Israel/Palestine

 
 
 
 


Hey all,

I apologize for taking so long to write a new blog entry. We have been really busy lately. We are back in Cairo and have been furiously writing final papers. Yesterday, my group had a debate on the topic of, Is Political Islam an obstacle to Democratization? We won and added some bonus points to our final grade! So once we left Israel and Palestine, we settled into academic work and now I am almost done with papers and free to relax in Cairo.

I want to provide a recap for the last week in Israel and Palestine. We had several good speakers throughout the trip, and I think acquiring high powered speakers is the strength of the program. We heard from Zionist Jews, ideological settlers, Israelis working for peace, former Israeli soldiers who dissaprove of the occupation, Palestinians who have fought in the intifada, professors who have written books on the conflict, representatives from both the U.S. and Israel side of the diplomatic relationship and a Palestinian archbishop. Throughout it all, I continued to formulate my opinion on the morality caught in the middle of the conflict, the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel, the obstacles to peace and how best teh Palestinians can work to acheive peace. By the end of the trip, I was just so overwhelmed by the daunting mass of the conflict and the inherent problems with it from 60 years of occupation. It is just a big tangled mess and peace is going to be so hard to acheive.

We did fit in some tourist stuff within all of our academia. We visited the Sea of Galilee and the entire region was so pretty and it looked like it could have been the exact same in Jesus day. It is truly one of the coolest things i have ever been able to see. In all the Christian landmarks in Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem and even in spots around Galilee, the Orthodox church has erected guady churches on top of holy sites, and it really ruins the spirituality of the place for me. I just want to see things as they could have been in Jesus' day and I dont like the huge shrines built over the places Jesus was. But the region of galilee is beautiful and it truly is the place that Jesus carried out his ministry. We even saw the synagogue of Capernaum (pictured) in which Jesus HAD to have been in once in his life. It was really amazing. We also visited Nazareth, which was one of the places that was "spoiled" a bit for me with churches and conflicts over which sites were holy. We saw the Golan Heights, which is the NE corner of Israel that is disputed as Israel took it from Syria in the 1967 War and is a huge bargaining chip in peace talks with Syria.

Back in Jerusalem, we went under the Wailing Wall and visited the tunnels that were built at street level back in Jesus' day, including a street that Jesus HAD to have taken as it was the public entrance to the Temple. There is a lot of archeological history under the Temple Mount and it was really cool to see it.

The last night before we went back to Cairo, we took a second trip to Bethlehem and had dinner with Palestinian host families and it was so cool to sit down to dinner with a Palestinian family and just see a little bit about what their life is like.

One thing became certain for me in our two weeks in Jerusalem: I really miss home and I am definitely geting antsy to come home. The Middle East is amazing and I will miss it for sure, but I miss the people close to me and cannot wait to be back in the States.

So, back in Cairo, we are tying up loose ends and its only 11 days until I will be back home. Thanks for your reading!

Tripping over Bill Clinton at the Wailing Wall

 
 
 
 


Last week, I saw Bill Clinton at the Wailing Wall plaza in Jerusalem. We had been in line to go up to the Temple Mount area above the Wailing Wall and they shut it down while we were still in line. Whispers came through the line that Bill Clinton was visiting the Dome of the Rock. My friends and I were really excited and started looking around and started seeing Secret Service and Isreali police and began to figure out where he would be coming down from the Temple Mount. The plaza was really quiet and there weren't very many people there. I think that for security reasons the visit was unexpected and unannounced. We were about 15 feet away when he came out, and we followed his circle of security people into the plaza area. I was wearing a hat, so I continued to follow him down to the Wailing Wall, where he wrote out a prayer and stuck it in the wall. He then went up to the entrance to where the Western Wall tunnels are. He was in there for about 20 minutes and then came out and left in his motorcade. I was within about 5 feet of him at one point and he turned and gave a big wave to the crowd and I think we made eye contact (can you ever be sure of anything with Bill?). Pretty interesting day. We were definitely in the right place at the right time.

Jewish Point of View and My thoughts

I was sent an email today asking to tell about the plight of the Jews and the pressures they face and fears that they have. There were questions about rockets being fired at Jewish towns daily, antisemitism in the region and violence over the Temple Mount. Questions were also raised about Biblical prophesy and implications of Israel/Palestine conflict in that context. I would like to say that this program does a pretty good job of showing both sides to issues and we have heard from several Israelis on their side of the conflict.

