Tagged: egyptian
The world is shaking…
Protesters at the Egyptian Embassy in The Hague. Courtesy of ANP.
When the Egyptian revolution started on January 25, 2011, many people were going through mixed feelings and conflicting ideas. Some were enthusiastic, while others were against the protesters even though they knew that their demands were 100% justified and answered to everyone’s needs in society.
The uprising was something that millions, specifically youth, in Egypt and in the region just itched for.
After Mohamed Bouazazi, Tunisia rose. Inspired by Tunisia’s revolution, which brought their dictator Ben Ali of 23 years down in 23 days, Egyptians felt a nudge and they too woke up from a deep sleep. They too brought down their dictator of 30 years in just 18 days. It was not easy for us by all means, but we did it. And, we proved our potential to the world.
Many of the people in Egypt have asked some of the educated, well-off youth who helped start the movement, “why do you care if you aren’t living in poverty?”
On January 26, 2011, a day after the pro-democracy protests in Egypt began, an Egyptian man tried to immolate himself in front of the Egyptian Embassy in The Hague, in the Netherlands– just minutes away from where I live. Days later, protests in solidarity with the Egyptian people erupted in the Netherlands and in several countries around the world.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, wherever you are, instability will reach you. This is one world, it’s one pain, and it’s one planet. In Egypt, you could be driving your car to work, school, or just walking down the street and you’ll find a beggar child or woman. You can also find children searching through the trash for food. When our youth realized that there is something they can do to bring down the corruption, they did not hesitate. They put their lives on the line and kept pushing and pushing till they completed the first step.
Aside from that, we care because we love Egypt. We also care because stripping someone of their basic human rights takes away their dignity. We care because we can no longer stand and watch injustice, especially when there is something we can do about it. We’ve all felt injustice at one point and wanted the chance to cry out against it and defend ourselves. Whether you realize it or not, it does affect you, whether its psychologically, economically, physically, or emotionally… it does matter and it will directly affect you one day. For years, history has proven this fact because we al know that history repeats itself. Ben Ali stepped down after 23 years because his nation cried out against his crimes and injustice. As a dictator, he became history. Shortly after, history repeated itself again. Egypt cried out and then Mubarak stepped down.
Many of our parents and grandparents simply wished for the chance to witness it in the making. And, who can blame them? For 30 years, open dialogue in Egypt was not accepted. Ideas weren’t even allowed to be proposed, unless of course they were the ideas of the ruling family and their cronies. For 30 years, those who said anything against the regime or even proposed different ideas risked being exiled, jailed, beaten, or even killed. For 30 years, little or no reform –of any kind– developed in the country. Which is no surprise. You can’t expect change when you’ve had the same stream of corrupt, worn-out ideas flowing constantly with no end, with no one questioning it even or demanding it to stop.
Now the day has come. After 18 days of constant protests, police brutality, and 350 martyrs later, on February 11, 2011, Mubarak finally stepped down. It was a hard road and Egyptians, influenced by their brave Tunisian neighbors, broke the barrier of fear.
The long-term benefits will not only open doors to a prosperous future for Egypt’s youth, but they will also allow the muffled cries of those in the region to finally be heard. The uprising will also show many in Western nations a side of the Middle East that they never even thought existed. It has shown the world that the Middle East has had enough. Enough of their own dictators, and enough of the Western world supporting their oppressors. They’ve had enough of the suffocation and of being labeled as something that they are not. Our own government in Egypt labeled us as ignorant, “not ready for democracy,” and extremists. They labeled us these things to justify their oppression. To use this as an excuse to control us and not allow us any breathing room.
Yes, it will take time for democracy, but it won’t take time for change. Change is here. We have no excuse any more. Now, when you express your frustration, someone will at least listen. Why? Because the power always has and will always be with the people. The rulers of every nation know this, and that’s why they suffocated us. Tunisians and Egyptians have proven it. Egyptian demonstrators shook the nation everyday to the point where the army feared if this went on any longer and Mubarak did not step down, then the country could collapse. We started something and we must finish it. And, as citizens of Egypt, as citizens of this world we must support those who are standing up for their rights. Because, one day we could be in their shoes. In fact, ever since January 25, we all were. All of us, all over the world felt the ground move when Egypt shook.
