Dear Muslims,
Have you ever met a Christian who joking said, “Praise Jesus” and then followed it by, “Why haven’t you converted to Christianity already?”
Have you ever taken a taxi and been forced to sit there while the driver listens to hymns at a high volume?
Have you ever heard the pastor on Sundays speak ill into the microphone about Muslims and Jews, the grandchildren of monkey and pigs?
Do Egyptian Christians dare to spread carpets outside their churches the same way it is allowed for Muslims in Europe and the United States?
Have you ever heard about the formation of a Christian terrorist group in response to the attacks on churches during the chaos of the Muslim Brotherhood era?
Have you ever turned on the TV during the Christmas period and heard the pope say, “May God heal our Christian patients, and have mercy on our Christian dead”?
Have you heard about Major General Girgis Hanna or Paulis in the police or the army or even the intelligence after the 6th of October War?
Have you ever heard a Christian say, “Even though Doctor Mohamed is a Muslim, he is actually very good!”?
Let us speak frankly, and enough with the hugs of sheikhs and priests. We must admit the Egyptian Christians are mostly peaceful and are very polite people whose rights have been neglected, not because of Islam, but because of a Wahhabi culture that tries to infiltrate cracks in the Egyptian structure and make these cracks wider. We should look back to the 1960s when Muslims, Copts, and Jews were all equal.
Your sincerely,
An Egyptian citizen against the concept of burying our heads in the sand
Citizenship is the solution, and nobody should be considered better than anybody else based on anything but efficiency. I know very well the amount of love and mutual appreciation amongst the Muslims and Christians in Egypt, but love alone is not enough. There must be equality as well.
The previous words were part of a post published by Ahmed El Sayed Salem on his Facebook profile. A Facebook friend sent it to me asking for my comments and opinion.
Because this is a crucial issue, I will try briefly put together what I have to say about several relevant matters:
Firstly, in the same way that our society’s infrastructure is suffering, the psychological and mental structure is suffering as well. This is an issue that needs special care from the state. If the state gave some extra attention to building and developing humans, it would change many things for the better.
Secondly, the human brain is the result of everything we hear, or watch, or read. So if we want to fix that brain, we must also pay great attention to what is going into it. If we do not do so, then we should not expect much.
Thirdly, investing in humans is more difficult than investing in inanimate objects. Its outcome also takes a long time to take effect, which is why governments that seek to achieve fast results avoid it.
Development projects that never invested in humans ended quickly and collapsed with the first hit, whether internally or externally.
Fourthly, extremism exists everywhere in the world, to varying degrees. To extremists, distinctions between people are easy; however, the law does not allow this kind of distinction.
The establishment of a country of law is the officials’ responsibility, as well as enforcing laws on everybody without distinction.
I thank the writer who published the post on Facebook, however, I disagree with him on certain points, but I find that the general trend is acceptable.
Moataz Bellah Abdel-Fattah is an Egyptian professor of political science. He previously served as an adviser to the prime minister of Egypt, and professor of political science at both Cairo University and Central Michigan University.
