Reflections on a short tour in Egypt

November 5-15, 2007

By Jay T. Rock
Coordinator for Interfaith Relations

Children met during our village visit. Photo by Cecilie Surasky, Jewish Voice for Peace

My hope is that these brief descriptions of places, and primarily of conversations, will convey something of my journey to Egypt.  For me this tour initiated new learning in a place I had not been before.  Like snapshots (and I hope to add some of those!), may these paragraphs spark your curiosity about the complex and changing society of Egypt and its people. 

Introduction: A Cultural Exchange

I pulled open the curtains and went out on the balcony, anxious to see the Nile in the morning light. Haze from burning rice stubble in outlying fields and pollution from the honking stream of cars and buses in the streets stung my eyes and lay over the river like a blanket. I could hardly see the apartments and buildings on the opposite bank!  Instead, I found myself looking at the crowds of people hurrying along the roadway and through the traffic on foot, and watching the security operation in front of the Hilton hotel. Welcome to Cairo.

The delegation that gathered for breakfast that morning was made up of six Muslims, two Jews and two Christians from the United States.  We were in Egypt (and hoped, but were unable, to go to Syria as well) on the second half of an exchange program organized by the National Peace Foundation in cooperation with the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

The first part of the program in June, 2007, brought 16 Muslims from Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Saudia Arabia to the United States for dialogue with American Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders on the theme of “Religion and Society.”  It had been a pleasure to host that delegation at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Center and in the homes of local Presbyterians in Louisville, Ky.  Now our interfaith group was here to have similar dialogues with political and religious leaders, and to reconnect with the delegates from the first part of the exchange program.

Companions on the Journey

Hours talking in the tour bus and at meals and engaging in intense group conversations with our hosts, along with times of significant personal connection, brought our group into relationship in ways that perhaps only a shared journey can do. With me were:

• Rabbi Bradley Hirschfield, president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership
• Imam Mohamed Magid, executive director of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society and vice-president of ISNA
• Imam Mutee Mulazim, Masjid Al-Inshirah of Baltimore, Md.
• Ms. Zarinah Shakir, freelance radio and TV journalist and producer, working on programming related to Islam in the United States, based in Washington, D.C.
• Ms. Cathy Sultan, author and board member of the National Peace Foundation, from Wisconsin
• Ms. Cecilie Surasky, director of communications at Jewish Voice for Peace in Oakland, Calif.
• Dr. Mahmoud Taman, M.D, president of the Islamic Society of Northern Wisconsin

And our irrepressible and indefatigable leaders:

• Mrs. Sahar Taman, project director of “Religion and Society: A Dialogue,” for the National Peace Foundation, from Wisconsin
• Mrs. Manal Radwan, doctoral candidate at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, with expertise in Islamic civilization and the politics and cultures of the Middle East

Guests Become Hosts

A highlight of this model of exchange is that many of those we had received as guests in the United States now received us as hosts and invited us into the communities and work of which they are a part.  We enjoyed a reunion dinner with most of the Egyptian delegates who had come to the United States, and then went to visit many of them.  Most are young, and involved in activities that are dynamic and also perhaps less well-known to visitors.

Imam Hesham Ghonim helped to organize an evening at the Institute for Islamic Discourse. Here we had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Mohamed Dawood, who spoke about the international project he is leading to distinguish truth from misconceptions regarding the Qur’an.  The dialogue to which the Qur’an calls Muslims has to be undertaken outside the realm of prejudicial attacks and preconceived ideas. Sharing the insights that we reach together, he said, can be of mutual benefit and help us correct our understandings of what is true.

Ms. Shareen Ali-Sayed, an electrical engineer, arranged for our group to attend a regular meeting of the Egyptian Society for Spiritual and Cultural Research. Here we heard a member’s presentation on Qur’anic interpretation and took part in a lively community discussion, which also involved the community’s teacher, Dr. Ali Rafea, and his sisters, Drs. Aliaa and Aisha Rafea. The Society has ties to one of the Sufi traditions, and welcomes seekers into its life through word of mouth. This evening’s conversation explored the idea of freedom of interpreting the Qur’an and specifically the idea that what each one finds as truth for his or her path is a valid interpretation.