Egypt has immense potential in every field and every aspect, and now it’s time to let it out.
Muslims, Christians, Jews: get over yourselves. It’s getting old.
DISCLAIMER: This post is full of opinions referenced from facts, this is NOT an article. This is my personal opinion and you are free to think that it’s worthless. But, you’ll be really stupid and I’ll be sorry for offending you (but I won’t really care).
comic from www.lovingit.co.uk
Ok… so, seriously. This is getting tiring, ya’ll. If someone already has hate and they want to feed it, they make a situation worse. With this mentality, you don’t want peace, you don’t want closure, you don’t want sane answers. You want something to blame, something familiarly nasty to cling to, which makes you just like the radical terrorists (who, uh, by the way, referring to the incident that happened in Egypt, haven’t been actually proven to be Muslim yet). But, we’ll entertain the idea for now since those dirty Muslims are known for their “terroristic tendencies.”
I know what you’re going to say: “But, like, I’m like sitting here in the states and I heard that my friend who was in Cairo heard from their friend who was in Sharm from their friend in Alexandria five blocks down from the Church that people were yelling the Islamic war cry ‘Allah Akbar!’ So like, of course they were Muslims, those Muslims are bastards going straight to hell.. fel naaaaaar, gohanaaam ya kelab.”
Seriously? Islamic war cry?
True story, Christian priests around the world have called it that in letters to governments and/or congregations all over the world referring to this incident. So first of all, my response to this is Allah Akbar, bitches.
Don’t worry, I’m not getting ready to virtually blow up Facebook. ‘Allah Akbar’ means God is great. It’s not a damn Islamic war cry. It’s like Christians saying Praise the Lord when something scary, good, or crazy happens. If I was there that day, I would have said Allah Akbar. It’s called a figure of speech, matter of fact, I’ve heard Arab Christians say it before. Again, I know what you’re going to say: “but the Quran talks about fighting and jihad and you crazy blood-thirsty Muslims want to kill us all and drink our sweet blood.”
Really?
Jihad is a damn Arabic word and it means struggle, referring to our everyday struggles in this world, whether it be in war, at work, or with our families & friends. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the Bible also talks about our inner struggles. In fact, the Bible mentions war and extermination significantly more than the Quran, according to a very recent study done by Philip Jenkins, a U.S. religious historian who is a Professor at Penn State (the video is here).
Basically, I’m tired of having to feel like we as Muslims need to apologize everyday for what idiots do.
My fellow Christians, we are sorry for what happened all over the world, especially Egypt. Not as Muslims, but as human beings who can’t stand to see other people suffer for no reason, we are sorry for our fellow people, our Christian neighbors. I understand that emotions are extremely raw right now. But, the terrorists claim to be in pain too so they choose to hate people and decide to blow them up, sounds simple yeah. But that’s the jest of it, they’re simply sick. Their radicalism grew from blind hatred. All hatred is bad, but nothing stabs you in the heart like blind hatred. You want the facts? If the Old Testament was misinterpreted and taken “literally” without reading it in CONTEXT, we would be blowing up people left and right. Oh wait, that’s what the crusaders did, and that’s what today’s Christian and Muslim radicals preach to this day.
After the incident in Egypt, as a proud American-Egyptian from Alexandria, where the bombing took place, I cried. Yes, I’m broadcasting it to the world, I got emotional. Even though, hey, I’m not supposed to get emotional and show feelings or “wear my heart on my sleeve” because I’m like supposed to be a journalist… or whatever. Well, then, I guess I better find me another career path.
This is where my family lives, this is the street that’s five minutes away from my home. Just thinking that they were in harm’s way before even knowing the facts, I got crazy emotional. And, after seeing the last status of one of the victim’s a Coptic-American friend of mine posted, I cried again for a girl who was just hoping to celebrate New Years and go in that Church that night just to be “close to God.”
