Dear friends,
A long-time Egyptian friend of mine sent me an article he wrote recently. I liked it so much that I translated it for you.
The article addresses the high dangers that are part and parcel of any extreme religious groups, no matter which religion. In his article, my friend discusses with simplicity, clarity and wisdom the issues and perils the Egyptian people are now facing with the Salafists, an ultra-conservative Egyptian Muslim group. These issues are now on a small scale, but will grow dramatically in scale and impact in the future unless the Egyptian army and the Egyptian people take urgent and decisive action to stop them.
I have added a followup commentary of mine at the end.
In his article, my friend outlines the many battles currently being waged within Egypt, and wonders how many more Egypt can sustain before the end! Here are some of the battles taking place right now in Egypt:
A long-time Egyptian friend of mine sent me an article he wrote recently. I liked it so much that I translated it for you.
The article addresses the high dangers that are part and parcel of any extreme religious groups, no matter which religion. In his article, my friend discusses with simplicity, clarity and wisdom the issues and perils the Egyptian people are now facing with the Salafists, an ultra-conservative Egyptian Muslim group. These issues are now on a small scale, but will grow dramatically in scale and impact in the future unless the Egyptian army and the Egyptian people take urgent and decisive action to stop them.
I have added a followup commentary of mine at the end.
In his article, my friend outlines the many battles currently being waged within Egypt, and wonders how many more Egypt can sustain before the end! Here are some of the battles taking place right now in Egypt:
- Battle of the Ear: An Egyptian citizen was subjected to a trial in the street and was "convicted." The Sharia ruling was implemented by cutting off his ear. The worst of it all is that everyone met and agreed on a peaceful reconciliation to avoid strife and discord, so peace was had with the aggrieved citizen never retrieving his ear.
- Battle of the Veil: Egyptian girls were threatened on Tuesday, March 29, 2011 by Salafists, and told that they would be abducted if they were caught not wearing a veil in the street.
- Battle of the Shrines: According to press reports, the Salafis demolished more than 100 tombs of righteous Allah loyalists throughout Egypt, with no one stopping them.
- Battle of the Mosques: The Salafists overwhelmed many of the mosques in the villages and installed as Imams (mosque leaders) people to their liking in place of the Imams who had been appointed by the government (Ministry of Endowments).
- Battle of the Prevention of Women from Working: In Assyout in south Egypt, the Salafists demanded, in a move towards "Talibanization," that women in Egypt stop working and stay at home, with the distinct possibility for their next move to be prohibiting women from attending school and universities.
- Battle of the Coffee Shops: Also in Assyout, the Salafists prevented people from sitting in coffee shops.
- Battle of the Beer: The Salafists have destroyed shops that sell beer in some villages in Egypt.
The above battles are already taking place in some areas of Egypt. It is just a matter of time until they take place all over Egypt. Expected battles in the near future include:
- Battle of the Movies: the demolition or closure of many movie theaters, Hamas already has done that in Gaza.
- Battle of the Banks: the closure of all the banks, since they are interest-based.
- Battle of Tourism: the complete shutdown of tourism, since tourists only bring to Egypt alcohol, debauchery and evil matters.
- Battle of the Idols: the destruction of all statues of the Pharaohs, considering that the Pharaohs did not believe in the Lord of Moses, and that those statues are nothing but worship idols.
- Battle of Football (Soccer): the abolition of football as a waste of time, and be satisfied with swimming, archery and horseback riding.
- Battle of TV: the shutdown of all television stations, except for stations produced and run by the Salafists.
- Battle of the Mixing: the strict prevention of men and women mixing in any place.
- Battle of the Veil: all Egyptian women, including women of Christian faith, must wear veils.
- Battle of the Internet: Internet will be shut down, considering that the Internet is an innovation, and every innovation is a misguidance, and every misguidance leads to hell.
- Battle of the Camp David: the abolition of the Camp David accord.
- Battle of the Christians (the Copts): work to expel Christians from Egypt, as Jews were expelled from Egypt in the 1950's and 1960's.
- Battle of Tahrir Square: this will be the biggest battle, attack the youth of 25 January revolution in their own home, Tahrir Square!
What is now happening in Egypt is without a doubt a real and present danger, and much more serious than just stealing the revolution. People of the revolution are in Tahrir Square, while the Salafists roam the Egyptian countryside and its villages working hard to transform Egypt into Misrstan, a la Pakistan, or the Taliban, and if the people of 25 January do not head soon to the villages, the hamlets and urban slums throughout Egypt, this transformation will happen as predicted by the West and Hosni Mubarak. The West, and Mubarak, maintained that the alternative to dictatorship in developing countries is religious extremism.
For the Salafists and religious extremists, they will continue to wage a battle each and every time people go to the polls, they believe in democracy as a means of attaining power, and then good luck for the rest of the people who comprise the vast majority.
