We need to define a few things.

First you should watch this CNN clip. It's about the move to build a mosque near ground Zero. http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2010/07/14/am.intv.mosque.ground.zero.cnn.html


Okay I'm REALLY going to try to not sound like a teacher or too condescending. (But I'm afraid both happened) One of the biggest issues I have with Americans is their claim to understand religions, cultures, and languages that they know nothing about. So today we are getting an Arabic lesson; I'm hoping this might help shed some understanding on a few controversial terms.

Every word in Arabic has a three letter root. For example
aDRoS- I study
maDRaSa- School
muDaRaSa- Teacher

All have the root patters DRS. This root pattern conveys the meaning of learning, and any words connected to the process of learning has this root, DRS.

iSLaM- the religion
muSLiM- a follower of Islam
SaLaM- Peace

The root pattern of these words is SLM. SLM means peace. Therefore, Islam means, peacefully submitting oneself to God and Muslim means one who peacefully submits oneself to God.

And the roots are very important. It is actually really offensive to call a Muslim a Muzlim. Because the root ZLM means forcefully submitting oneself to God. One letter can change the complete meaning of a word.

Islam is built on a foundation of Peace. And anyone who wants to contradict me on this I want you to look at how many people world wide have been killed in the name of Christianity since its beginning. And I bet you thought while you read that, "Well sure that has happened. But that isn't REALLY Christianity. The people who did that were not REAL Christians!" And Muslims of the world would say the same things about the "Muslims" who kill innocent people in the name of Islam.

You have to self identify as a member of a religion. You, at some point, choose which religion you are going to stick with. You could choose to have no religion, continue on the path of the religion you were born into or convert to a new one. But because you happen to be a part of a religion does not mean that you have to agree completely with the acts that are done in the name of that religion.

Furthermore, the West's concept of Shari'a, "Islamic law", is far too simplified and contorted. The Shari'a in Saudi is not the same Shari'a in Egypt. There are in fact four schools of Shari'a law (madhab) that are commonly used today; the Hanbali, Hanafi, Shafi, and Maliki schools. Each of these schools of law have their own interpretations of al-Qur'an. And there opinions often differ on the same issues. In most countries you can go to different legal scholars (qadi) and they will tell you what the different schools think about your legal problem and you can actually pick which school you would like to use. It is in countries like Saudi where the Hanbali school of law, which happens to be the most conservative, ends up giving the Shari'a a bad name. 


The Shari'a is composed of 4 elements; The Qur'an (I'm going to do a post all about the Qur'an at some point because I want to clear up some things there too), The Sunna (the sayings and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad), analogy and consensus. I'm sure that you understand what the Qur'an is, the word of God reveled to the Prophet, and the holy book of Islam. The Sunna is made up of hadith which are recordings of things that the Prophet said and did. It is believed that these sayings and actions can help every day people live their lives they way they should. Analogy means, if you were to approach a Shari'a council and ask a question about a modern issue, like is using Facebook okay with Islam. They would go to the Qur'an and Sunna and attempt to draw an analogy from past teachings to teachings today. Consensus, means gathering all of the learned scholars on the topic of a question and use all of your available methods to draw a conclusion that is founded in the Qur'an, the Sunna, and analogy. 


The Shari'a is complicated! And it is hard to study because it varies so much depending on where you are in the world. Much like how democracy varies from country to country. Compare the constitution of the United States to that of the constitution of Germany sometime. HUGE difference. 


Now we get to that scary word, the one that strikes fear into the hearts of many, jihad. What does this mean? We only hear about jihad in the sense that this woman is speaking about; a violent attack against Western Christians, or to put it more broadly, Islamic violence against everyone. Jihad has two components. There is an internal jihad. This can be related to the Christian notion of keeping yourself from sinning and working every day to be a more Godly person. And an outer jihad, and in this lies the problem. Some groups interpret outer jihad with fighting, and killing. But I believe that this violates the basic tenants of Islam. An outer jihad I would liken to the Christian notion of spreading the Word, and showing your love of God in all circumstances. It is an outer act as opposed to an inner contemplation. 


