Kareem Amer: The Naked Truth about Islam As I Saw It In Maharram Beh
March 25th, 2007Notes:
• The article below is an English translation of an article Kareem Amer published on his blog on October 22, 2005, the day following the Alexandria riots that occurred in Moharram Bek (Maharram Beh).
• Kareem was arrested for this article in the same month. He was held for 18 days, then released on November 13 with the help of human rights groups.
• The original Arabic text can be found below, or at his blog.
• This translation was produced by J. Ahmed Salib.
DISCLAIMER: The creators of the Free Kareem campaign would like to stress the fact that they do not agree with the contents of this article.
The Naked Truth about Islam As I Saw It In Maharram Beh
By Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman (Kareem Amer)
Saturday, October 22, 2005The Muslims have taken the mask off to show their true hateful face, and they have shown the world that they are at the top of their brutality, inhumanity, and thievery. They have clearly shown their worst features and have shown that in dealing with others they are not governed by any moral codes.
From what I have seen yesterday of the events at Maharram Beh, which were quite shameful, and have shown me more facts that they have tried to cover over the centuries.
They have indicated that Islam is a religion of peace and forgiveness, but their true face has been uncovered to show barbarism and thievery and fanaticism and not acknowledging others, and attempting to remove them from existence.
Some may think that the actions of the Moslems does not represent Islam and has no relationship with the teachings of Islam that was brought by Mohamed 14 centuries ago, but the truth is that their actions is not different from the Islamic teachings in its original form when it has urged people to deny others and hate them and kill them and take their property, things that they know well but they try to deceive people by falsely defending the teachings of Islam by extremists and they are hiding from the truth and they prefer living a lie.
I have seen with my own eyes the thugs as they break into our Christian brothers’ stores after the whole area of Maharram Beh was completely out of control of the government authorities, and I saw them as they ransack the contents of the store right and left, amidst cheering and shouting extremist Islamic slogans, and I saw them stealing the money from inside the drawers of the cash registers and splitting it among themselves as if it is justified by being owned by what they call the infidels and the worshippers of the cross.
I saw them break into a liquor store owned by a Coptic merchant Labib Lotfy and I saw them smash everything they can get their dirty hands on, including the refrigerator and the scale and the boxes and liquor bottles. I saw some of them stealing liquor bottles so they can get drunk after a hard day’s work against the Coptic infidels.
It is worth mentioning that although some people may think that this Christian-owned liquor store was particularly targeted because the owner is selling the forbidden alcoholic beverages that is forbidden in Islam, but another liquor store in front of the Christian-owned store happens to be owned by a Moslem merchant, and none of the thugs dared to attack, as they did with the Christian-owned store. Now you can see the hateful sectarian actions.
What the Moslems did yesterday in a very vulgar and criminal and horrible way proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that they don’t acknowledge others or their rights of existence or their rights to live with the freedom of expression and also consider them less than them, and these actions should be fought and exterminated for is it right to leave these horrible human beings to do what they want and kill, destroy, steal, and burn??!!
The Islamic teachings that was brought by Mohammed 14 centuries ago should be faced with courage and boldness, we should expose and show its faults and warn humanity of its dangers. We should, even though we are different –look with reason to these teachings that urges people, human beings, to become monsters that don’t know anything in life except killing and looting and plundering and raping and pillaging.
We should stand courageously and boldly against these teachings that became a plague on humanity and is not supported except by extremists like bin Laden and al Zarqawi and al Zawaheeri and the thugs that assaulted our Coptic brothers and burned their homes and stole their properties, and tried to assault their religious men and destroy their churches.
We should take off the religious and sectarian gown and look at matters in a more humane way. We should hold trials to all the acts of terrorism and extremism, that our Islamic history have kept their names and their criminal actions starting with Mohamed ibn Abdullah and his company of murderers like Khalid ibn el Waled and Omar ibn el Khattab and Saad ibn Abbi Waqqas and Moiizah Bin Shaabah and Samra bin Gandab and the kings of Beni Ummaya and Beni al Abbass and al Osman, and ending with the Moslem criminals of the modern day that became more famous than movie stars and singers.