Ms. Asmaa Mousa, lecturer at the Institute of Social Work in Kafr elSheikh, brought nine of her young colleagues with her to a meeting in Alexandria, where we learned about the social work projects the group is undertaking in their town.  Calling their program Kinooz, Treasures, these ten young women and men said that their aim was to uncover the resources in Egyptian society and to take responsibility to change their situation, particularly in regard to poverty, illness and ignorance. There was no way to go on living normally, they said, amidst the enormity of the economic and social problems of their community.

In 2006, they began six projects to bring development to Kafr elSheikh: training health trainers to educate about contagious diseases; undertaking education among school and college age youths about alcohol, tobacco and drug abuse; encouraging families to make what they use; providing technical skills training; teaching people to use computers and developing a cadre of professionals in computer technology. These projects are already producing impressive results. All their work is done as Muslim and Christian volunteers, working with what God gives them, using the mode of exchange of knowledge, tools and experience.

Mr. Hamdi Abdel Aziz Shehab, a journalist and director for Human Rights research for the Sawasit Center, invited our group to come to his home village of Abu Pasha in Qulubiya Province.  There we were warmly welcomed at his parents’ home and fed a hearty breakfast.  Some of Hamdi’s colleagues from another town joined us and the group discussed human rights concerns within Egypt and the importance of fighting for the rights of all people within a Muslim social framework, as well as current politics, from a perspective they characterized as “Islamist.”  We walked through the village to the mosque for Friday juma’ah and heard a sermon on putting Muslim ideals into practice.

Visits with Political Leaders

We met with leaders of two political parties, Dr. Refat Said, chairman of the Tagamo’a Party, and engineer Abou Elela Mady, co-founder and leader of the Al-Wasat Party. 

Dr. Said categorically rejects discussion of political problems on a religious basis and sees the language of “a confrontation of civilizations” as a platform for unification against one another that is of equal usefulness for the bin Ladens and for American interventionism. Accepting the Huntington view amounts to a rejection of Egypt as a distinct nation in which all can have equal participation. A dialogue between religions is impossible in his view; instead there is a need for a dialogue as human beings, resisting the Islamicization and other forms of “religion-izing” of the issues.  For him, the real fight is for the equal rights of all Egyptians and against intolerance and discrimination, as well as against U.S. intervention, which is not in the interests of Egypt.

Mr. Elela Mady and other members and friends of the Al-Wasat party offered a different view.  Mady spoke of the need both for dialogue on a social and cultural basis and for making political connections among people and groups. There is a need to avoid generalizations and to understand the diversity and the extreme aspects of each community.  A key to this is to work for freedom for all groups and for dialogue.  In regard to extremism, it is important to distinguish between the diversity of interpretations and opinions and the violence which comes from the lack of ability to express an opinion in a peaceful way because of an underlying lack of freedom in the society.  For democratization to develop, there must be maturation of the opposition and efforts to change the current regime in Egypt locally, resolution of the situations in Israel-Palestine and Iraq regionally and avoidance of a strike on Iran (which would be “catastrophic for everyone”).

In a different political vein, Justin Siberell, director of the American Center in Alexandria, welcomed us and described the cultural and educational events they offer to connect Egyptians with American literature, performance and arts. A lively discussion touched on sister-city and other exchange programs, as well as relations with local religious leaders.

Conversations with Religious Thinkers and Communities 

Although we were unable to go to Dar al Ifta and its training institute, we were privileged to meet with its director, Sheikh Dr. Umr El Wardany, and with Dr. Ibrahim Negm, the personal representative of the Grand Mufti of Egypt.

Sheikh Umr discussed the interaction of Islam and the cultural heritage of Egypt over time, and said that Dar al Ifta is the one institution to which people can refer that is grounded in both Egyptian and Islamic law.  The most important contemporary challenges are development and co-existence, since Muslim scholars should try to improve the life of all people.  Religious leadership’s first principle, he said, is to be merciful; its second is that those with highest levels of education have the duty to lead and its third is awareness of the realities and conditions of the people.

