BBC News... from Cairo:
The zebiba used to be the mark of an elderly Muslim man, the fruit of a lifetime's devotion, but it is increasingly seen on the faces of young Egyptians. Literally meaning "a raisin", the zebiba is a patch of hardened skin where the forehead touches the ground during Muslim prayers. Some welcome the trend as a sign of devotion, others say it is ostentatious piety.
Worse still there are fears public displays of faith like the zebiba and the hijab, or headscarf, are spilling over into vigilantism.
Liberals or Christians who don't conform in the workplace or on the street say they are being harassed....
That was 2008. Now fast forward to today (via Weasel Zippers):
(al-Reuters) - Leading Egyptian political parties will back a senior figure in the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) for the assembly's speaker, with another Islamist group and a liberal party taking the deputy posts, an FJP official said on Monday.
The Muslim Brotherhood's "Freedom and Justice Party" (FJP), which secured the biggest bloc in [Egypt's] parliamentary election, is proposing its Secretary-General, Mohamed al-Katatni for Speaker.
The prime task of the new parliament, the first elected since an uprising swept Hosni Mubarak from power last year, will be to pick a 100-strong assembly to write a new constitution.
Liberals fear that sweeping gains by Islamists in elections will put faith-based parties in the driving seat and lead to more religious strictures....
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