Oh crap....
More pictures, more anger...more hatred.
Following are more images of abuse in Abu Ghraib.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4716280.stm
US reaction to it as reported by the leading English newspaper in Pakistan:
http://www.dawn.com/2006/02/16/top6.htm
Arab reaction:
http://www.dawn.com/2006/02/16/int2.htm
Violence in Pakistan growing because of the cartoons...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4715084.stm
http://www.dawn.com/2006/02/16/local4.htm
http://www.dawn.com/2006/02/16/local5.htm
And EU backs Denmark....brilliant.
http://www.dawn.com/2006/02/16/int6.htm
Controversies and uproar....
So everyday since the event has taken place I’ve been meaning to write about it. And finally I sit here in my apartment from where I can hear the Friday prayers going on in the mosque nearby contemplating what the hell the Danes were thinking?
My first reaction to what has happened what to brush it away being like, “oh religion again.” Then I heard a small rally in AUC protesting against the Danish newspaper. And then I was like wao, even the rich brats and the elite of Egypt think this strongly about it. So I got off my lazy bum and read up some more on the issue.
So far my deepest emotion about the whole issue is why now? There has been enough said about religious respect vs. freedom of speech but what I’m thinking is do we really need this? “Muslims” and the “West” don’t seem to be getting along at all and events like these exacerbate the position more than anything else. For me it’s not just about this issue. It’s about how this issue fits into the grander scheme of things. If this event has angered and brought thousands of Muslims from all walks of like onto the streets, then I think it is being ignorant to brush them all away by calling them “intolerant extremists.”
I know Denmark had nothing to do with what happened in the US on 9/11 or what happened in the world thereafter. However, Bush himself has made the whole issue of War against terrorism a lot more than what US has. You can’t slip in words like “crusade” into your speech when talking about this issue and then think that the issue won’t spill over geographic boundaries. Today while the West is busy lumping all Muslims together, many Muslims are busy stereotyping all non-Muslim Westerners.
And issues like these exacerbate this divide even more. One the one hand you have generations of people growing up in the “West” thinking of Islam as an intolerant and violent religion and on the other hand there are generations of Muslims thinking that they are hated and discriminated against. Where are we going to end up with this?
I was surprised to see this coming from Denmark mainly because I hold Scandinavian countries to a higher PC standard. A personal bias. Do I support what they did? No. It’s not so much the actual printing of the cartoons but mainly the reaction that followed. I just don’t think that you can so deeply offend millions of people of a religion on the pretext that its for freedom of speech. All of this cannot be compared to controversial images and pieces of art about Mary and Jesus. Firstly because there is pictorial representation of Mary and Jesus in Christianity in the forms of paintings in Churches, statues etc. There is absolutely nothing like that in the Muslim world. You’re being religiously insensitive as it is with even trying to draw Muhammad in the first place and then drawing him with a bomb in his turban is way beyond the boundaries.
Secondly, controversial paintings in Christianity like that of Mary hitting Jesus on her lap (I forget where it was displayed) still comes from people and countries that are pre-dominantly Christian. I think the Muslims would have reacted very differently to this if it came from a Muslim even if not a Muslim country. I mean Iran would have probably had a price on the head of the person and some Western European country would have granted the person asylum (hmm…think Salman Rushdie?)
Do I support what Iran has done? No. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Just don’t.
Some articles to get the facts and stuff:
To start off:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/arts/design/08imag.html?8hpib
The 12 cartoons:
http://wnymedia.net/images/cartoons/cartoons/index_html.html
Iran’s response:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/international/middleeast/08iran.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The Danish "dissident of Islam" MP’s statement:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4698528.stm
Pics from Cairo
Near Al-Azhar mosque, flower girl, dinner at Abou El Sid with friends, Islamic Cairo and G-Mo, Standing outside the Egyptian Museum (the best museum on the planet), carving some chicken, good ol' pyramids, Some Egyptian spirit during the African Cup (Egypt is playing Ivory Coast in finals today).....(some pics will be later removed).