We should show the world the truth of these criminals that unfortunately have become role models for our youth and our children and our women. We should expose their false teachings and show the world that they are a big danger that should be exterminated and removed from its roots.
Before you put on trial the people that are responsible for the crimes that occurred on Black Friday in Maharram Beh, you should first put on trial the dirty teachings that caused them to go on a rampage of stealing and plundering and looting.. put Islam on trial and sentence it and its symbols with a figurative execution so that you can be sure that what happened yesterday will never be repeated again.
For as long as Islam exists on this planet all your efforts to end wars and disputes and upheavals will fail because Islam’s dirty finger will be found behind every catastrophic event to humanity.
More translations available here: What Kareem Said.
March 25th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
[...] We have updated the What Kareem Said section with a translation of an article he published one day after the 2005 Alexandria riots that occurred in Moharram Bek: Kareem Amer: The Naked Truth about Islam As I Saw It In Maharram Beh. This translation was produced by J. Ahmed Salib. [...]
March 27th, 2007 at 2:03 am
[...] Η μετάφραση έγινε από την αγγλική μετάφραση του αραβικού πρωτοτύπου που και τα δύο μπορείτε να βρείτε εδώ. [...]
April 1st, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Kareem é realmente o herói dos novos tempos.
Estou contigo Kareem.
Em qualquer lugar do mundo, onde houver uma pessoa
sofrendo humilhações e necessidades por diferenças ideológicas,
raça, cor, ou religião ou mesmo pela insanidade de seus governantes,
minha lágrima e solidariedade estará com ela.
FREE KAREEM!
April 18th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
[...] Here you can find Kareem’s post and here you can read about the event on which Kareem commented, from the BBC website. [...]
April 26th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
I don’t reject Islam like Karim does but I respect the right of free speech . What happened to Karim was a disgusting and perverse act by al-azhar . The university supposed to be a light in the muslim world has shown itself to be a sham and a joke .
June 17th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
[...] Η μετάφραση έγινε από την αγγλική μετάφραση του αραβικού πρωτοτύπου που και τα δύο μπορείτε να βρείτε εδώ. [...]
July 15th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
[...] “Yes. The one called ‘The Naked Truth About Islam As I Saw It’.” [...]
July 24th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
First off, let me assure you that what happened on that sad day was a consequence for the horribly insulting Anti Islamic plays put on by the churches in Alexandria. I’m not saying that the reactions are justified. These people’s reactions do not reflect Islamic teachings and how Islamic retaliation should be whatsoever. Islam, like any belief has people who learn it properly and some who learn it improperly. What has been written by Kareem is too biased and narrow minded. I say this with complete objectivity, I think Kareem is very ignorant and not too smart. He was not intelligent enough to realize that the teachings imposed on him at home and what he saw happen on that day in his city do not represent the truth about Islam.
Nothing is forceful in Islam: Read verse 256 in Surat Al Baqara (pg42 of the Quran) and verse 29 in Surat AlKahf (pg297 of the Quran) just as 2 quick examples
August 31st, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Kareem’s language is hyperbolic and a bit gratuitously offensive, but so is contemporary Islamic activism. Nobody takes responsibility for the actions of those freaks. If they are criticized at all, it’s only in the most milqtoast fashion, and these same “critics” then secretly applaud them and egg them on [even if only out of cowardice, rather than conviction]. Though I think using such frank language as Kareem’s only alienates the very people one hopes to reach, the logic isn’t so illogical. It’s major weakness in terms of argument is that it doesn’t go far enough. It’s not only Muslims who are guilty of these outrages.
Historically, all of the Abrahamitic religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam [and many of the sects which are derived from them or influenced by them], have been intolerant, bigoted, and violent. It’s in the germ of their shared unitarian concept of God. Each is just a newer edition [newer, but not improved] of the same degraded view of man and his relation to nature. Each detests being contradicted or rivaled, however peaceably and without overt threat. They cannot abide contradiction because it is too easy to show up their failings.
