Do I hate Egypt and Egyptians?
I received a very rebuking email from an Egyptian woman in which she accused me of self-hate. She asked me why I hate the country in which I grew up. She asked me why I am so pessimistic about Egypt and how come I have so much hate for Egyptians. I really appreciated her email, but I think that she misunderstood my intentions. First of all, I love Egypt with every drop of blood I have in my body. Even though I obtained my American citizenship and had an opportunity to work for one of the top companies in the States, I returned to Egypt and I work here. My love of Egypt immeasurable; It is as endless as the love of God to human beings is. Do I hate Egyptians and do I hate my Egyptian self? Far from it. Despite the disgusting social ills that plague our people, I feel that most Egyptians have good roots and good intentions only when they suspend their Islamic way of life. Since the 1970s, Egypt had become more and more Islamic. Thanks to Sadat, the former member of the Islamic brotherhood, Egypt had been plagued with extremism and fundamentalism. Sadat felt threatened by socialists and communists in Egypt so he made an unholy alliance with Islamic extremists to kill them. He did not forget his roots as a militant Muslim. Sadat tried to redeem himself after he got rid of his enemies and tried to have a peace treaty with Israel, but the Islamic extremists did not have mercy on him and shot him with 500 bullets that penetrated his body. Now, let us see what happened to Egypt since Sadat made his ugly alliance with the Islamic extremists. The society became a retarded one, and people became obsessed with doggedly following the Islamic law (Shariaa). Compare Egypt in the 50s and 60s with Egypt in the 70s, 80s, and 90s by watching movies from these different eras. Compare the way people talked to each other and cared about each other. Compare the generations that grew up before Sadat and the ones that grew up during and after his reign. This comparison is a textbook of a decline of a civilization. The more people adopted and observed the Islamic religion, the more they became deceitful, racist, prejudiced with no regard for women’s rights and no compassion for orphans.
posted by maged salamah at 5:46 PM
31 Comments:
I agree, Islam is the worst thing that can happen to any civilization.
It's [Islam] a threat to freedom and security.
And Islam is the reason people in the Middle East are not flourishing. They consume and not produce. They do not have anything to offer to the world. Only when Egyptians leave Egypt, they flourish and they make huge contributions (e.g. Ahmad Zoweil)
Maged:
Thank seems to be the case with all the Mideasterners. That once they get out, they do quite well in their new countries
xavier
Egypter:
Or life in the late 19th century. Granted Britisn colonialism wasn't in the Egyptians' interest but many ethnicities and religions lived side by side. At the very least they got on without too much dislike.
I shake my head because Egypt has historically been the culturally most advanced 'Arab' country (along with Lebanon; interesting how both countries had very large Christian minorities) and today's it's no longer preeminent.
How very, very sad.
xavier
Yes, Xavier, Arab nationalism and islamic extremism inflicted a huge damage on Egypt's culture. If Egypt is to re-emerge from its coma, it needs to get rid of Islam.
Thanks Egypeter, I really appreciate that. I think she was being defensive. She kept accusing me in her email without backing up her argument for evidence.
I really enjoyed looking at your site, I found it very helpful indeed, keep up the good work.
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Interesting blog.
Maged I have a question.
What are your views on racism in Egypt?
I'm a black African, Arabic speaker whose visited Egypt many times and Egypt is the only country where I've been verbally racially assaulted.
What are your views on the massacre at Mustafa mahmoud and the fact that people who were interviewed in the aftermath said that the Sudanese refugees were wretched, animalistic, virus-ridden, sex-crazed people who deserved what they got?!
What about Adel Imam who said the same thing? - That the refugees deserved what they got!
What about Egyptia nmedia and cinema and the denigrating way it portrays black and Africans?
Any thoughts?
anonymous please read this post. http://democraticegypt.blogspot.com/2006/04/racism-in-egypt.html
it explains everything
Your are Excellent. And so is your site! Keep up the good work. Bookmarked.
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When someone commits a car accident, we blame the driver and not the car, so dont blame islam, blame the people that are carrying it in their own way, in other parts of the world and through history, Muslims were achievers and contributors to the society, i repeat, do not relate, in the concept of comparison, there are good and bad christians, same for Jews, same everywhere, do not blame the religion, blame the people.