I would like to say that a lot of things have been misconstrued in the American media. We have read some papers written about how pro-Israel the media is, the power the Jewish lobby has over how Israel is perceived in America, and how hard Israel works on its own media machine. When I came to the Middle East, I thought that the whole region hated Jews and they were constantly terrorizing Israel and the like. That is what I had been told by the American media. Palestinians were terrorists and Israelis were only defending themselves.

However, through our extensive reading, listening to many speakers from governments, churches, social organizations, etc. as well as living in the Middle East and making friends with Muslims, Christians and Jews, I have changed my mind on a lot of things. I dont think that I am pro-Palestinian in the sense of being blind to the other side. I sympathize with some things the Jews face everyday, as well as being aware of the injustices the Palestinians endure. With that I will offer my limited knowledge on the Jewish side of the conflict and my personal opinion about it.

First of all, when I ate Sabbath dinner with a Jewish family and connected with an Israeli soldier, he was very interested in what I was seeing in Arab countries, saying that he would never be able to travel the region, because he believed there would be a violent response to his presence. He sees the region as antisemitic for sure. I believe that most Jews believe that the region hates them for their ethnicity and point to remarks by the Iranian government as proof. I believe that their oppression of the Arab Palestinians has a lot to do with their standing in the Middle East. They stole land from an Arab neighbor and no Arab country is ready to accept them as a welcome part of the region as long as they violate United Nations resolutions and human rights agreements. I don't believe that they are hated as Jews, I believe that they are hated as oppressors of Arabs.

Second, the rocket attacks are a huge tool for Israel to gain sympathy from the international media. There have been no rocket attacks on Israeli town since the Gaza War in January of this year. And when rockets are mentioned, they are referring to small homemade weapons with extremely limited range being fired from rooftops of Gazan towns. Look at the casualty numbers during the Gaza War to figure out who was taking "rocket fire" and who was targeting civilians and turning homes into war zones. 1,268 Gazans were killed, including 288 children and 103 women, with 85% of these casualties as non-combatants (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7855070.stm). From the entire Israeli population, from Israeli soldiers who invaded Gaza, to those who took the "rocket fire", only 13 died with 10 of those being combatants. Amnesty International has accused Israelis of targeting schools, hospitals and withholding medical assistance to Palestinians. Israel claims Hamas was using its own citizens as human shields, which has since been investigated and found to be baseless. Hence, the famous Goldstone Report on the war crimes of the War in Gaza. Since the Gaza War, there has been very little rocket activity from Gaza, with the Israeli Defense Forces shooting anyone near the border and the Hamas Qassam rockets lacking the range to legitimately fire into Israeli towns. In the West Bank, there has been little to zero terrorist activity since the 2nd Intifada in 2001. So, in my opinion I don't believe that Israelis live in constant fear of rocket attacks and terrorism, because there is no real threat anymore. Also, there is a major study going on right now, about how every Hamas terrorist attack has been in direct reaction to an Israeli attack.

Third, on the issue of dispute over the Temple Mount, referring to the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Israelis retain full control of the area. According to Judaism, the 3rd Temple must be built on this Temple Mount, meaning that the Muslim holy places must be destroyed. Therefore there is heavy IDF security all around the Temple Mount area, and severe restrictions are placed on Muslim Palestinians who wish to visit their own holy sites. They are only allowed to visit during certain hours, even though I and other foreigners, Jews, etc. can visit at any time. There have been several Zionist plots to blow up the Muslim holy sites, rather than Muslim plots to wage war on the Wailing Wall. Control for this controversial site, as well as how to divide up Jerusalem remain the main obstacles to a peace agreement.

