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 Dispatches From Cairo: Ramadan, Revolution and RumorsPosted on Aug 9, 2011
Editor’s note: We asked Lauren Unger-Geoffroy, an Arabic-speaking American who lives in Cairo, to share her perspective of life in Egypt after the revolution. Ramadan Kareem, my friends. This year’s month of fasting and purification, healing, reflection and prayer has fallen in the hottest month, August, and comes amid unprecedented earthly distractions in Egypt, the ongoing tragic massacre in Syria and crazily careening instability around the globe. There has been such a rush of events that before I can finish checking the truth and sources of any one report, rumor or development, another big one arrives. For example: Mubarak is in the accused cage! In public court! The people are in awe that they have actually achieved this, and it is a stroke of karmic irony that Mubarak’s hugely viewed and commented-upon nose-picking has rendered him less sympathetic and quelled much of the anticipated wave of regret and vestigial emotional attachment of the people who might have protested against the ignoble treatment of their historic tyrant/father figure. The pro- and contra-crowds outside throwing rocks at each other were anticipated and abruptly controlled. The location of the trial, in an area difficult to access for most, made the melee manageable. Friends told me that after the nose-picking images went viral on Twitter, the rock-throwing seemed to decrease. It was incredible and surrealistic to see Mubarak in his bed, flanked by his sons and the detested former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly in the cage—though videos of al-Adly leaving the court show him smiling arrogantly and officers treating him with great respect and deference! Is this a show? What will happen? It doesn’t matter. The people did it. They will not let it go—they will have satisfaction. Sunday’s proceeding was just the roll call and list of accusations and pleas, of course in Egyptian flavor, with dozens of lawyers all standing, speaking at once, waving handfuls of paper and shouting sometimes ridiculous statements over each other. The real trials will begin next Sunday, inshalla. Iftar is the evening breakfast meal of Ramadan, the breaking of the daylight fast, after not eating or drinking even water from 4:30 a.m. In Cairo this year iftar is at 8 p.m. Traditionally people join with friends and family to share food and drink in a joyful meal. Last Friday, 150 to 300 people met in Tahrir Square for iftar. For many in Cairo, over the months the square had become the people’s place to gather and meet, hang out on Fridays and in the evenings. And having taken up the habit of protesting, last Friday they did begin some “Hang Mubarak” chants after eating, but they were violently dispersed by military police. This was an unfortunate and sad follow-up to the previous Monday’s zealously aggressive emptying of the last tents of the sit-in. The people say ouch when they are beaten back, and another seed of resentment toward the military has been nourished by violence in the name of order versus chaos. Advertisement The people are uniting again, joining with the million-person rally planned by numerous Sufi orders, Copts and Liberals and various pro-democracy political forces that are discussing ways to respond to this rising tide of conservative Salafist and other Wahhabi-oriented Islamist forces calling for a religious state. (Sufism is the mystical, spiritual, esoteric branch of Islam. In Egypt, at least 6 million people—one in at least every four young men—belong to one or another of the more than 40 Sufi orders. Millions of followers of Sufi orders, both men and women, attend more than 40 massive moulids (festivals that honor specific spiritual iconic figures of different orders) throughout the country). Well-known Sufi singers and Christian choirs as well as performers such as Ali El-Haggar, Azza Balbea, Rami Essam will hold a concert in the square following iftar. Organizers said that they hope to set a Guinness record by mobilizing the largest number of people for a public iftar in the history of the Muslim world. Many Islamist and Salafist political forces charge that Sufi rites and practices, especially gender-mixing, are un-Islamic. The Salafi demonstration in Tahrir on July 29 brought in Salafeen in large numbers, elevated through Twitter, Facebook, websites, textos, emails, chats and TV channels. Buses were lined up from all over Egypt. Yes, they filled the square with bushy beards and religious clothing and slogans. Yes, they were many, and, yes, they want an Islamic Egypt and, yes, they were chanting “Obama Obama, we are all Osama” and “Shut up, shut up, you seculars. Egypt will continue to be an Islamic state.” All the entrances to the square were guarded by members of the Salafi movement and the Muslim Brotherhood, who were wearing orange uniforms with Quranic verses written on them. Thousands of groups adhering to the Salafi movement arrived at Tahrir Square in buses from different regions to take part in the protests. They chanted, “We want it Islamic” and “People want Shariah to be applied.” (Conflict was expected, but the ambulances stationed at three locations were largely unnecessary, alhumdulalla, as the military did not intervene. Hmmm.)
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By OzarkMichael, August 15, 2011 at 1:44 pm Link to this comment
A concern for Egypt, which my previous post touched upon regarding the military: At what point is the military protecting the aspiritions of the people, and is there a tipping point where the will of the people being suppressed? is it ever a good thing to suppress the lawfully enacted will of the people?
http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-islamists-challenge-military-rulers-214459185.html
This is an important but not an easy question. I am amazed at the lack of interest here by the Truthdig bloggers.
