For all of you non-Egyptians, in Egypt every parliamentary candidate has a symbol so that the 50% of the Egyptian population that cannot read or write can recognize him/her.
Once again I will not be able to vote - Elections in my home town (Alexandria) are on Sunday, and on Sunday I am leaving to Tunisia insha'allah.
My disappointment is not that great - nothing can be done now. Another elections pre-determined.
In light of this, I was having a conversation with my driver today, he asked me what I would vote. And I bravely responded, well anything but NDP or Islamic. And the discussion began, why not Islamists!
I wonder what he thinks of me after this discussion, he will probably stop playing his koraan tapes whenever i am in the car!
I was reading the blog of Kareem Amer who was arrested for his writings about the recent incident in Alexandria. He wrote about how those Muslims do not tolerate the different and have high double standards.
My conversation today showed exactly that. I asked my driver, "If we allow the Islamists to have their "Islamist Party" then we should allow Christians to have a "Christian Party" right?"
His reply was "you cannot equate the Muslim religion with the Christian Religion"
The religions are different but the people that practice them must have the same rights, those double standards in the Egyptian Society are ridiculous!
There are double standards everywhere!
Equality and acceptance are just not in the Dictionary!
and tolerance (which is the minimum you can expect from anyone) is a rare thing.
And you wonder why people fear Muslims!
9 comments:
Any State that has an official religion will always have double standards.
Perhaps you have hit upon a strong argument for why it is better to keep church and state as far apart from each other as possible.
But what about using religion as a source when putting laws?!
Not the sole source but one of them! and i mean by religion, not just Islam, other religions too.
well, Egyptian Muslims and Christians lived together ever since Jesus came to Egypt and lived there for however long.
during history Muslims and Christians in Egypt lived a very good life together and even married from each other, fought together against invaders in the Egyptian history different eras, they even fought the crusades side by side as one population.
moving on with the Egyptian clashes started to happen between Muslims and Christians ONLY because of the Parliament elections in the late 60s or early 70s before the 1973 war, which was called "El Darb El Ahmar clashes" when a Muslim condidate went against a christian one in the same round. and after the Christian candidate won, big clashes happened between both parties killing about 24 from both sides! at that time Egyptian president Sadat declared state of emergency in Cairo sending the Egyptian army special forces in the streets and a curfew in the city was declared and arresting about 300 people
which was known after that the "thief's revolution" because it turned outwith all random people who don't even care about politics or elections or what ever breaking into shops and banks and robbing it and stealing.
of course "El Darb El Ahmar"clashes affected the relationship between both Egyptian religious groups until now and led to the Alexandria clashes once again as if the history was repeating itself a month ago.
BUT meanwhile and far away from politics and for the reasons that made these people fight each other insted of fighting side by side one day, Egyptians still celebrate together Muslims and christian feasts, Muslim kids are raised in really strict Catholic schools like myself and Luli and more things that happen in our daily life in Egypt that we don't pay attention to, cuz it's just part of our lives!
once in Alexandria i saw a Muslim guy that i know fighting in the street and beating another guy so bad, and when i asked what was going on they told me Mohamed saw this guy grabbing Josef sister Marianne in the street (Josef is his christian niabour that lives next door from him).
like any other place in the world there are clashes and war going on between different religious groups even from the same religion like in Ireland, and if we look and go inside the reasons of each religious clashes, it's all about politics.
there are very few instances in history where religion and politics (the acts of ruling) can work hand in hand and not be corrupted.
Prophet Muhammad s.a.w is one of those very success story.
But if you are just a mere mortal, better avoid mixing religion and politics. It's bad news.
Luli...
I'm speechless. Great point made. But what are we going to do about it?
Suggestions:
Contact BBC Arabia in Egypt. They are currently preparing for a series of debates to be held between students across the Arab world. Egypt is a key destination for them. The first debate will be about "Traditional Marriages" but maybe you can suggest something a little bit more relevant and potent. A bit more vital, like co-existence of religion or secularity. If you want, i can work on getting you in touch with them.
The problem with acting in Egypt is that you have to be willing to risk getting arrested. If you're willing to do that, there's alot that can be done.
I'm coming to Egypt in Jan and Feb to support BBC on their debate campaigns and will be actively seeking a change of topic from my part, but if it comes from someone living in the community, it might be more relevant to them.
Shady, you make a very valid point, except that i would like to point out that Egyptian Muslims and Christians could not have lived in Harmony since Jesus, since Prophet Mohamed was only born 570 years after that and got his revelation 40 years later (610 AD).
Sherif
Yes Sherif that was right, I maybe wrote it in a wrong way, my bad...What I meant was that Jesus came to Egypt and then the movement of "Rahbana" was found in Egypt as well as the Egyptian copts who lived in Egypt until the Muslims came leading them Othman Ibn Affan and since then Egyptian Muslims and Christians lived together.
instead of promoting religious harmony between Muslims and Christians first, start by promoting religious harmony between Muslim communities.
Almost 100 people got killed in their Friday prayer in Iraq today.
again Dody u just proofed the same point, it's all about politics!
Shady, it's not about politics. It's about power.
It is ironic; a lot of Muslim leaders want to be Salahuddin and the first thing they do is kill and oppress Muslims. The river of Muslim bloods are done more by people that did Shahada and fast in Ramadan and bring the banner of Islam.
It's the lack of politics that kills people.
There should be more free politics, more participants, more parties and more free elections.
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