The Jews carried out ‘jihad’ against the Canaanites, Arameans, Goddess worshippers –without mercy, in god’s name. They insulted and despised the Samaritans, faithful to the same god and of their own blood, simply because they differed in their rituals. Today, the Zionist ideology, best exemplified by the Kahanites, is no more than Jewish Jihadism. The idealized nostalgia of a Jew from Odessa or Williamsburg who’s never laid eyes on the Levant is supposed to trump the living nostalgia of an Arab who was born and raised there. Israel’s is a highly defective democracy, where Christians, Muslims and Druze have second class rights. Ironically, that’s a hell of a lot more real rights than they’re likely to get in any muslim land, at least in so far as speech, press, religion, organization, health care. Owning land is just the opposite. And most galling is the need of Israeli permission just to live in your own country. Because of this, despite its best intentions ideally, the Zionist project was never viable as envisioned. The best solution, a secular republic of all inhabitants, regardless of faith, is more unlikely each day. Now, the Israeli right has allied with America’s Christian “Ayatollahs”, a very anti-semitic bunch. They deserve each other.
The followers of Jesus soon forgot his message, and their own suffering under the Jovian militants of Rome, and once they achieved power carried out massacres against anyone who, however meekly [aren't the meek inheritors of the earth?] begged to differ from their views, be they Hellenists and Jovians, Druids, Jews, Odinists, Manicheans, Gnostics, Isists, etc. And as for intra-Christian differences, it remains a great irony that no one has killed quite so many people who considered themselves Christians, as the Christian ‘jihadists’ [from the early Christian paragons of orthodoxy, to the anti-heterodox crusaders of the middleages to the 'jihadists' on BOTH sides of the Protestant Reformation. Todays Christian "Ayatollahs" in America are their faithful descendants. They too want Christian 'Shar'ia'. They want Muslims there to live as Christians live in the Muslim world, cowed and insecure, waiting for the scourge and pogrom.
But, let's not kid ourselves, the Muslims didn't conquer half the world because they were so kind that their oponents swooned from the surfeit of niceness. All the Abrahamites spread their faith by fire and sword, Jew, Christian and Muslim. Islam may consider the Jews and Christians 'people of the book', but they were only tolerated if they paid up to the Muslim protection racket that was portrayed as a willing fee by the overlords. Otherwise, it was "off with their heads", just as it would have been had the shoe been on the other foot. The Crusades were an atrocity, ON BOTH SIDES, and it took two to tango. All for the glory of the Abrahamitic god. If Islam has an innovation, it is to emphasise even more than the others do, God as capricious Sultan-Caliph, who is such a petty insecure god he requires constant reassurance and praise or else he'll have a trantrum. He's a god who apparently keeps billions of surplus virgins around [the divine Harem?] so his most loyal slaves can hump away eternally. [If the Jews have turned god into a real estate agent, haven't the Muslims turned him into a pimp?] A religion that values most the most willing abject slave, in return for a licencious unlimited access to women, is a religion meant for slaves, and for slave masters, not free people.
Shouldn’t belief in our time be for free men and women who stand before god according to the lights he/she gave them, just as they were given talents and minds of every level and hue to mediate the myriad marvel universe in which they exist. They glorify god by their ethics and surfeit of love and creativity, not greedy self-serving passions fed by fear and jealousy [GREED for paradise is still just greed --those virgins may turn out to be harpies with teeth in the wrong place; causing suffering to the children of God is only a bigger crime when it's done in his name --is he such a weakling that he will be undone by the actions of men?].