As far as how the Bible relates, I do not believe that the Jews have a right to the land. I believe that Jesus changed the entire covenant about the "Chosen People" and, as people who blatantly reject Jesus, they have no right to any part of His Kingdom (although they are always welcome to accept Jesus' sacrifice). Disclaimer here: I am not one of these people who believe that the key to the end times is converting Jews. Jews know who Jesus is, they don't need to be taught. I also do not serve a God whose plan could involve ethnic cleansing and murder to put a people who has rejected His Son in a land in which they could continue to oppress Christians. (Keep in mind that the Christian community in the Middle East lies with Arabs. There is a very real Christian presence in Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq.) Therefore, I am definitely opposed to Christian Zionism, but that does not prevent me from loving Jews. I think that we cannot paint all the Jews as Zionist, because the vast majority aren't. The same is true when looking at Palestinians as violent resisters or terrorists. As I look around Jerusalem, I don't feel like this land is all that Christ-like. I see a lot of religion here, and I don't care for religion.

All in all, there is valid reason for Jews to feel cut off from the rest of the Middle East. They teach their children English rather than Arabic (which is spoken by the entire region in which they live), they erect a wall to keep Palestinians out, even though Palestinians have pledged peaceful relations and have lived up to their promise, and treat their own Arab citizens of Israel as 2nd class. Yes, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas aim to destroy Israel, but at this point the Israeli military is vastly superior and has done an excellent job of protecting its citizens, committing war crimes to do so. My belief is that whenever Israel recognizes a Palestinian state, allows refugees to return and begins to respect Palestinians as well as other Arab neighbors, they will see a huge difference in relations in the region.

This post has been a big catch all for my thoughts and feeling, while trying to give a bit of a glimpse at the Jewish point of view. I invite and welcome comments and critiques!

Bethlehem

 
 
 
 

A few days ago, we visited Bethlehem which for me was my first glimpse of the Occupied Territories of Palestine. We looked at the Seperation Barrier that keeps Palestinians from entering Israel and subjects Palestinians to humiliating checkpoints. The wall has become a canvas of expression, and the pictures show some of my favorite messages written on the wall. We heard from a Christian Fatah leader, who has been the leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyr brigades during the 2nd Intifada. He has since embraced non-violence and is intrumental on setting up demonstrations and turning the Bethlehem community against violence. We also heard from a refugee organization, who has been working for Refugee rights in Palestine. The right of return for displaced Palestinians has been one of the greatest hangups at teh negotiating table and has been withheld by Israel. They refuse to allow refugees to return to their homes. We also visited a refugee camp, which was very sad. We saw old women who still held the key to their house that they had been evicted from by Israeli soldiers. They still hold on to hope that one day they will be able to return to their homes, but I see a sad reality that denies Palestinians this right. The children were especially sad to see. We played soccer with them, knowing that they were growing up without a recognized identity, in a city surrounded by walls, and a hopeless economy.

Seeing the walls of Bethelehem, my feelings were kind of mixed. I can understand the security reasons, with the terrorism several years ago. But the walls are so restrictive, they completely surround the city and box them in and their citizens are subjects to humiliating checkpoints. With no room to expand, the housing rates in the city have skyrocketed, leading to housing problems and poverty. In the refugee camp, its just so sad how little people get lost in the shuffle of global politics. But in all of thius I have been discovering a little bit more of what I want to do with my life. Coming into the trip, I thought that I might want to work in the Non Governmental Organization world, helping people that I could see face to face. But lately I have been coming to the idea that i want to work for the American government to change it and shape American foreign policy to help people. I mean working for a little NGO is really good and grassroots and necessary. I love that work, but i dont think that it is for me. We need good Christian people working at the top of the government too, and it cannot be written off. The American Govt is easily the most influential and powerful force in the world today, with one stroke of a pen, millions of lives can be changed. That is my arena. I want to be researching and advising and changing minds at the top. That is how i want to tear down walls and help the Bethlehem's of the world. But i know that working for the American government will require me to moderate my viewpoints a little and accept a lot of the frustrations of bureacracy and having to accept the American government opinion and spit out the party line even when i dont believe it. But if I can change just a few little things in the greatest foreign policy machine, a serious impact could be felt for people like poor Palestinians.