So, what can the Egyptian army do in the face of what the Salafists are doing throughout Egypt? Yes, their number is small, but their methods of terrorism make people fear them, just like the bullies of Naguib Mahfouz's alleys, same methods of the Nazi Party that came to rule Germany by intimidation, murder, kidnapping and torture, even though they were a minority in Germany in the beginning.
The military council made a grave error in the timing of the release of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's assassins, and now the council must make amends by stopping the Salafists in their tracks. The recent citizen's arrest of a group of Salafists in Alexandria, only to find in their possession weapons, bombs and explosives, should serve as a dire warning of what Egypt stands to see in the near future if the Salafists are not stopped, and stopped now. Otherwise, we will live to see the day when we fondly remember the Muslim Brotherhood, and when we would not mind erecting a gold statue for Hosni Mubarak, only to see the Salafists destroy it, just as the Talibans destroyed Buddha's statue in Afghanistan!!
My followup commentary
As outlined and articulated above by my friend, I unequivocally concur that extreme religious fundamentalism is beyond dangerous to any society, any nation, anywhere in the world. Extreme religious fundamentalism can fragment and paralyze a society to the extent that it is impossible for a nation to progress and have a state of freedom, justice and improved living standards for its people. Extreme Muslim fundamentalists believe, among other things, with rock-solid conviction that:
For the Salafists and religious extremists, they will continue to wage a battle each and every time people go to the polls, they believe in democracy as a means of attaining power, and then good luck for the rest of the people who comprise the vast majority.
So, what can the Egyptian army do in the face of what the Salafists are doing throughout Egypt? Yes, their number is small, but their methods of terrorism make people fear them, just like the bullies of Naguib Mahfouz's alleys, same methods of the Nazi Party that came to rule Germany by intimidation, murder, kidnapping and torture, even though they were a minority in Germany in the beginning.
The military council made a grave error in the timing of the release of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's assassins, and now the council must make amends by stopping the Salafists in their tracks. The recent citizen's arrest of a group of Salafists in Alexandria, only to find in their possession weapons, bombs and explosives, should serve as a dire warning of what Egypt stands to see in the near future if the Salafists are not stopped, and stopped now. Otherwise, we will live to see the day when we fondly remember the Muslim Brotherhood, and when we would not mind erecting a gold statue for Hosni Mubarak, only to see the Salafists destroy it, just as the Talibans destroyed Buddha's statue in Afghanistan!!
My followup commentary
As outlined and articulated above by my friend, I unequivocally concur that extreme religious fundamentalism is beyond dangerous to any society, any nation, anywhere in the world. Extreme religious fundamentalism can fragment and paralyze a society to the extent that it is impossible for a nation to progress and have a state of freedom, justice and improved living standards for its people. Extreme Muslim fundamentalists believe, among other things, with rock-solid conviction that:
- The stability and security of the Egyptian society, let alone the Middle East and the whole world, is contingent on raising the flag of Allah and his prophet Mohamed.
- The only religion with God is Islam, so what is this talk about freedom of belief!
- The world must be to their liking, and death must be the inevitable outcome for those who differ with them.
- Any referendum, no matter the issues being put to a vote, must be turned into a holy war.
- Murdering people is legitimate, so long as religious scholars permit it.
- Egypt, via democracy and the ballot box, will be an Islamic state; and if you do not like it, leave.
- Copts' patriotism should be questioned since you never know where their loyalty would be if Egypt were to have a war with a Christian country.
For those of you who can listen to an Arabic video, and would like to hear for yourself the alarming and frightening words of a Salafist Sheikh, click here .
I also fully agree with my friend that the revolutionaries of 25 January must head out throughout Egypt to carry their message of freedom, democratic principles, justice and equality for all Egyptians and the necessity for improvement in living standards to villages and all all corners of the country. They have won their country back from the dictatorship of Mubarak and hopefully soon from the autocratic and corrupt regime he established, they must not now lose it to extremists like the Salafists who could not care less about their living their lives in freedom, in happiness, in enjoyment and in pursuit of prosperity. They certainly cannot submit to the illogical and inhuman notion that life, as the entire developed and modern world sees it, is wrong and blasphemous to pursue and that their best bet is to focus on the afterlife and accept living their lives in poverty, backwardness, misery, ill health and completely devoid of enjoyment.
A true and enlightened believer has got to believe that God would want us to try our very best to achieve in our lives as much as our ability, character and life circumstances allow. And, to claim that if Egypt is without a modern civilization, knowledge and freedom, if Egypt's Copts and women are not living freely, with dignity and pride, that that is God's will, that would be sacrilege, that would be the ultimate definition of blasphemy!!! We also need to acknowledge that with modern life, with people anywhere in the world in dogged pursuit of the good life, there are bound to be errors made, unwarranted acts committed and the like, but then that is, as common sense would have it, an affair to be reconciled in private between the person and God, in the sanctity of any house of worship, home or anywhere of their choosing. A true believer knows that God more than all humans combined can handle people of the earth as they evolve, in fact only God should be entrusted with such task, only God is capable of such task, any other way is the way of the non-believer, the grossly uninformed and the extremely wayward thinker. Any other interpretation is wrong and should be fought to the victory.
