MIXED SEX

In Egypt, some Islamist candidates and religious scholars want to:

1. Destroy ancient monuments - seen as a form of idol worship

2. Ban mixed sex beaches

3. Ban bikinis

4. Ban alcohol

5. Ban gambling

Egypt's Islamists and tourism‎

The Islamists are expected to win two thirds of the seats in the Egyptian parliament.

Nader Bakkar, spokesman for the Salafist (Islamist) party says:

"We do want to see a type of Halal tourism ... such as segregation of beaches."



Not surprisingly, Egypt's economic woes mount

AFP reports:

"The fall of foreign currency reserves and the decline in tourism seriously complicates the economic situation," says Samer Suleiman, economics professor at the American University of Cairo.

"The large scores of Islamist parties in the first phase of elections will make investors nervous," he added.

(Egypt's economic woes mount)

The Muslim Brotherhood party and the fundamentalist Al-Nur (Salafi) party have won two thirds of the votes so far.

Both are committed to having sharia law.


Foreign investments have fallen from $6.8 billion in 2010 to $2.2 billion this year.

Foreign reserves have fallen from $36 billion at the beginning of the year to $20 billion.

By February, they are expected to fall to $15 billion, a level at which it will be difficult to pay for imports such as wheat, analysts say.

Egypt is the world's biggest wheat importer.

The army has recently lent the central bank $1 billion to help shore up its finances.

Inflation has reached 9.1%.

(Egypt's economic woes mount)

Expect more violence.