Shabbat Dinner and Synagogue Visit

 
 
 

We recently visited a Jerusalem Synagogue in groups and went in pairs to Jewish homes to eat Sabbath dinner with them. The family I went with was really great! The father was an Australian Jew, the mother was American and everyone spoke perfect English. They had two sons (that were present) and they were in their 20's. One was a soldier in the Army and the other was studying at a Judaism religion school. We had lively discussions about Palestine, the Occupied territories, Israeli politics, Judaism, Christianity and American/Israeli relations. It was very interesting and the family was very well informed and intelligent. I was surprised at how much in common I could find in a Jewish family across the world. They were so similar to your typical American family! I really connected with the youngest son, who was more secular and was in the Israeli Defense Force. He and I had great discussions about occupation, which he thought was necessary for security and he had many questions about what living in an Arab and Islamic country was like. I saw a Jew who was paranoid about the security of his state, but really wanted to learn more about the others across the fence. It was odd how as an American I have the abiltiy to visit these countries and learn these things first hand, whereas he could never be welcome in these situations as a Jew. Overall, despite all the wrong things his state is doing, and the fact that he understands the injustices that are committed, he was just kind of like an average Palestinian kid across the wall. He worried about things he could never control, and wondered what it was like to be in the other's shoes. It was a great experience and I hope to keep up with Vinnie, my new Jewish friend.

My Address is the Via Dolorosa

 
 
 
 

We have been in Jerusalem for a couple of days now, and it has been an unbelievable experience! I am learning boatloads of new things by the day. We are staying in the Old City at the Austrian Hospice (on the Via Dolorosa), which has a roof with a breathtaking view over the entire Old City. I am continually in awe of the things we are doing and the people we talk to here in the Middle East, but nothing is quite like waking up and watching a sunrise in Jerusalem. So far we haven’t done that much sight seeing but it is built into the schedule later, so I can contain my excitement for the time being. We have been hearing from great speakers talking to us about the Israel/Palestine conflict, barriers to peace, Judaism and Zionism, and the settlement activities. Even though we are in the central pilgrimage site in the world, we are still holding firm to a pretty rigorous academic schedule. I am very challenged by the I/P conflict and love reading and learning about it, and I love the workload that we have and it makes it fun to walk the streets of the Old City and look into eyes of people who are daily affected by what we are learning. We read about 50 pages a night in preparation for the speakers the next day, which are usually about 2 a day. Yesterday we heard from an organization, B’Tselem that gives video cameras to Palestinians in the Occupied territories and use the tapes given to them by oppressed Palestinians to use as evidence in Human Rights work and raise awareness. I would advise viewing their website (btselem.org) and watching some videos. Today, we heard from Gersham Gorenberg, an American Jewish historian, who has written several books about the mindset of Israeli settlers in the West Bank. He was hilarious, insightful and intriguing. Later on today, we are donning our kippas (yarmulke) and going to a Synagogue for the Sabbath. Afterwards we are eating Sabbath dinner with Jewish families. I am very excited to see inside a Jewish life, and pick their brains! I am going to learn a lot through this experience. I will update again soon!

Hello From Jordan!

 
 
 
 

So we are going all the time here in the Middle East as we left Syria after 4 days and are now in Amman, Jordan. Syria was really great, and it is definitely one of my favorite places so far. We visited the Krak des Chevalies, a perfectly preserved Crusader Castle! It was like a return to childhood exploring it! On our way to Damascus, we traveled through the last Christian village in the world that still speaks Aramaic, the language of Jesus. We continued to Damascus, where for the next four days we spent most of our time in the Old City of Damascus, near Straight Street. I got very sick after the first night and had some severe nausea but luckily recovered enough to be able to catch our tour of the Old City. Straight Street is mentioned in the Bible on Paul’s trip to Damascus, where we saw Ananias’ house, where Paul was healed of his blindness. We made a visit to the new American embassy in Syria, just reinstated this summer under Obama. The officer there was very frank with our questions about Syria and our session at the embassy was highly informative. From there we went to Jordan where we have spent the past two days. Jordan is a bit boring with the exception of our visit to the Dead Sea. That was so fun! The water literally holds you up!

Good bye Turkey, Hello Syria!!!

So we arrived in Ankara, Turkey two days ago. We arrived with mixed feelings. Istanbul is a vibrant, historical, active, beautiful city. Ankara, like many capitol cities, is boring, lacks life, but we have had a good experience here. We heard from Orhan Cengiz today, who is one of the leading human rights lawyers in Turkey. He talked all about the state of Turkish politics, rights etc. He was a bit of a conspiracy theorist and i get the idea that his conspiracy ideas about the military vs. government are spot on! We heard from the Turkish foreign ministry, which was disappointing as all we got from them were political slogans and such. But I guess that is to be expected from government offices.

