A discourse on difference.

First, I apologize for this blog post. I know it is made up of only half formed ideas and reflections, and maybe I will make something of it later tonight. But, here we go.

I'm getting ready to leave my hotel and head to a friend's house for a couple nights, but I thought I would address something. When I started plans to come to Egypt, and continually since I made them, people have reacted the same way--excitement about the pyramids, and fear about terrorism. When people would ask me, "Aren't you afraid of terrorism? Americans get attacked there..." I would always give a reassuring laugh and say that everything would be fine. But, I would be lying to say that it hadn't crossed my mind. There are bombings in Cairo sometimes, and as an Islamic country it gets lumped in with most Muslim nations, inciting thoughts of extremism and fear in the west. I'm not saying that it is totally safe here, but it is no less safe than any major European city. Cairo is cosmopolitan-- there is everything here you could ever want. The people are generally friendly, though in my experience little English is spoken outside of tourist/expat locations. I went shopping and found all western clothes, an Aldo, and a Johnny Rocket restaurant. I saw couples, the unmarried type, laughing, holding hands, and kissing on cheeks in public. Sure, many people are religious and dress in a certain way, but they're the same as anyone else. That is the overarching thing I've learned from the places I've visited-- people are truly the same everywhere. There are cultural differences and sensitivities which are unique to specific places, but people are the same. Everyone wants life, love, and happiness. Most people are kind. I believe that most people are good. There is extremism all over the world--we have extremist evangelicalism, and there is extremist Islam as well. But on the whole, people are peaceful and violence and hatred are universally denounced.

I was reading the Egyptian Gazette this morning, and two front page stories caught my eye. First, Oman al-Bashir is in town. The Sudanese President is supported by the Egyptian government, despite being accused of genocide in Darfur by the International Criminal Court. The article showed him with the President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, decorating newly graduated police officers and talked about Egypt's interest in peace in Darfur. The word genocide was only used once, when describing what the ICC had accused al-Bashir of. It was a strange article to me, as I see al-Bashir so differently from how he is portrayed here.

The other article of interest was "Call for concerted efforts against Islamophobia". In this story, an Islamic woman was stabbed to death in a German appeal court while present to testify against a Polish-German man who had been convicted of calling her a terrorist. She was on a playground with her children, wearing a headscarf at the time of the incident. He received a fine for the racial slur. At the appeal, her husband tried to protect her and also received a few stab wounds. Compounding this was a German police officer, who presumed the Muslim husband had started the fight and shot him in the leg. This story is absolutely insane and horrific, but has not brought about intense anger in Germany. The article asks what "the reaction would have been in Germany had she been Jewish". People here are aware that the rest of the world sees Muslims as terrorists and dangerous people—but it is illogical to assume that everyone from an entire religion practices the worst perversions of those beliefs. And those that do are not just Muslim. For example, Fred Phelps is a psychological terrorist in my opinion. There are many ways to pervert a religion to reach a violent goal, but I don’t believe that’s the point of religion. And I believe most people in the world would agree on that.