Muslims in Egypt

I believe that the hardest thing about writing an article or writing anything in general is how to start it, how to get into the subject and discuss the point you want with a proper introduction. Honestly, I’ve always said that I love writing but I never said I’m good at it…hehe. And I have to admit I actually SUCK AT introducing what I want to talk about. So here is the thing, I’m going to create my own style of writing (which is not approved at all by the professional standards…but…WHO CARES?)…

Subject I want to be talking about today is: Muslims in Egypt. It would be wrong to generalize, but let’s just say what the majority of Muslims in Egypt are like. From my little experience in life, my interaction with the few people I’ve met, and of course our beautiful media; I’ve reached this conclusion:

Muslims in Egypt are classified into FIVE groups.

1-Those who believe that they're better Muslims than the others(GROUP A)

2-Those who believe that they're better Muslims than the others(GROUP B)

3-Those who have the word” Muslim” in their IDs, but they actually don’t care (GROUP C)

4-Those who take advantage of being Muslims! (GROUP D)

5-GROUP E

I don’t really care about group c right now, so they won’t be involved at least in this article. Now what about group A?

GROUP A are those who chose to call themselves “Religious” or the Arabic word which is somehow starting to piss me off “Moltazem”.

Who are those people?

-Those who think that a Man with a beard is usually “moltazem”.

-Those who think that a girl must wear hijab or even niqab or else, she won’t be “moltazemah”.

-Those who usually talk about nothing Islam-related except for the previous two issues.

-Those who consider people who are not “moltazem” in their dictionary bad Muslims and spend too much effort on fighting them with either words or even cruel behaviors.

-Those who believe that the others are “leehom el dunia” and their group are “leehom al akhra”…in other words, those who seek nothing in this life but becoming “moltazem” and meeting his/her “Moltazem” soul mate and raising a “Moltazem” family. Working a little bit harder to succeed in work? No… Spending more time on learning about important issues? Politics Maybe? No… History? No…RELIGION???....No!

(It should be clear I’m only referring to those who have all those characteristics not one of them only)

I think Egyptians know who exactly I am talking about now…

What I should admit first is that, I know from the very bottom of my heart that most of those people are kind people who are unfortunately mislead. They want to do the right thing but without working hard enough to figure it out by themselves. They are emotional to the point that cancels their common sense and even spirituality!

It’s a common thing especially in our amazing government, to find a man with a beard that prays 5 times a day, fasts two days a week and does all the “apparent” acts of a Muslim and at the same time, doesn’t do his work appropriately, accepts bribes, and beats his wife.

So what kind of a Muslim is that? I’m not going to talk about what Islam is… but it’s a religion after all. Everyone knows that being “religious” is being “spiritual”…and being spiritual, regardless the religion, is being balanced, having a pure soul that does not allow doing such sins as taking unearned money or being mean to other people.

So what are they thinking exactly? I have no idea!

You sit with one of them and they treat you as if you need help. As if you need THEIR guidance!

Anyway…enough with GROUP A.

Now, GROUP D!

Those are the dirty ones!

Those are the ones that want to put themselves in GROUP A, but they are actually in GROUP C. Which is much worse because not only don’t they care about religion but they do dirty things (like being prostitutes or something) but in order to hide or avoid being recognized they make sure they APPEAR “Moltazem” Muslims. For example, a woman wearing niqab in the morning and absolutely nothing under it…at night the niqab is taken off…leaving nothing but….nothing.

Unfortunately those people exist and I don’t think words should even be wasted on them.

Now, GROUP B

The problem with this group is that they are raised in environments or went through experiences that somehow made them believe that they are better than other Muslims and that they’re the only educated people in Egypt. They somehow developed a new definition for the word “Open minded” and put themselves and only themselves under its category and everyone else under the “Narrow Minded” category. They have a certain lifestyle that does not go in harmony with the teachings of Islam…AT ALL. Most of them don’t pray and some don’t even fast in Ramadan. They might know a lot about Islam and what it’s about and have knowledge about the history of Islam and some verses from the Quran or the Hadith that they usually use in some occasions to prove a point or so but from the outside they don’t have any appearance of a Muslim as well from the inside. HOWEVER, they always say that that GROUP A are bad Muslims and that they understand nothing about Islam. They keep fighting Hijab and trying to prove that it’s not Islamic and thus should not be done…at the same time, they drink alcohols, physical contact with the other sex is okay with them and other stuff. So are THEY being good Muslims themselves? I mean, I already said what I think of GROUP A and I know they’re not good Muslims but excuse me? Is group b better than group a? I don’t think so. They are just the same, convincing themselves with some stuff that they WANT to believe and calling everyone else an idiot. GROUP B THINK they are being moderate …but they are not being ANYTHING in fact. Or maybe they are just being a pain for GROUP E.

So Who are Group E?

People who are raised in a healthy environment, those who are educated enough to recognize right from wrong, those who seek knowledge and happened to be Muslims!

They also want to be religious but not by following the definition that the society created but by the definition described in the book they actually believe in. In simple words, by knowing what Islam is, and what Muslims should be like!

They don’t think they are better than any other people, they believe we should all seek perfection and we all need guidance from GOD and not from some human being. They are trying their best to understand Islam and practice it without forcing it on others. They tend to say “Allahu A3lam” rather than resorting to the “Faty” method. (faty: when someone yefty…ex. when a non specialist claims he understands more than the specialist or when someone who didn’t read a book disagrees with its 3rd page)

Those are my favorite group, in fact, those are the only REAL Muslims in EGYPT.

Members of GROUP E suffer a lot. GROUP A considers them non-Moltazem and therefore treats them bad. GROUP B doesn’t think they exist and put them together with GROUP A, so they consider them Narrow Minded and Ignorant and therefore treat them bad and GROUP D gives them bad reputation. In a dramatic way, I can say, they don’t really know where to belong….i’m serious by the way!

So here is the thing…

Sometimes there may not be one answer to a question…things could be right for a reason and at the same time wrong for other reasons with proved facts from both sides. So what should be done in this case?

Since people in Egypt are not used to having open minded debates. And Since they like judging other people so much (maybe it makes them feel better about themselves). Therefore I say we start putting religion aside for a while because we abuse it! we don’t have to agree over everything. I’m not even going to say everyone should just try to be perfect in what he believes in before starting to judge others I’m going to say and leave the others alone anyway.

Let’s enjoy the freedom of choice that Allah gave us and let others enjoy it as well.

Anyway…the hardest thing about an article is having it started but it’s not so easy to end it as well.

So…bye!