Today, we leave for Syria, where I will be out of internet contact for the duration of our 5 day visit. So I will say a bit about what we will do, and update later on how it was. Tonight we will sleep in Hama, Syria, which was the site of the 1982 Syrian massacre of the Muslim Brotherhood, in which the city was destroyed by the Syrian government and 38,000 died. The government crushed the Muslim Brotherhood resistance there at a massive cost. We will then go to Damascus for a few days, which is the longest continually inhabited city in the world. Considered the capitol of Middle East culture and history, Damascus will be massively interesting and I will be sure to update on its intricacies. We will go from there to an excellently preserved Crusader Castle in Southern Syria. Then on to Amman, Jordan for a day, before we cross into Israel!

I will update in Israel!!

So this week we are in Istanbul! Istanbul is cool for a lot of reasons. The first is the history. This is where Constantinople was and the entire Holy Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire was ruled from here. Then the Ottomans conquered Istanbul and ruled the Middle East for 4 centuries. The second is the location. It is located on both Europe and Asia and is a unique gateway from Europe to the Middle East. The third is the beauty of the city. There are lots of colors and unique houses and architectural colors!
Day 1: We arrived in Istanbul midday from Cairo by plane, and hit the ground running with a ferry ride on the Bosporus River. The Bosporus is the official dividing line between Europe and Asia. It was a cool, wet day and that was exciting in and of itself coming from hot, dry Cairo. What was cool to see is the intense Turkish nationalism. We have been reading all about the extreme Turkish identity, and the flags and Ataturk pictures were out in force. Although a lot of that may have to do with the fact that tomorrow is the National Republic Day, commemorating the formation of the Turkish state.
The Bosporus trip was beautiful! The river, the hills, the houses, Istanbul was stunning. As a very European, westernized city, it was a huge contrast to Cairo. After our river trip, we broke into smaller groups and I found a small café with some great Turkish food. Our hotel is right off of Taksim Square, the happening place in downtown. I ended up talking baseball with a random American guy, as well, and finished the night off with some amazing Apple Tea. Quite the day!
Day 2: Today we heard from Barchin Yinanc, a newspaper editor for the Turkish Daily News. She spoke generally on many Turkish issues, and was very candid and informative. We have done a lot of reading on Turkey, but she helped fill in the gaps with her inside knowledge.
From there, we put our tourist hats back on and visited the Ottoman Topkapi Palace. That was great and interesting of course. We walked around Istanbul and walked along the Bosporus. Interesting side note: we know one Turk in this country and that is our tour guide. Who do we randomly run into in old downtown 7 hours after we left him? Adil, in a city of 15 million Turks!
Day 3: Went to the Justice and Development Party headquarters and heard from one of their representatives. Turkey is very very interesting politically, with tension between the government and military, controversy over secularism and religion, and how to be 99% Islamic but also modern. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) is the controlling party in the government and has been very successful. Listening to the representative’s talk about Turkish politics from one of the ones shaping it was intriguing.
In an interesting turnaround, we went from there to the American consulate, where we met with the American consul to Istanbul and discussed Turkey’s significance in the world, American interests in Turkey and how all the Middle East/ European puzzle pieces fit together.
Day 4: Today, we went to the Hagia Sophia, which was a cathedral for centuries and the center of the Byzantine Empire, before being taken over by the Ottoman Empire and converted to a mosque. It was the largest building in the world for centuries, and is still considered an architectural marvel. The place was breathtaking and had a unique array of Christian and Muslim symbols on the walls. After that we visited the Blue Mosque, which was somewhat overrated after coming from the Hagia Sophia. We finished the day off at the Grand Bazaar, which was quite the market!
A few more days in Istanbul, then it is 3 days in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, then off to Syria!!