Hopefully Truthdig will continue to feature Lauren Unger-Geoffroy, and she will write another update.
Report thisBy OzarkMichael, August 12, 2011 at 3:50 pm Link to this comment
I will keep this brief and focus on one quote. But let me start by saying that the people in Egypt are going to straighten this out for themselves. It does not matter whether we understand or pay attention or even care. So I am not talking about Egyptians directly, as if my comments will make or break Egypt, I am instead making an observation about this most recent dispatch from Lauren Unger-Geoffroy, and I quote:
First, it is less than optimal that the military seems to be the news organization reporting on the meeting in Tahrir. Or that the military is the trusted news source in Egypt.
Second, it is less than optimal that the military is deciding what the people will and will not accept.
Yes, i know that this is a unique point in Egypt’s history, so one ought not to expect all the functioning of a democracy as we in the West understand it.
This is not a good sign. Not that some people are being used as pawns, because that is a universal truth. We all are being used as pawns to some extent, and it isnt good that we always think its only other people who are susceptible to it. So what bothers me more is that Lauren buys into the idea, via the military, that some citizens are unsavory because of their opinion, that this opinion of theirs must be the result of control by outside interests, and by that logic we can invalidate their opinion no matter how many of them there are or what they are saying.
I dont think it is wise to say that that some people who you disagree with are being manipulated so we dont need to listen to them. Especially if its a lot of people the dynamic is not democratic at all.
If the people in Egypt are buying into this simply because the military says so or because it appeals to their prejudices, this is a bad habit, or at the very least it is not a good start.
Now i do understand that my opinion of Lauren’s opinion is pretty far removed from the real life of Egypt. I merely think about and comment upon what i read because I care about this.
Report thisBy OzarkMichael, August 11, 2011 at 2:40 pm Link to this comment
This story is important, and the report itself is interesting, and to add to that interest one could discuss the evolution of the author’s thought on the situation in Egypt over the course of her several reports here. Thats a story all its own.
Unfortunately the main lesson from this story will have to be drawn from this fact: the Truthdigger’s lack of interest, which perplexes me.
It is also interesting that the only comment generated by the story was an awkward attempt to bash Christians.
Whats happening in Egypt? Isnt that important? Will they manage to form a better government for themselves? And what would that be? And how do we as outsiders judge that success or failure? Do we have the right to make any judgement at all?
These questions are important but in Truthdig world…no one cares. oh, they cared when the process could easily be identified as a blow against the USA, somehow it resonated and congratulations were made all around. Yes that first blush of UPRISING! REVOLUTION! was music to thoughtless Leftist ears. And there were so many many many comments posted so rapidly you couldnt read them all.
Only one person wondered how it would develop, knew that real success in a revolution was elusive and is yet to come, and thats a very conservative way to look at things. That person didnt break open the champagne just for UPRISING! For that he was ‘booed’ because supposedly it showed he “didnt care about the people”.
That person was me. Well i did care and i still do.
But now we see that the story of the people in Egypt, the complicated story of the people themselves, the hard work of forming a new government… all the things i wondered and worried about in the first place… none of the Revolutionary and Leftist Truthdiggers gives a damn now. It turns out nobody cares about the Egyptian people at all. Truthdiggers got UPRISING! REVOLUTION! and after that who cares?
Nobody.
So it falls to me, the conservative, the fundamentalist American Christian, the one who supposedly doesnt understand and doesnt care, to make the only comment that deals with the topic. I will do so shortly.
Meanwhile, maybe someone will redeem the Left and the Truthdiggers by saying something relevent. We are hitting a low point here. Come on…
Report thisBy Arabian Sinbad, August 10, 2011 at 12:46 am Link to this comment
“They chanted, “We want it Islamic” and “People want Shariah to be applied.” “
====================================================
In Egypt, with one of the largest Muslim population in the world, there are large numbers of Muslims who are demanding the application of Shariah (Islamic Laws)because it is mostly lacking and absent!
In the U.S. with only 5-7 million Muslims, non-Muslim bigots and fundamentalist Christians are trying their fear-mongering techniques to frighten people about the prospects of some 5-7 mostly secular Muslims taking over America and enforcing Shariah or Islamic laws on the overwhelming majority!
Is this a bad joke?! Is it fear-mongering and bigotry running a mock? Is it a lack of confidence in the American secular way of life?! Or is it a sinister evil plan by fundamentalist Christians and Christian Zionists to enforce their own fundamentalist laws on mostly secular America as an alternative to the imaginary hypothetical Shariah which is not even applied in the majority of Muslim- majority-population countries?!
Report this