True, none of these intentions corresponds to what the decent followers of these faiths consider the deep meaning of their religions. They see the good side and ignore or reinterpret according to their lights the uglier parts. Any of the scriptures can be used to prove any point, however contradictory ["an eye for an eye" or "turn the other cheek"/"thou shalt not kill" or "you shall not suffer them to live"]. Bin Laden and the most humane Sufi read the very same verse of the Qur’an and the one becomes rabid while the other basks in the glory of pure love. Abrahamism, whatever its form, is compelled to insist, despite all the contradictory evidence within it, that it’s scriptures are unmediated by men, that it is absolute, that it is the only way, to the only God. Yet, no rational mind can attempt to mediate its profundities and not go insane, without shutting down half its powers. A faith that tells men that God requires them to hunt, eliminate or war against men, because apparently God needs their blood sacrifice, can only be suspect to an ethical and moral mind. I care little for what religions CLAIM they stand for, when their history does not bare it out. And if one chooses to interpret the worst of a religion in a positive light [a noble, if limited aim], then it behooves one to expose those who gleefully prefer the negative interpretation, not damn the messenger who points out the hypocracy of the tradition.
The Abrahamites didn’t invent intolerance [ironically, there was plenty of that amongst the Zoroastrians, who later got it in spades from the Abrahamites --again ironically, after permeating Abrahamism with much of their scripturalism, Angels, good vs evil, heaven and hell, satan, etc, etc.]. And there are unadmirable qualities in many faiths, especially as put into practice, if not in theory [Hinduism's caste system was an apartheid regime, despite all the theoretics about karma]. Sikhs are as quick to riot and plunder as any other group, given the right circumstances. Truthfully, the only major group that spread by means other than plundering, that I’m aware of, is Buddhism, though several smaller groups seem to also fall in that category –Baha’is and a few others. Wherever a group claims to have exclusive access to truth, there is an enemy of humanity. There is something to fear, there is something to turn away from.
If decent muslims don’t want to be tarnished with the same brush as the pseudo-jihadists, they need courage, not meek little protestations, not whining about how the west brought it on themselves [Did muslims bring Iraq and Afghanistan and Somalia upon themselves because they are sinners? Were Pakistan and Indonesia engulfed by natural disaster because muslims are hated by God?] If you fear your co-religionists, then your religion has a problem. Where are the fatwas loudly proclaimed against each and every suicider? Isn’t calling a suicider a ‘martyr’, blasphemy? The jihadist movement is just a modern form of the old Hashishin, taken to extreme and now by Sunnis rather than Shia [though Hezbollah is well established in the field]. In its very essence, as a movement, it is a cult of human sacrifice. The suicider himself is almost incidental, a minimum sacrifice if all else fails. The objective is to offer God as many corpses as possible, to the glory, less of God, than of the cult, to seek God’s favor for the cult and its devotees. After 9/11, Bin Ladin is said to have uttered, “May God accept this sacrifice.” Kali’s thugees could not have been holier than these.
The Jews are not alone in their obsession about land. Is it a Semitic thing? Jihadists speak about retaking all formerly muslim lands, Al-Andalus, Sicily, Provence, the Balkans, Sinkiang, northern India and of course Palestine. These are issues of political-economy. Enshrouding them in religion is self-serving. Land is land. It belongs to those that live upon it and you don’t get a claim on it just ’cause great uncle Tenous or Shlomo once had a place there. Turkey was once occupied by Christians, all of Palestine and Iraq too, and Egypt –South to Ethiopia, and Pakistan once was Hindu and Afghanistan Buddhist, and Iran Parsi. Shall these people now get their lands back and make the muslims bow their heads to them? All the Palestinian “martyrs” are not muslims. There are Christians too [and Left-wing atheists!]. They’re fighting for their country. How dare muslim opportunists try to subsume their sacrifice in an amorphous Islamic martyrology.
The Christians who live in the East lived there long before the first muslim walked the earth. There languages, Syriac, Coptic, Greek, Amhara, long preceded Arabic in their lands. Today they are no threat to anyone. They are faithful to their home countries. Yet, they live as second class citizens. Why should they require any “by your leave” from any muslim? Why should they live by alien rules imported by conquerers with an alien tongue and tread softly in their own land? Who remembers Eastern Christians ever taking over one of the holiest places in Islam to make war upon a third party, as Palestinian muslims did at Bethlehem to escape the Israelis? No one does. Every Christian in the East would have been murdered in consequence, and I don’t know that any of the ‘decent’ muslims would have dared to open their mouths in protest, without joining them. No fatwa was issued against the desecration in Bethlehem. No fatwa was issued against the murderers in Alexandria. When the Palestinian nation finally gets its place in the sun, will Hamas thank the Palestinian Christians who have bled alongside them by gifting them a Shari’a state? Israel stands a chance only to the extent that it defies the religious yoke.
