Four years later, Egypt's revolution in a coma

Outside a café in a Cairo neighborhood named for famed Egyptian revolutionary Saad Zaghloul, 43-year-old Yasser Mahmoud sat smoking a cigarette. “People are in a really bad situation and really can’t breathe,” he said. After four tumultuous years of protest, revolution, and upheaval, Mahmoud’s assessment of life in Egypt was simple: “Not much has changed.”

The toppling of strongman Hosni Mubarak over four years ago brought forth a wave of optimism and hope that Egypt could become a model democracy for a region long plagued by authoritarian dictators. But fast forward to present day and while Egyptians can no longer be found in public arenas marching, chanting, and waving flags. The hope that was freed four years ago seems to have crawled back into its cave.  The revolution is in a coma.

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The Tricky Business Of Combating The Islamic State In Minneapolis-St. Paul

Since the Islamic State emerged from the shadows of Syria’s Civil War and became the world’s most feared jihadi militant group, foreign fighters have flocked to enlist from around the world. While the number of Americans attempting to join the Islamic State has remained relatively low compared to certain European countries, one particular community in Minnesota remains vulnerable to recruitment by organizations the U.S. designates as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).

On April 19, six Somali-Americans were arrested for attempting to travel to Syria and link up with the Islamic State, also referred to as ISIS or ISIL. All were young men between the ages of 19 and 21. Zacharia Yusuf Abdurahman, 19, Adnan Farah, 19, Hanad Mustafe Musse, 19, and Guled Ali Omar, 20,  were arrested in Minneapolis while Abdirahman Yasin Daud, 21, and Mohamed Abdihamid Farah, 21, were arrested trying to buy fake passports in San Diego.

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'Offices of Theft' Target Desperate Syrians

Mohammad, a 28-year-old Syrian software engineer, had recently been accepted into a language institute in Brunswick, about 235km east of Berlin - but after weeks of failing to get a visa appointment at the German embassy in Beirut, he started to look for an alternative.

Following a friend's advice, Mohammad, who spoke to Al Jazeera using a pseudonym, found himself inside a shady office space in Beirut's Hamra neighbourhood. Here, a gray-haired Lebanese man told him: "I can get you an appointment at the embassy anytime you want."

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New Visa Regulations Confuse Syrians

Seated outside a bar in Beirut’s Mar Mikhail neighborhood, Firas (a pseudonym) held a cigarette in one hand, a drink in the other and the weight of the world on his shoulders.

“I’m not a refugee. I’m self-sufficient,” he said, his voice cracking and for a brief moment tears welling up in his eyes. Firas works two jobs, one at a restaurant and the other at a pub, to get by. They help supplement his real passions — acting, rapping and stand-up comedy. As Firas regained his composure, he stated with certainty, “Nobody knows what is going on.”

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