Alexandria, Coptic Wedding and Homework

I apologize for not writing any blog entries recently but I haven’t for a couple of reasons. 1. I have been writing papers so much and taking tests and being busy and such that I haven’t had time. 2. I have been writing papers so much and taking tests and being busy and such that it would have been boring for you to read about. So for those that care I will tell a little bit about the schoolwork I have been doing. We have two classes that has basically been combined into one to take into account all the speakers and lectures on a variety of topics. These two are People and Cultures in the Middle East, and Conflict and Change in the Middle East. We have seven papers to write for the two classes broken up into two rounds. The first round is due this Monday. We have three papers due:
1. Is imperialism the primary problem for the lack of political, social and economic development in the Middle East?
I argue that yes it is.
2. Is religion the main obstacle to women’s and minority rights in the Middle East? I argue that no, culture and traditions are.
3. How can Christians best engage the Muslim world?

On Wednesday we begin our travel component and will fly into Istanbul. Therefore we concluded our Islamic Thought and Practice course, and will take our final for Arabic on Sunday. So among all the papers we have been writing we have been studying for the Islam final (which we already took) and the Arabic final. Luckily for me I have avoided all the madness of scrambling to get papers done, as I am in the final revision stages for all three. My roommates are way behind and are talking about all nighters and such. That is exactly why I worked hard early to get them done, because now I can focus on the Arabic final and relax about it all.
OK so now that we have gotten through the boring stuff, I can tell you about some of the cool things I have done lately.
My Egyptian friend, Maged Raphael, invited me to his sister’s wedding and we invited a couple of my American friends as well. I was really excited because I have heard that Egyptian weddings are quite the cultural phenomenon. It was a Coptic family, so the service was held in a church. There, I saw several of my other Coptic friends that I have met and talked for a bi. It lasted all of 20 minutes, with no kiss at the end. It was extremely religious and informal. Weird. I then assumed everyone was going to the reception, because if the Americans had been invited then surely all my other Coptic friends that I had met would be invited to. Not so, and I put my foot in my mouth by asking.
So we are at the reception, where I know about 4 people, and its held at a 5 star hotel in Giza. Beautiful and classy. The bride and groom come in to a really sweet band of 11 drummers, a bagpipe player and crazy Middle Eastern horn player. This was very culturally interesting! Once in the reception, the first dance happened to Celine Dion, and then everyone was invited to the dance floor. Thinking it was a couples dance I declined, but soon found out that it was just a big group dance session. So for the next three hours we danced to a range of American rap songs, Celine Dion, Arabic songs and techno. The Egyptians were terrible dancers and just loved going around in circles all the time. It was very chaotic but I loved it. Their dancing is extremely modest, with no co-ed contact or shaking of the backside. So at one point, I leaned over to my friend Chris and told him that to make our ridiculous story complete, we needed to find ourselves in the middle of the dance floor by ourselves at one point with all the Egyptians around clapping (as had been happening). We found our moment, capitalized on it, and we have been immortalized in history. I was told, “you are a beautiful dancer” and they urged us to stay in the middle of the dance floor the rest of the night. We were awkward about dominating someone else’s wedding reception and withdrew to explore the hotel. We ended up climbing several ladders to get to the very top of the roof about 16 stories high and looked over Cairo. That was pretty cool! We went back and dinner was served at about 1 AM and we ate and went home. The whole thing felt like we were in the movie Wedding Crashers, and it was good for a lot of laughs.
The whole group went to Alexandria last weekend. I was surprised to find out that Alexandria is a pretty chill place and much quieter than Cairo. We ate lunch in a restaurant beside the Mediterranean and visited the Alexandria library, built on the site of the Great Library (one of the 7 wonders of the Ancient world). The library was cool but very modern and had nothing to do with its historical counterpart. We found a great juice stand and café and spent the rest of the time there, watching the sunset. Alexandria didn’t have all that much to do, but had a great atmosphere!
This past Tuesday I was able to go to the Think and Do oasis, an hour north of Cairo. I have volunteered at the NGO, Think and Do every Tuesday doing office work, but getting to see the oasis was a golden opportunity. At the oasis, they do vocational training, life lessons, and development work with poor village Egyptians, working to give them skills to advance themselves economically. It was very interesting and great to see.
So that is all for now. It’s a crazy 3 or 4 days and then we fly to Istanbul!
Thanks for reading.