The one saving grace that Christians offer the world is that they underwent the revolution of the Reformation and the political renewal that resulted in toleration as a principal and civil society [as opposed to tribe] as model. This great historical truce led to the development of the modern world. And made possible, eventually, not right away, the liberation of women. It’s been a choppy history, with numerous backpeddlings, but the basic principals of secular society triumphed, to God’s glory. Muslims in the West are quick to demand their rights, rights they themselves would never permit if the roles were reversed. Where are the churches in Saudi Arabia? In the West the call to prayer is heard, the qur’an is freely available, anyone can convert to Islam. For this, Muslims then hold the West in contempt. In the reverse scenario there would be stonings aplenty. The muslim world is still mired in forced and hypocritical religiosity. Islam has never had a reformation. Turkey has tried it, with mixed results. But it’s not a whole continent. A great many of Islam’s leadership, along with Christianity’s, are a bunch of atheists in practice who use religion selectively as suits their personal benefit. They use religion to whip the rubes, the ignorant masses, to do their bidding. If religion is to have any value it has to forcefully reject manipulation, rabblerousing, jihadmongering, Christmongering, fear-of-othermongering.
Today there are Jews taking a stand against the Zionist extremism of the Israeli right, denouncing Israeli military actions and abuse of civilians, opposing the religious hoodlums, most of whom trace there origins to Brooklyn, Poland and Russia, who seek to impose a fait accompli in the West Bank and to impose their religious whim on Israeli society. Where are their equals in the Muslim world? Who thinks these Jews don’t get threats from their own kind, that they don’t need courage and moral fiber to do as they do?
Kareem is the canary in the mine. He’s warning muslims that they can’t continue to sit on their hands and play it safe. I remember the German preacher who said, to paraphrase, “When the Nazis came to get the communists, I didn’t protest, I wasn’t a communist. When they came for the trade unionists, I didn’t protest, I wasn’t a trade unionist. Finally, when they came for me, there was no one left to protest.” Reasonable, decent Muslim, don’t ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. Muslim on muslim outrage is routine in the muslim world, and everyone looks the other way. But let a Christian say or do whatever, “it’s go time”. Jihad because of a damned cartoon. God must be such a blind whimp in these people’s eyes!
Hezbollah copycats Hamas and gets over a 1000 Lebanese killed, then spreads a little Iranian cash around and acts like they are heros. Hamas and Islamic Jihad insist on firing rockets at Israel from among civilian homes in Gaza, [when they are not even being shot at] and then whine about all the Palestinian dead when Israel retaliates. Who tells them they are phoney self-serving opportunists? Resistance is not provoking attacks so you can pretend to be a hero, or ‘martyr’, if you reap the reward you have [lasciviously: what's holy about lusting after a hump in heaven?] brought upon yourself.
In [not so] short, a reasonable person might be forgiven for wishing “a plague on all your houses”. At the very least, the decent, humane people of all faiths have to realize that they have more in common with each other than they do with all their own co-religionist extremists. AND they have to ACT ACCORDINGLY. Let’s stop making excuses for “our own” Franken-martyrs and Franken-preachers. Given a chance they will swallow us all up. And then, like the partisans of the Caliphs and Imams, and Popes and Pharisees, they’ll turn on each other. A plague on all their houses.
I hope I have been an equal opportunity offender. I have little patience for the arrogance of religious people of any stripe who think they’ve got all the answers. It blinds them to the obvious. They know only ‘official’ history, think only what the clerics want them to. Their religion is always so good, so sweet, so Santa Clause like. They are gutless wimps. Think for yourselves, people! That takes courage. There were no ‘good old days’. All religions, especially the Abrahamites, arose in ignorance, fear and violence. They self-perpetuate retrograde tribal custom as religious sacrament. The Caliphs and Imams, High Priests and Popes all lived like princes while their faithful labored like brutes. Corruption, nepotism and revenge were always as muslim as falafel, as Jewish as matzoh, as Christian as the Eucharist. Enough! If you insist on living with your head up your rear-end, don’t complain if you get a kick in the head.