Example: In Islam, a married woman is not obliged to work, clean the house, breast-feed the kids, a man is obliged to provide all that for her, is that the case in Egypt, NO NO NO, why, because they are not following islam, they are taking only the parts that they like.
al salam alaykom
thx ahmed for ur great effort, but this is not the way u talk with this man, i will show u what u should do with someone disgusting like maged.
look disgusting maged, all what u post show that u hate muslims and Islam, but believe me this would never change anything cos every succeeded thing have enemies, do u know enemies of success? for example, u have soooooo many enemy now cos of what u post, and why do u have enemies cos u succeeded in being disgusting u r the disgusting man of the year u r black from inside, u succeeded in showing every muslim that u hate him and his religion, even u dont know how to debate the others, u always use abusing and insulting, cos u have nothing to say, i will tell u something which is more important than what u post, go to any christian site and try to learn whats christianity and try to teach ur fellowship that too, cos really if u know ur religion u wouldnt do all this and really i want to tell u that u dare to debate with any muslim shiekh, and u would think 100000000000000000 times before u do it cos u will never win, really i cant let u meet so many who can debate u and win u in ur religion and in our religion, and they dont insult, dont worry, they will not insult u or ur beliefs, really u r disgusting, and one day u will know that u were wrong believe me its better to be good in ur religion 1st, and follow what Jesus christ said in the bible, dont u know that he ordered u to remove the stick in ur eye then try to remove the thorn in ur brother's eye, i bet u forgot, but its ok, i will always be there for u to remind u by the stick in ur eye, as Jesus christ said.
good bye maged.
muslim_guy
correct (really i cant let u meet so many who can debate u and win u in ur religion and in our religion, and they dont insult, dont worry, they will not insult u or ur beliefs)
muslim_guy
i agree with u on on alot of things including islam being a shell 4 all kinds of scum to hide in,but u have no right 2 say that islam is fake (its ancient ,how the hell ud know?),the down hill of egypt began from the great bastard gamal abd el nasser ,he started takeing all the assets of the rich&the well off ,(his grave was full of shit,cause they broke a sewer pipe while diging,thats fact few people know),and gave bits 4 the fala7een farmers & put them in the cities be4 even learning 2 read and wright,that is the source of retardedness in the snake pit that is EGYPT.
all religions r real but r tampered with and fabricated over centuries.so all religions r full of crap!
I actually wrote about 4 paragraphs explaining how ignorant and illiterate your article is.
Maged, i bet you are in your 30s, ugly and have some daddy issues. You should really GO FUCK YOURSELF for a change.
Instead of blaming muslims for Egypt's problems the faults lie with Egypt's ancestors who were unable to fortify and protect their land, women and children. Naturally the Arabs would have seen Egypt as an easy target and ripe for the picking; prompting the invasion of Egypt.
In order to keep the indiginous Egyptians in line, the smart thing to do is to impose hardship through taxes, violence etc to prevent an internal uprising and possible civil war. The fact is that the Arabs conquered Egypt a long time ago and will do anything to maintain the status quo.
So in order to survive in Egypt, copts (being a minority) need to pursue their stengths with their culture, education and community. Therefore it is simply futile to retaliate with violence.
I agree with your theorey! BUT ITS NOT ISLAM, its the way MUSLIMS act! They want to grow a beard and wear the stupid nikab *which is a bedouin un-islamic dress* then they throw garbage in the street and dont stay clean and talk bad about people! THIS IS NOT ISLAM!
People in the pre-Nasser/Sadat era were much better people, and even more pious Muslims! But they were SECULAR *Secular doesn't mean you forget your religion*
I myself am disgusted at the way Egypt has become and i always fight with people in the street about many many things, such as throwing garbage, or not respecting traffic laws...
The strange thing is i live in the USA and have for the past 16 years, but i ALSO want to come back and live in Egypt!
Please check my blog for the Answer, the Answer is a SECULAR EGYPT!
Blessings to all of you fellow egyptians, all ages & all denominations. I am a moslem egyptian and I am as disgusted with today's egypt as any of you. All aspects of it. And I must say, in fairness that Islam has really nothing to do with it or with most moslims in the world today for that matter. Our brother christians are being misled by idiots who justify their acts by Islam. It might be a long shot, but I long to see this blog or another become a platform to all of us disugsted with todays egypt and working to bring it back from the dead, regardless of religions or religion scapegoating. I cry for egypt everyday since I had the chance to grow up in it when it was a great place for ALL to live, and this is how it should be. peace & hope to all. Hisham
If you're so sure of your comments and the validity of your point of view you should not personally attack the blogger of this post. I personally agree that religion has no business in the State and that the two combined can only mean ZERO human rights for believers of that religion who might NOT be religious as well as for religious minorities. Remember Europe used to burn witches at the stake because of this. I do not think the Islamic world in general will progress until the countries do adopt a secular approach. Like one comment on here to be a secular state does not mean leaving your religion it means not imposing it on others who may not interpret it the same way or others who have different faiths. Until the time when the Islamic countries do adopt secularism the whole world will continue to view the region as retarded and backwards and I don't blame them.