What happened on 9/11 was horrible and it is a day that I will never forget. It was also on that day that I myself found myself thinking, "Oh my God please don't ever let one of those terrorists get near me. I will never go to the Middle East. The Arabs, and the Muslims are mean evil people." But that was my ignorance; which was perpetuated by the people I lived around and with. 


Ground Zero is a place of peaceful remembrance. It is a place of contemplation, grief, and at the same time empowerment. There is no reason why Muslims should be prevented from morning, grieving, and remembering with the rest of us. I can promise you this. The Muslims of the world will be living with the remembrance of 9/11 longer and more deeply then anyone else will. Just like the Germans will forever be working to overcome the horrors of World War II. The Muslims are beyond "sensitive to our pain". They weep for us every day. They pray for acceptance in a country that prides itself on "Freedom". The whole world was hurt that day. New stereotypes were made that day. But there is still time to break the stereotypes. There is still time to BUILD and GROW. We need to break the glass ceilings of our minds. We need to embrace difference and work WITH, not against, each other's cultures, religions, and beliefs. And only then can we plant the seeds of Change. 

The Power of the Pharaohs...

It's days like today when the world amazes me. I woke up this morning at 7:30 to take a final and noticed that it was windier than usual outside. After dropping off my final paper for my Arab Women's Autobiographies class I noticed that a sandstorm was blowing in. There were times I was walking but I felt like the wind was pushing be backwards....like how it feels when you walk down the path behind Dorch and the wind from the water blows right up the hill. Except this time it wasn't just the cold that was biting your face there was sand in it as well. Now I don't know about you, but I never expected sand to be able to cause as much damage as it does. But it makes sense if you think about it....sand after all is just rock mashed into billions of little peaces.

The sand blowing through my desert campus was ripping through signs displayed all over campus. It was invading our rooms through closed doors, and closed windows. It was drying our throats, and stinging our eyes. The security guards throughout campus donned medical masks so they could still be out on campus without inhaling the sand.

Sadly enough finals don't stop for sandstorms! So I still had my two papers and one exam to turn in today. But I am actually happy that I got to be out in the storm. You read about  sandstorms and their magical abilities for sand to get EVERYWHERE. But I never really realized how true it is. My room which had the door and windows shut all day now has a nice thin layer of dust on the floor. My throat is dry from sand, and my eyes are loving the fact that I wear glasses for some protection....it was bad enough with glasses I don't know how people got through today without something over their eyes.

But the sandstorm also made me wonder about the thousands, probably millions, of Egyptians who don't have a place to hide. When you walk around the city, or even just drive around Cairo in general, you will see more poverty than you could even imagine. Right down the road from my state of the art university there are new buildings and homes being built and people live in the shells of these structures. Or people live in shacks built up next to them. How do these people hide? Their homes are built out of discarded building materials and are meant to be able to be destroyed after the building project is complete. When can they go to escape the stinging sands of the desert?

The sun is setting now and the sky has turned a bluish, orangeish, grayish, yellowish color...a mixture of sunset and sand. There is a hush around campus like how it sounds after a snow falls. The campus smells like dust and everyone has a gritty feel in their teeth. But the storm has passes...at least for right now...and all we can do for now is wait for the dust to settle so that tomorrow we can clean.

xoxo
~S

This was what weather.com looks like when there is a sandstorm going on outside....

Hands

I am in an Arab Women's Autobiographies class and I just finished reading Tete, Mother, and Me by Jean Said Makdisi. In the book Makdisi recounts the lives of her grandmother, mother and herself. While reading this book I was often on the brink of tears because her stories often reminded me of times with my Mother and Grandmother. The book was absolutely wonderful and I would highly recommend it. 