Stand firm, mighty Kareem –a man vs. the deformed snivelers.
P.S.: Why don’t all those British Universities that broke off relations with Israeli institutions because of their connection to the Zionist policies that injure Palestinians, also break off relations with al-azhar, and other opportunistic institutions in the Arab world. Good for the goose, good for the gander?
October 25th, 2007 at 2:32 am
This post highlights the stupidity of suppressing freedom of speech. Kareem’s article is indeed “hyperbolic and a bit gratuitously offensive” as Bin Yah put it, and had the Egyptian authorities ignored it, it would undoubtedly remained a single post by an obscure blogger about whom nobody had heard.
Instead, they put him in gaol and now he is famous across the world and his writings being read by thousands. Totally counter-productive!
I’ve noted elsewhere that opinions, especially bad ones, should be exposed so that they can be refuted or ridiculed; banning opinions gives them a credibility they do not necessarily deserve. Lenin believed ideas were dangerous because he had something to fear.
BTW Bin Yah, I don’t think any universities actually did break off relations with Israeli institution, despite a misguided vote in the The University and Colleges Union. Rather than breaking off relations with al-ashar and other “opportunistic” institutions, why not keep all the channels open?
December 13th, 2008 at 2:45 am
I totally agree with adel’s
“First off, let me assure you that what happened on that sad day was a consequence for the horribly insulting Anti Islamic plays put on by the churches in Alexandria. I’m not saying that the reactions are justified. These people’s reactions do not reflect Islamic teachings and how Islamic retaliation should be whatsoever. Islam, like any belief has people who learn it properly and some who learn it improperly. What has been written by Kareem is too biased and narrow minded. I say this with complete objectivity, I think Kareem is very ignorant and not too smart. He was not intelligent enough to realize that the teachings imposed on him at home and what he saw happen on that day in his city do not represent the truth about Islam.
Nothing is forceful in Islam: Read verse 256 in Surat Al Baqara (pg42 of the Quran) and verse 29 in Surat AlKahf (pg297 of the Quran) just as 2 quick examples”
Karim is not smart and a good observer at all. And I am glad that he is in jail and I hope he stays in jail for 50 more years for telling lies about islam. Every community has blackships. You can’t blame the whole community for those few blackships. Hitler killed 6 million jew in ww2, now should I blame whole christianity because of hitler’s actions? No I won’t coz I know its illogical.
December 20th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Kareem indeed is nothing but an ignoramus…All his claims about Islam,Muhammad and muslims are not only baseless but relect a product of a prejudiced,satanic and retarded mentality,period!
Only in a sharia’ah-less nation can this wacko still be breathing;how fortunate is he to have put up this attitude under an equally imbecile(Mubaarak) like him.
December 24th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Dear Muhammad and Asif,
As the founder of this campaign, and a Muslim, I also agree with you that many of what Kareem said about Islam was false. But that was his opinion, which we do not share. That does not justify torture and imprisonment. He did not harm any individual or commit a crime. All he did was practice his right to free speech, and yes, in normal societies, criticizing any religion in the world is an act of freedom of speech. Why is it okay that Imams in our countries can incite hatred and violence, commit murder in the name of our good faith, and get away with it, while innocent people like Kareem who merely express their opinions get imprisoned and tortured? It is not just. If you believe Islam is about justice, then you would campaign to free Kareem, instead of being hateful and intolerant, values that reflect very poorly upon our religion.
January 1st, 2009 at 5:43 am
I can’t believe what Muhammed has wrote. As for Nigeria, Islam is a entirely a shame. Islam is practiced in Nigeria just the same way Kareem described. The men, so call alhaji & alfa are totally a disgrace. How can u invite me to a religion that has no forgiveness.
