Merry Christmas, Cairo

 

Dear readers

I hope that everyone is enjoying the holidays in their own fashion. I spent the morning and lunch with Bahai and Muslim friends and their children in my apartment in Rehab City in Cairo. We then spent the late afternoon with Christian friends in Maadi, Cairo. My friends in Maadi had a beautiful Christmas tree decorated with bells, and ornaments and lights.  It was really nice to get together around food, with minimal presents, and just a lot of nice people and holiday cheer.

The protest for women's rights in Tahrir on Friday the 23rd of December was quite successful. At least 4000 people attended. No one was killed, and no one was injured. Sarah Carr reports that people chanted "The women of Egypt are a red line."

Jaadaliya reports that prominent blogger Alaa Ebd Al Fattah was released from prison on Christmas. During his time in custody, his first child Khaled was born. All defendants in the Maspero case have been released this month. That is an excellent present of free speech for Christmas. I also heard this news from my medical doctor, whom I visited this morning, because my son was sick.

I asked my doctor how his Christmas was. He told me that he and his family did his best to enjoy, despite the difficult circumstances. He said he was really shocked about the violence the military had shown against civilians and women recently.

The Copts in Egypt celebrate their Christmas on January 7th, the date Christianity refers to as the epiphany, or the 12th day of Christmas. Apparently, this corresponds to the 29th day of the Coptic Month Kiohk. There is a small difference between the Coptic calendar and the Gregorian calendar.

As for me, I am praying for peace and fairly conducted elections in the New Year.


Yours, Warigia

Reflections Upon September 11, 2011 from Cairo

Yesterday was September 11. It was the ten year anniversary of that fateful day. I am sure many others are more eloquent on this topic than I am, so I will keep my remarks brief.

Ten years ago on September 11, I had just started my doctorate at the Kennedy School of Government, at Harvard University. I was living in a very cute, if slightly remote beach house in a town called Nahant, outside of Boston. Some workers were doing remodeling repairs on the house. I was home for the day. We had the radio on. I heard the report on the radio. At first, we really thought it was a joke. It was just too difficult to believe that someone could have flown a plane into the twin towers.

We listened to the radio, and finally walked over to a friend's house, where we all sat glued to the television all day. I remember calling all my friends in New York, where I had gone to college, to see if they were safe.

I remember that we had economics class the next day, and the Professor, who was very good, was at a loss for words. I do not really know exactly how 9/11 affected me. However, it affected our family. My sister enlisted in the Army Reserve, and was sent to Guantanamo Bay. I opposed the Gulf War in 1990, and I opposed the one that took place after 9/11.  Although I did not support the war in Iraq, I thank our veterans for their loyal service to their country, and they deserve our respect and admiration.

Living in the Middle East now, I guess one thought that I have is that I wish the People of the Book and the Children of Abraham understood each other better. It goes without saying that my American students rarely know anything about Islam. However, now that I am teaching in Egypt, I realize that my Christian and Muslim students do not know much about each others' religion either.  I wish that Jews, Christians and Muslims could all educate themselves, and each other about their respective religions. Reading the Bible and the Quran carefully, and with an open mind, and a critical lens would be a great start.

Islam is not the problem. Extremism is the problem. There are as many denominations of Islam as there are of Christianity. The people who committed that atrocity were very far out of the mainstream of Islam, and were roundly condemned by religious leaders from their community.

I guess upon this anniversary, I would like to call for religious tolerance, and education. I also think the US should rethink its support for undemocratic regimes like those in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Bahrain. These governments incubate religious extremists, oppress women, suppress democracy, and encourage politically intolerant people, like the hijackers of 9/11. The US should carefully rethink its alliances with these authoritarian governments.