SPIRAL34
It is Just a Fishing in troubled waters Mr. Maged.
You forgot (or don't wanna remember) that main reason of our gowing disasters refers to 52's revolution by who called (the free officers - Aldobbat Alahrar).
A group of unqualified small officers got a lucky chance to hold the reins of government, since that time the matters were going worse and worse.
Dear Maged, our country has never been governed by Islam (real Islam) centuries ago, and this is the real cause of our degenerated case.
Please, stop fishing in the troubled waters.
Ive travelled the world working in 30 different countries and living in 6. And the sad reality I keep coming back to is that no other country is anywhere near as "retarted" as Egypt has become.
A complete lack of common sense and in showing in every way a decline of civilization.
My frustrations are only out numbered by my sadness that such a great number of people are so completely and utterly useless, and for lack of a better word, retarded. By far the dumbest country I have ever been to, hands down.
ok ..
iam muslim and from egypt
i see antipathy for islam and muslim people can i ask why ??
this is not our islam because our religion terms Piece between all humans
u must read more about islam
really u r so wrong
King-Faruq is the reason as to why Egypt was a great country. Currently the so called President Mubarak and the two before him made it so there was no room for flourishing. if you wanted to be something or make something of yourself, its was impossible. unless the big man got a piece of the pie "a big Piece". there is no such thing as middle class in Egypt anymore. there is Top and Bottom. if your in the middle somewhere, ur either in ur way up or going down. the current government helps the rich to stay rich and get even richer by using the poor to do anything they want. because every Egyptian that steps out of their home is only thinking about one thing, $$$money$$$. what am i gonna feed my family today. no one has any Morales as to how they are making their ends meet. because if you do, you will not be able to survive. when Egyptians leave Egypt, their they are able to make something of them selves because they are given the opportunity to do so.
True Islam (Submission) is what we need to get out of this self consuming ill that dwells on irrelivancy and exageration!
You're both disgusting and a racist. The only think I hope for you is that you live the remander of your life stuck with this hatred. For soon it'll shoot back at you.
Shove your religious discrimination up you ass! You're a joke, this blog is a joke, and all your supporters are jokes.
One last think. You think you're an Egyptian? You hate upon what makes up 90% of the population. You're far from it my friend. Scratch that last word.
You're a disgrace to this country.
your story sounds fake, i seen many people like u try to spread lies and hate around between people
you fail miserably
I am 52 years old and my wife is 45 years old. Ever since I was about
11. It had been my ambition to see the Pyramids. We were married in
April this year and flew to Sham el Sheikh for our honeymoon for two
weeks.
Let me tell you I will never ever go to Egypt again and I am presently
advising every one I meet to never set foot in the country.
Why you may well ask
I had been warned to expect some pestering due to my wife having
blonde hair and blue eyes, but she is 45 years old.
We arrived at out hotel Amir Sina (a beautiful hotel) in the evening
and went to the bar for a drink; the man who served us would not take
his eyes off my wife and continued to stare longingly at her without
giving me a single glance. We retired early. The next day I went out
alone for an hour and left my wife by the pool, the same guy came over
to my wife when I was away and asked if she was lonely if she was
bored and talked to her for some time. That same evening when we went
out for a walk he even whistled at her while she was on my arm. At
this point I warned him off. I thought at first this would be a single
occurrence
Every shop we passed men came out and told her she was a princess and
beautiful lady and asked us to come into their shops and tried to hold
her hand, even when we walked on the other side of the dual carriage
way they came across the roads to accost us. Not just the occasional
shop. Every shop Every time we went out.
We wanted so much to walk through the old market at Sharm and
experience the atmosphere and to look at the different items for sale.
We could not as every couple of yards shop keepers were telling her
she was a beautiful lady (I think she is nice but she is not a model)
and trying to get us to go into shops. Every shop Every time.
For some reason I saw two market store owners pay a policeman money.
At the cash machine a policeman offered our fiends that he could
exchange their money at a better rate than the machine.