What follows is a short story about my Grandmother. It's pretty sappy so if you don't like sappy I don't advise that you continue reading.

xoxo
~S

Growing up my favorite place to go was to Granny's house. I remember the long weekend days she would keep my siblings and I while our parents were at work. My favorite thing to do was to climb onto her lap, interrupting her constant crocheting, and talking with her. As we talked she would outline the features of my face with her fingertips. She was mesmerized in the shapes of my eyes, the point of my nose,  and the curve of my ear. She would do this for what seemed like forever. Almost subconsciously. Even when I would sit by her on the couch and she would read to me my favorite book The Monster at the End of This Book she would run her fingers around the creese in my lips, and the edge of my chin.

I loved my Grandmothers hands. I loved the fact that you could see her vanes and you could feel her vanes. I would pinch the skin lightly together around the vane and wonder at how her skin would stay peaked after I let go. Her wrinkled hands looked so different from mine.

Just like she would run her fingers over my face I traced my fingers over her hands. I compared the size of my hand to hers. I compared the shape of her ballooned knuckles to mine. Her hands amazed me. Those hands were able to create blankets, and hats with her crocheting. They were able to show so much love with so little effort. They were able to discipline and instill so much fear and respect. Hands are the body part that can connect you with the world and the body part with tells the world your story.

When my Grandmother was in the hospital to get her gull bladder out; I went to visit and crawled into the hospital bed with her. I laid next to her the entire time and she just ran her fingers through my hair. No words had to be said and I felt completely safe and completely loved.

At Granny's viewing I went up to the casket and saw how her hands were so wrong. The embalming fluid made them too flat, the wrinkles were all gone. But none the less, I stood there and traced the outline of her fingers one more time. I felt what once were vanes full of blood still make small bumps under her now smooth skin. I held her hand and was able to gain peace from those hands that had always comforted me in the past.

But this was my relationship with my grandmother's hands. What Teta, Mother, and Me made me wonder is what did her hands do before they were my grandmother's hands? What were they like as a farm girl waking up with the sun to milk the cows? Did her palms get sweaty the first time she held hands with a boy? Were her hands as comforting to the people she nursed in the hospital as they were to me when I was sick? What were her hands like as a girl, a sister, a daughter, a mother, an aunt, a lover, a friend? Did my other cousins experience the same hands that I did? Did my aunts and uncles get the same attention from her hands that I did?

There are so many questions I always wish I could ask her. But I will never have the opportunity.

Love you Gran!

An interesting article

This article was in one of the newspapers on campus and created LOTS of drama in the international community...Enjoy! (all typos exist in the original article)

xoxo
~S

Atheism By: Hager Ibrahim

In a previous issue of Caravan, my dear fellows Mai Shams el Din and Heba Khalil wrote about atheism On Campus. At the first glance I was very attracted to read their articles as it is such a sensitive issue to be addressed in Egypt… well, yes AUC is still part of Egypt! I wouldn’t lie to you, I just didn’t feel well after reading. I won’t deny the fact that I know “Egyptians” on campus that are atheists, yet, I felt like I got a lot to say.

My friends talked about the Egyptian Law that AUC abides by; about foreigners on campus who feel that they are not welcomed enough; about the diversity that AUC offers; about the tolerance we shall have. Yet I wonder what is it exactly that we are requested to have in order to be tolerant enough?

We accept very liberal dressing styles inside AUC as a community, it’s not against any Egyptian law, but I wouldn’t say that our average dressing code is the acceptable dressing code within the Egyptian community. Yet, we are still not tolerant enough? I believe this tolerance issue leads us to a deeper question. As students in AUC we have to revisit out perception of out university. Is AUC actually American? Egyptian? Or simply and American-based system on Egyptian Land? To what extent are we truly conforming to the Egyptian perception about AUC what states that AUCians are spies on Egyptian land and that its youth are being transformed by the Powerful state of America to serve its own interests in the Middle East specially in a country that is considered one of the centers of Islam in the World?

