and I anticipate that this will change perceptively for students now. Whether that is attribute to my presidency or the revolution, that is for you to de­cide for yourselves.