Eventually we went back to the hotel as it was so very uncomfortable
for both us and so tiring to keep saying no thank no thank you no
thank you and having to hold my wife’s hand so tightly
We met four young English girls in their twenties and they explained
that they had stopped going out at all because of the way men were
harassing them. One day we had trouble crossing the road and a police
man asked us if he could help. He stopped the traffic for us to cross
we thanked him and then he asked us for money. We paid him. I later
took a picture of a police man on his camel at the Pyramids he also
asked me to pay him.
This made me feel that the police I had seen were corrupt and even
they stared at and made comments about the girls we were with and my
wife
It made me feel that if spoke out of turn I would be arrested and Lord
knows what would happen to my wife in their hands. It made me feel
physically sick. That I could not protect my wife and that no respect
was shown to us as a married couple. No respect shown to me as a
husband I felt that it made no difference what so ever that we were
actually holding hands when comments were made about how lucky I was.
We too stopped going out at night
My wife I and argued because I wanted her to cover up and not wear the
summer clothes we had saved for, in case if she showed too much of her
legs or shoulders and that it would attract more unwanted attention.
Again I repeat she is a 45 year old woman not a teenage model and
dresses smartly not like a prostitute (this how she was made to feel)
Every English person we met says they shared the same experiences,
plus nearly every Egyptian we met was friendly at the start and then
seemed to find a way to ask us for money.
I have never felt so inadequate and sick to the stomach in my whole life.
A life long dreamed turned into a nightmare and we could not wait to
catch the plane home.
I would welcome your comments to this heart felt account
Robert Taylor
I think Egypted is hated every where first Arabs hate Egypt, Israel Hates Egypt, West hates Egypt because they think we are arabs and muslims. Then inside Egypt muslims and Christians start hating each other. I can't understand that I am Egyptian and I have good christians and muslim freinds and I don't hate any and I know many of my freinds are just like me I don't know where is the problem why every one hate us and we hate ourselves ???!!!!!!???? no answer
I came across your blog and am highly interested in keeping in contact with you. I am a journalist in California and am about to get through my MA in international politics. I believe you would be a great source on the inside of a place where the freedom of information is being squashed by the authoritarian government. My passion is spreading the freedom of information as a fundamental human right using international politics. This has been on my heart for years. I also think you should know that I am a Christian. I love the people of this earth and definitely am going to fight for change. I do not believe God placed this mission in my heart for nothing. Please let me know in what ways I can converse with you further. I have studied Quranic law and would really like to know what suppression people are really under over there.
Hey all..
First I'd like to introduce myself as a Coptic (Egyptian) guy who was just thinking..
"Oh my God, I guess I hate my people!!"
This is really hard feeling..believe me!
The feeling that you don't belong to the people you live among!!!
Well..except for really really small percentage!
I am blessed to be educated & nourished my culture in a way to respec the others & their RIGHTS!
This is mainly thanks to my college years (which was a french college) & thanks to sticking to my church & Bible teachings.
Now, it's really hard for someone having such a background to "hate" the people living around him/her!!!
I respect ppl, regardless their background, social class (I even care to respect those of modest class even more) or RELIGION!
I really do not want all the ppl convert to be Christians!!! Preaching ppl is not the way anyways! I just want to be respect as much I respect the others!
Being civilized is to know & practice both your RIGHTS & DUTIES alltogether on the same level without harrasing the others' rights!
I have many friends from "western" countries..and was blessed to visit some countries..where I got shocked of the idea they have about Egyptians!!!! :(
Well, I was not actually shocked..simply cause I realized the deep mess the Egyptians are in!
Do you know what is the Egyptians' problem?!
It's that they have that idea/image of themselves as the smartest..kindest..funniest..most tender..most ethical..most tolerant..(most..etc.) most "place-holder for any great characteristic" ppl in the world!
It was a propaganda I must say!
Yep, all the Egyptian TVs used to flatter & cajole the ppl!
Deceiving them to believe they are the best in everything!!!
They deal with the others (even within themselves) with such arrogance!
You can see that guy who brags & parades for being pious!!! (that's a fake pious acts in facts!)
You can see those who talk about God & faith..while they do not fear God or even have such great humanutarian invention called "COMMUNITY/SOCIAL VALUES".
In my opinion..that's the "cancer" of the Egyptian society..that they do not even aware of its existence (which makes is cancer really)! :(
There's no way for Egypt to rise to high respectful level among nations unless they admit they are wrong...always have been wrong..in every ways..& start to fix it a.s.a.p. cause they are losing friends, respect, value & LOVE everyday they are late!
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