Knowing that the Religious distribution of Egyptians- according to CIA world fact book 2009- is approximately 90% Muslims and 10% Christians; and taking into consideration the profound religious roots that are deepened in the Egyptian community, we find ourselves (Muslims and Christians) opposing many of what could be considered in America “Freedom of Choice”.

An American thinker would say that you are free to choose your religion, and a Religious Muslim would say that as well. Yet, a Muslim would have much more to be concerned with. We would care that Muslims stay as is, for we shall not forget that as Muslims we have the “Redda” concept that applies to Muslims who convert into other religions. Although this concept is heavily debated in religious arenas it should be taken into consideration. The same shall applies to Coptic Orthodox Christians who care to preserve their unity and belief. Additionally, a religious Muslim would take into consideration the concept of “Al Amr del maa’roof wal nahi a’an el monkar” which entails that a good Muslim shall advice others of what’s right and speak out when seeing something wrong. Finally, if a person is a true believer in any religion, he/she would probably like to see his/her children believing in the same religion out of the love of seeing the children doing what is right.

I am not sure how foreigners feel that of whether they are accepted enough on campus. But my guess is that, at the most, Egyptians are very welcoming to foreigners, and they don’t try to change them. It’s out of the concept that “it’s none of our business!” Yet, tolerating Egyptians getting affected by American thought to the extent that it contradicts their basic religious beliefs… That gets me back to the semester I spent in Portland, OR, USA. Portland is known to be a place for what’s ever is freaky and unusual in America, a place of maximum liberty, a haven for athiestsand a place where almost 10% of the population are homosexuals. A place where the last generation that considered itself Christian is over 60 years Old. Moreover, it’s a place where I found that homosexuality is encouraged more than being straight! I just wonder if this is the development of freedom of  “everything” kind of thinking, would that city exists in 50, 100 years from now?! I Doubt it! There wouldn’t be enough straight people to produce new generations!

Forgetting about the Egyptian Law, We need to ask ourselves several questions. Could we reach that stage one day? Is that what we want? Are we supposed to be more tolerant forwards accepting the existence of foreigner atheists? Are we being transformed into what America wants????

So you're going to Egypt...

Every time I tell someone that I am going to Egypt I get many different responses and am asked many different questions. Here are just a few of each. 

"Are you going to get to ride a camel?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!" (Maybe. Hopefully!!!! I really hope they just don't spit at me.)

"What religion so people practice over there?" (They are mostly Muslims, however Egypt does have Coptic Christians and Jews.)

"You know those people over there are Muslim right?!?!" (Said like, "You know those people over there are purple, have four legs, and eight eyes." Guess what Muslims are people and human just like me and you! They aren't scary I promise.) 

"You have to bring me home a Mummy!!"  (Ummm don't think I can bring one home through customs)

"You know they killed all their pigs because of swine flu." (Yup I have read the newspapers.)

"Do you speak Arabic?" (Workin on it.)

"What do people speak in Egypt?" (Arabic. But all my classes will be in English. Most of the people in Cairo speak some English.) 

"Are you going by yourself?" (Yup, I enrolled directly into the American University in Cairo.)

"Why would you ever want to go there?" (Asked to me by a guy on base at Ft. Detrick....he just got back from Iraq and didn't understand why I would want to go to the Middle East . Answer: To try to stop stereotypes that people like you keep going.)

"Wait Egypt is in Africa?!" (Yup Egypt is in the upper right hand corner of Africa.)

"Do you have to wear a Burka, hajab, scarf?/ Do you have to cover your head, face, arms, legs, shoulders, insert body part here?" (Around campus no, they are pretty chill about what you wear, you just can't be too reviling. But out in the town I need to cover up and wear long sleeves, and pants. If I go into a mosque then I would cover my head out of respect.)

"Be Safe./ You are going to really stick out./ You are blonde and have blue eyes...watch out." (I will be careful.)

"Why Egypt?" (This is asked of me by everyone and is a blog post entirely by itself.)