I would also like to draw your attention to my email titled "Egypt's Revolution: Constitutional Amendments and Strategic Planning" that I sent out on March 23, where I put together a section "Strategic Planning" outlining the actions and steps Egypt's revolutionary people, revolution leaders and activists, should now consider taking. Due to the critical nature of the situation in Egypt today, I will repeat below the particular section of that email where I indicate the need for the people of 25 January to seek internal support from the Egyptian people throughout Egypt and not only in Tahrir Square or other major squares in Alexandria, Tanta and other large cities.
Internal support, particularly from WOMEN
Top priority should be given to contacting and lobbying all possible groups and institutions, weak or under-developed as they may be. These may include powerful families, moderate religious groups, trade unions, student associations, sport clubs, cultural, literal and musical societies, villages and neighborhood communities, human rights organizations, and others, with particular attention to women. Of the utmost import is to reach out to women's groups, prominent women and women in general. Women in Egypt are the one segment of the population that stand to lose or gain the most.
Extreme irony
... How ironic. As I readied this email to be sent, my doorbell rang. It was two young women who are going door to door in my neighborhood, trying to convince those they encounter that their religion is better. I spoke sharply to them and sent them away. Imposing your religion on someone else is wrong. Whether by persuasion or by force, whether on an individual or on a country, it is simply misguided, barbaric and way past insulting someone else that your religion is better than theirs.
Hussein
I also fully agree with my friend that the revolutionaries of 25 January must head out throughout Egypt to carry their message of freedom, democratic principles, justice and equality for all Egyptians and the necessity for improvement in living standards to villages and all all corners of the country. They have won their country back from the dictatorship of Mubarak and hopefully soon from the autocratic and corrupt regime he established, they must not now lose it to extremists like the Salafists who could not care less about their living their lives in freedom, in happiness, in enjoyment and in pursuit of prosperity. They certainly cannot submit to the illogical and inhuman notion that life, as the entire developed and modern world sees it, is wrong and blasphemous to pursue and that their best bet is to focus on the afterlife and accept living their lives in poverty, backwardness, misery, ill health and completely devoid of enjoyment.
A true and enlightened believer has got to believe that God would want us to try our very best to achieve in our lives as much as our ability, character and life circumstances allow. And, to claim that if Egypt is without a modern civilization, knowledge and freedom, if Egypt's Copts and women are not living freely, with dignity and pride, that that is God's will, that would be sacrilege, that would be the ultimate definition of blasphemy!!! We also need to acknowledge that with modern life, with people anywhere in the world in dogged pursuit of the good life, there are bound to be errors made, unwarranted acts committed and the like, but then that is, as common sense would have it, an affair to be reconciled in private between the person and God, in the sanctity of any house of worship, home or anywhere of their choosing. A true believer knows that God more than all humans combined can handle people of the earth as they evolve, in fact only God should be entrusted with such task, only God is capable of such task, any other way is the way of the non-believer, the grossly uninformed and the extremely wayward thinker. Any other interpretation is wrong and should be fought to the victory.
I would also like to draw your attention to my email titled "Egypt's Revolution: Constitutional Amendments and Strategic Planning" that I sent out on March 23, where I put together a section "Strategic Planning" outlining the actions and steps Egypt's revolutionary people, revolution leaders and activists, should now consider taking. Due to the critical nature of the situation in Egypt today, I will repeat below the particular section of that email where I indicate the need for the people of 25 January to seek internal support from the Egyptian people throughout Egypt and not only in Tahrir Square or other major squares in Alexandria, Tanta and other large cities.
Internal support, particularly from WOMEN
Top priority should be given to contacting and lobbying all possible groups and institutions, weak or under-developed as they may be. These may include powerful families, moderate religious groups, trade unions, student associations, sport clubs, cultural, literal and musical societies, villages and neighborhood communities, human rights organizations, and others, with particular attention to women. Of the utmost import is to reach out to women's groups, prominent women and women in general. Women in Egypt are the one segment of the population that stand to lose or gain the most.
Extreme irony
... How ironic. As I readied this email to be sent, my doorbell rang. It was two young women who are going door to door in my neighborhood, trying to convince those they encounter that their religion is better. I spoke sharply to them and sent them away. Imposing your religion on someone else is wrong. Whether by persuasion or by force, whether on an individual or on a country, it is simply misguided, barbaric and way past insulting someone else that your religion is better than theirs.
Hussein
© Dr Hussein A Amin 2011