I won’t say much, but I would rather call Muhammed an ignoramus.
January 19th, 2009 at 12:05 am
After reading the rubbish that this clown wrote about Islam, I have no sympathy for this person. Let him rot in jail, this is Allah’s punishment for him.
February 26th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
I’m an Iraqi Muslim. As a somebody who is both an outsider to the issue (being non-Egyptian) and related to it same time (being both Arab and Muslim) I’m observing the following:
There is a serious degenaration in morals all across the world. In the so called Third World institutions like the modern-day Al-Azhar are indeed at the forefront of such development. The stench of hypocricy from the state-appointed muftis, their lies and the extend of their readiness to compromise with the basics of Divine Shariah (innate ethics) and truth has reached the heavens. It should come as no surprise to anybody that people lost all respect for them. But it all had started in the days of Gemal Abde’n-Nasser, whose actual initiative was to destroy the classical Islamic institutions out of fear of men like late Shaltoot and their popular credibility. The replacement was swift - when you destroy the crop and flower land, the weeds come on.
The rage of this imprisoned blogger is absolutely legitimate - the people responsible for the violence and the looting should have been brought to justice and the victims recompenced, as is the teaching of our religion in all times, not only in times of convenience… But then this country at large is lawless, starting at the very top!
As for the Kareem fellow’s supposedly held views, they should more properly be seen against the background of the mob riot the day before him writing that. If we cannot forgive people for things like that, morally we have no right to make criticism either. And if he were to have always held the views, privately, then after regretting it, all you really can accuse him of (as with all angry people, which encompasses the entire Egyptian society)… is ignorance, (not malice).
In fact, Kareem’s opinion, as opposed to underlying emotion of unaddressed hurt, is of no value to anything, because of its flawed presentation: You cannot both be an exposer of hypocracy and criticise the source of the standard against which the charge of hypocracy is made. For if you observe closer Kareem makes no mention of the benevolent heterodox period of Fatimid rule in Egypt…
It is then in reality a verbal attack of the large minority voice on a commonly held ‘modern’ (orthodox) identity of the greater majority of the countrymen, which as always makes this into an internal local tribalist issue.
Such attitudes are indeed spread among young people everywhere in the world and among all sects and religions with even distribution. And time is what tells, of course, …as well as what heals
…
Take care!
(all the best..)
February 26th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
P.S.:
Those white Coptic Churches are very pretty… And blend nicely within our common Greater Arab culture and architecture.
God is Great!
March 8th, 2009 at 5:10 am
#menj
er…no. Actually it’s the government’s (i.e. the establishment’s) punishment for speaking the truth. Allah has absolutely nothing to do with it. Kareem was merely stating the events as he saw them. He saw violence and separatist, divisive behaviour, and reported it. The fact that you choose to ignore the evidence of him and other witnesses, both photographic and literal, is your problem; it still happened. If you agree that violence is good and that everyone should be hurt who disagrees with you; that is also your problem. But always remember that violence breeds violence, and when searching for the core reason for life’s problems, check the mirror first. Polish it, you might not like what you see. But the reflection will still be there. Break the mirror or turn away and the problem will still be there.
Others (especially #bin yah, above) have commented about the Hippocratic contradictions of the various ideologies (mainly of Abrahamic derivation) between their positive, peaceful rhetoric and their aggressive, negative actions.
So surely the strength of a belief system should be judged on the logic and durability of the argument, not on how many people need killing before the argument is ‘proven’?
And surely the core hope of every thinking person on the planet is to live in peace as they progress through life?
If so, you have to admit that all you really want in your life is to fight and kill? - you can’t have it both ways! If that is true, then don’t be surprised or offended when humanity does the only logical thing and fights back. As it’s said, “violence breeds violence”.
An old Buddhist scripture states; “if the minds of living beings are impure, their land is also impure, but if their minds are pure, so is their land. There are not two lands, pure or impure in themselves. The difference lies solely in the good or evil of our minds.”
With that thought in mind, have a nice day!