I guess what I’m trying to say is that we all need to realize that we are people. We are all dirty, emotional, conflicted people. Clinging on to the blind hatred is what got us here in the first place and it’s going to destroy us, as Muslims, Christians, Egyptians, and PEOPLE. Now, these days I’ve seen an excess of videos being posted about “true Islam.” You know, when someone goes on youtube and searches for “radical Islam” or “crazy terrorist” and thinks that FINALLY the cat’s out the bag! Thinking FINALLYYY they found out what “true Islam” is. Maybe you don’t get my obnoxious sarcasm. But, guys, this is really getting old and obvious.
I went on youtube, searched for radical Christians, just to see what it would feel like to be an ignorant person for five minutes, and frankly, I was scared. For two reasons,
1) George Bush’s face popped up again in my life.
2) There were religious figures and “scholars” talking about killing and wiping out Muslims and anyone else against Christianity for that matter. In fact, a white, all male “Christian” group, the Ku Klux Klan who used to hang people (just because they were different, black, or non-Christian) also popped up. They still exist today by the way, waiting for a “revolution.”
Now, I could start hating all white Christian males, specifically American ones. Buuuuuut, I don’t wanna. And hey, I’m not that smart, but I’m smarter than that. Just like most friends I know and are dear to me, I was raised and educated to know the difference and to seek sanity in order to understand both sides of a story. Plus, that would just eliminate any chance of me and Mark Wahlberg ever having children. Mark, if this somehow falls in your hands, please don’t be alarmed just because I’m Muslim, call me;) Anyways…
Since the dawn of time, religions have been fighting each other. The Crusades, for example, where Muslims where attacked in the Name of Jesus and in the name of Christianity, were nothing but a dirty wipeout for greed, land, and power. As a “true” Muslim, it offends me that someone would use the name of a Prophet to do their dirty work. If it makes you feel any better, Muslims are being blown up every single day and in their place of worship too. If it’s not in Iraq, it’s in Afghanistan, if it’s not in Afghanistan, it’s in Lebanon, if it’s not there, it’s in Palestine. Ahh, Palestine. Or Israel, or whatever you wanna call it. remember good ol’ Israel? “Proudly blowing up Muslims since 1948.”
*Disclaimer* By all means this does not mean that idiots should seek out Christians and Jews to inflict the same pain upon innocent people. And yet, my friends, I just KNOW someone reading this is gonna leave out everything I said and take that one sentence out of context.
Look at the bigger picture. History repeats itself. Instead of apologizing and hating each other, let’s be proactive, put our egos aside and work together to “restore sanity,” like Jon Stewart said. Let’s educate each other, let’s help each other. Tell me what I don’t know or see, and I’ll do the same for you. And for my fellow Egyptians, let’s talk about this blind, useless hate that we’ve been building up and take it down instead of trying to destroy each other. The people who committed that crime in Alexandria know that there’s tension in Egypt between select groups of Christians and Muslims, and they also know the tension that’s between the people and the government. And like idiots, we’ve fallen into their trap. Let’s make them accountable for their actions now and prevent this from happening again for ALL of us. Let’s show them that we are unbreakable and fix what happened as much as possible. I know we aren’t in Utopia, but things have to be set right. Or, semi-right.
Now you can sit here and call Muslims crazy blood-thristy monsters (we ain’t in Twilight) or you can be proactive and stop contributing to the hate. Christians have every right to be upset. But, after seeing the reactions, and looking at the history between the two faiths, everyone could say they’re upset. The Jews could also get in on some of this good ol’ raw hate/anger. Looking at history, it’s hard to say who threw the first punch. But also, looking at history we can learn not to repeat it.
“It takes two to tango.” (Speaking of, does anyone want to take latin dance lessons with me? All this hatred makes me wanna dance my pain away.)
W.W.J.D -What Would Jesus Do?
W.W.M.D- What Would Mohamed Do?
But, it doesn’t matter. We’re all screwed anyway. Have a great day. Ok, I’m seriously done with this note now, you can go.
