IT’S FAIRLY RARE that we run an international cover story here at Egypt Today, but recent developments in that seemingly faraway land are so incredibly fraught with dangerous implications for the rest of the region that it was impossible to resist. Five years after America’s invasion, the Islamists are regaining not just toeholds NATO can’t seem to raze, but also newfound popular support.

Three years after our last report from that benighted land, Contributing Writer Chris Sands reports that even formerly staunch allies of President Hamid Karzai and the NATO-led stabilization force are beginning to wonder if they weren’t better off under the ultra-conservative Islamists of the Taliban. Sands’ report begins on page 100.

Also in this month’s feature well, we are carrying the full text of one of the more important letters ever written in the Muslim world for Christian consumption. Penned by 38 leading Muslim religious scholars from around the world, the open letter to Pope Benedict XVI addresses some of the Western world’s most solidly entrenched misconceptions about Islam, particularly those raised by the pontiff in his Regensberg speech of this past September.

The letter, which clearly and logically tackles Benedict’s remarks, should be required reading for Muslims as much as it is for Christians, dispelling as it does some of the most pernicious myths about the faith as spread by Islamists and conservatives. The letter begins on page 110.

On similarly religious topics, we take note in this month’s Newsreel section (starting page 20) of the now-simmering international debate over niqab, while Senior Writer Manal el-Jesri spoke with liberal Islamic thinker Abdel Sabour Marzouk, who suggests Muslims need to set their own houses in order before they start worrying about new “attacks” on the faith from the West (page 36).

Another must-read this month is Staff Writer Noha El-Hennawy’s in-depth reporting on Egypt’s newly reborn nuclear energy program, which begins on page 26, accompanied by a look at what to expect when nuclear watchdogs Pugwash hold their next global conference in Cairo later this month.

Finally this month, I’m delighted that we are adding renowned columnist Dr. Gwynne Dyer to our stable of regular op-ed writers. Dyer, who holds a PhD in military and Middle Eastern history from the University of London, has worked for more than two decades as a columnist, journalist and lecturer on international affairs. An Academy Award-nominated documentary maker and the winner of two Canadian Gemini Awards for his documentaries The Human Race and Protection Force, Dyer writes a syndicated column that now appears in more than 175 media outlets in 46 countries.

His first column for Egypt Today delves into the thorny issue of how many Iraqis have died as a result of America’s invasion. It starts on page 42.  et