Aaaachooo
So I'm just coming out of an evil evil bout of cold and high fever. Had a nasty cough and was completely out for 2 days. One of which was the last day Cisco was in town so that suxed doubly bad. May, Cisco, G-Mo all back in good ol' Cambridge. Almost have my classes sorted out. Have photos to upload which I'll do when I get internet in my apartment (which should be soon).
Happily breathing through my nose!
Alex, friends and classes
Don't have internet access in my apartment thus e-mail replying and maintenance of blog hasn't been that great. Started classes today. I have a 9am class four days a week (good ol' Arabic) which is a part of the schedule I'm definitely not excited for. So far have only had one class but am looking forward to the others.
Went to Alexandria for the weekend. It was part of orientations. Visited the catacombs, old Roman Theatre and Bibliotheca there. The Bibliotheca was definitely my favorite. It’s a modern building and their reading area can accommodate upto 2000 people. Currently they have about 500,000 books but their capacity is about 8 million. They have theses really kewl windows which are shaped like eyes which filter in the sunlight but not in a way that would hurt the eyes. So during daylight they don't need any other form of lighting device coz the sunlight is enough. We were staying in a hotel outside Alex and the beach there is beaaautiful. Blue water and white sand. Though I wish it was warm enough to swim in. I think I'll be going back to Alex (what folks call Alexandria here).
So have a couple of college friends visiting. One of them being Cisco. So the first day Cisco gets here I manage to lose him in the Metro (subway). Well it was my first time on the Metro too and what we didn't know is that once the doors close to the train they don't open. Its not like the door is almost closing so you stick your arm in and they open again. So I jumped into the Metro and he didn't and the doors closed. He did know which station we were getting at. So I go to the next station (Opera) and wait for him but he doesn't come and then the next one (which we were supposed to go to) and wait with no luck. So go back to Opera and see him getting on a train, so start yelling his name (by now the entire station thinks I'm a crazy foreigner). Go back to the earlier one. Wait no luck. Get upsettingly harassed by 4 guys. Stressing like mad. Go back to the original station. And wait and wait and wait. Call the American Embassy who say they can't do anything till 2 hours have elapsed. At the end, he had managed to find his way back to my apartment and was a lot calmer than I was.
However, this isn't the end of all this. We were supposed to meet up in Alex and he ended up going to another hotel which had a similar name to my hotel. Well the hotel he was at was about an hour away from where I was and on top of that the only way to go from my hotel to his was taking a limousine. Let's just say the solution to this problem was pretty pricey at the end but I'm glad he was safe.
Thank God things after that have been fine.
Oh ya, went to the Egyptian Museum day before yesterday. I'm definitely not a museum person but this place kicked arse. Its not that the building is well maintained or the things are organized, it is just that they have a lot of really kewl stuff. Actually they have so much of it that its just lying around, clustered everywhere with no captions. Man the pharaohs were REALLY smart people. The things they have made boggle your mind. Whether it be 50 feet high statues, caskets, giant carts, chariots or extremely intricate art work….its all just amazing. I can't believe that they could make all this so long ago without modern machinery. The argument that they were just aliens seems extremely plausible because I just can't imagine how anyone could do all this thousands of years ago. Extremely impressive. They must be really obsessed with the idea of morality to do so much for the after-life. And come to think of it they had a very different concept of the after-life than what any religion presents today. Can totally understand why people dedicate their lives to Egyptology now.
Also, saw the pyramids and the sphinx. Went into one of the pyramids which is just like half-crawling, half-walking in a claustrophobic tunnel which leads to a big empty room which tells you that the pyramid was accessed in 1818. Its also amazing what role thieves have played in the discovery of all this. The catacomb I visited in Alex was accidentally found by a donkey!
Have a cough now and all the smog in the air is getting a little hard to bear but I guess I'll get used to it.
Ma Salama.