Dr. Negm noted that the current Grand Mufti, Sheikh Ali Goma, was selected, as all grand muftis, by the government, based on the recommendations of the most senior Islamic scholars of the country and of the Grand imam of Al Azhar. The Sheikh oversees Dar al Ifta, the fatwa-issuing body of Egypt, created in 1895.  He has stressed that a fatwa is a non-binding piece of religious advice.  To issue such advice, Islamic jurists need thorough knowledge of Islamic law (as a medical doctor needs specific knowledge), thorough knowledge of the world and the real situation of any specific case and the skills to relate the normative sources to contemporary realities.  Negm described the kinds of questions that Dar al Ifta receives (70% are related to family issues), and the ways in which legal opinion is made available (including through a telephone service and now also via Web site!). The Grand Mufti is very interested in reaching out more to build alliances and is planning to come to the United States in the near future.

After one of the more memorable traffic jams of Cairo, we paid a visit to Dr. Taha Jabir al Awani, director of the International Institute of Islamic Thought. The mission of IIIT is to persuade educators and leaders in the Muslim world to make changes in interpretation and in curriculum by providing publications that speak from the “inside,” rather than from an “outside” liberalism, and thereby to lift up principles of Islam that are often overlooked. For example, talk with Muslims about building interfaith relationships needs to be based in the Qur’an. So the task is to help Muslim educators review the Islamic legacy with attention to the sources, the various streams of jurisprudence, the historical distinctions and the development of the tradition.  The sources of Islam are applicable everywhere, but jurisprudence is always mixed with particular cultures, and is not.  He is particularly interested in helping to review and develop the jurisprudence applying to Muslim minorities so that Muslims in the West can live as a part of their (majority) communities.

We met Mrs. Carmen Weinstein, the president of the Cairo Jewish community, in the Ismaili Synagogue, and learned a bit about the long history of Jews in Egypt, where the community now numbers less than 100 persons. Earlier we had visited the Ben Ezra Synagogue, founded c. 350 BCE, and the site of the Cairo Geniza where a trove of historical documents were discovered. The Jewish community hosts a rabbi from Israel to assist them in celebrating the High Holy Days. The families that remain retain a sense of being a part of the fabric of Egyptian society.

The Rev. Emile Zaki, general secretary of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of the Nile, other ministers of that church and the Rev. Dr. Safwat El-Baiady, its moderator and president of the Protestant Churches of Egypt and of the Protestant Council in Egypt, welcomed us for a conversation at the church headquarters.  Of the 17 Protestant churches in Egypt, the Presbyterian is the largest. Founded through American mission work in 1854, the church has been independent since 1926.  It operates 25 primary and secondary schools and two hospitals. It is involved in an array of training, development and social programs, in addition to the ministry of its local congregations. 

Interfaith dialogue is a part of the dialogue of life among students, parents and many other people in local settings.  The dialogue often tends to be a dialogue among leaders, but there is a concerted effort to organize local working groups around the country. These are encouraging understanding of diversity and cooperation in social development. Sometimes building a school that will teach all children is a more effective response to inter-communal tensions than having a dialogue; there we share not our religion but our ethics, and this is valued. 

How did the historic situation of tolerance among communities living side-by-side change to a situation of division and tension? Three factors contributed: the use of religion to create and nurture aggressive groups for political purposes (such as the mujahaddin in Afghanistan and the encouragement of Islamist groups in Egypt), the exposure to rigid understandings of Wahabiism and a rhetoric that exaggerates divisions (“I am a Muslim President for a Muslim country;” “the Copts are the original Egyptians;” etc.) accompanied by communal building of walls for protection. Now even the names given to children and businesses often reflect a heightened consciousness of religious difference. 

How would it be possible to engage people in rebuilding understanding and cooperation?  One key way would be to hold and expanded interfaith, international exchange like this in Egypt, so that the media can spread the news of such interfaith possibilities and efforts.

And (of course) touring

Our group visited the Pyramids and the Sphinx in Giza; the Mosque of Sultan Hasan (1356), which housed the four schools of Islamic legal and theological thinking under one roof, the Rifai Mosque (1869-1911), the Hanging Church, or Coptic Orthodox Church of St. Mary (where we went to observe a Sunday service), the crypt where the holy family are said to have taken refugee in Egypt, the Ben Ezra Synagogue, Khan El Khalili bazaar, the catacombs and other ruins in Alexandria and the magnificent new Alexandria Library.

No Conclusions

It’s too soon — only questions, glimpses of current realities and more questions.  A good beginning and a remarkable group of new colleagues and friends!