Homestays, Arab League, Siwa Oasis

It was the best of times and the worst of times. That is how my home stay went last week. All 30 of us were placed with different families all over Cairo to stay for a week. Some were with wealthy Christian families, some were with cultured Muslim families who knew English, and others like me, were with poor Muslim families who knew only Arabic. I had actually requested to be with a poor, Muslim family who knew no English, because I wanted to see the real Egypt and also work on my Arabic skills.

So the first night, I went to my family’s little flat in Barageel, a poor borough in Cairo. Where I lived, it was all dirt streets, sheep and goats all over the place, took tooks (the Egyptian form of a rickshaw) donkey-pulled carts and Egyptians in conservative Islamic dress (it is jokingly called the Islamic Republic of Barageel for its conservative Muslim residents.) My family was a 36 yr old bank worker named Yasir, his wife introduced to me simply as “Mama”, and their two kids: 7 yr old boy named Fahat, and a 2 year old girl named Shahat. A funny side note is that the two kids names mean Jaguar and Canteloupe and Fahat loved to act like a Jaguar! They didn’t speak a word of English, so over the course of the week my Arabic got a lot of practice. Traveling across Cairo was also a daily adventure. I took rickety microbuses and sometimes even hung out the door just to get a ride during rush hour. I loved this part!

Their flat consisted of two rooms, one of which I slept in and the other was the bedroom for the rest of the family. The bathroom was simply a hole in the floor and they didn’t own a stove. We ate our meals on the floor. Even though I consider myself an adventurer, over the week it became kind of hard to live in this poverty. Using a hole for a bathroom was only fun the first time, eating with our hands on the floor lost its amusement as well. Also the conservative Islam made it really hard for me to interact with the mother. She mostly stayed in her room with the door closed while the rest of the family hung out with me in my room. The boredom was crushing as my Arabic ran out and so our conversations were pretty limited. Most days I had class in Agouza, but two days I spent all day with the family and they slept all day while I basically twiddled my thumbs. That part killed me, because I don’t deal well with the boredom, and when it came time to say goodbye I was ready to return to normal routine. The thing I learned most about my little average Egyptian family and others like it, is that there is a serious lack of ambition. The children are not pushed to excel in school, they don’t ever want to leave their poor neighborhood or save and try to change their circumstances. They are simply content with their poverty, which was hard for me as a Westerner to understand.

The next day we visited the Arab League. It is basically the Middle East version of a regional United Nations. 22 countries are a part of the Arab League and we were able to meet with the chief of staff, Hassam Yusef. He is famous as the #2 guy in the Arab League and is often on American talk shows and in the news. He spoke with us on a range of topics from the Israel/ Palestine conflict, Arab unity, democracy, the role of the US in the Middle East, Iran and the shifting of power in the region to how the Arab League functions. After our meeting with him we got a surprise invite to sit in on the 3^rd International Day of Non Violence summit at the Arab League. We watched and listened to ambassadors from all over the world contribute ideas on how to apply the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi to today. Believe it or not there were some who thought that non-violence could never work today, while others had a vision of a utopian society where everyone laid down their weapons. It was very interesting to watch!

We just got back from Siwa, an oasis town in the Sahara desert. One of our friends lives there and studies in Cairo. The town has a beautiful little micro culture from the isolation. They are Berber or Africans who were on pilgrimage to Mecca and stumbled onto the oasis and built a town. Siwans are extremely conservative Muslim and their women are completely covered in public with no inch of skin showing (which actually looks scary with black hoods over their faces.) The first day we visited the temple of the Oracle which is famous because Alexander the Great made the trip to Siwa to hear his future foretold by the Oracle there. We swam in a cold spring and rode bikes throughout the Oasis and then watched a sunset from an island in the salt sea in the desert. The salt is so concentrated in this body of water that we could literally float effortlessly. It was such a cool feeling!

The next day we went out into the Sahara desert and sand boarded down sand dunes. All of us guys wrestled around and enjoyed the fine sand. Our Bedouin guides took us to both a cold spring and a hot spring in different locations. I watched the sun set over the desert and then we went to the Bedouin camp where we would sleep for the night. We listened and danced with a Siwan band. Then we slept in the Great Sand Sea, the Sahara, and it was one of the most magical experiences of my life. This trip was the best weekend trip we have had so far.

Christianity and Islam

One of the most exciting things to me about the Middle East, which comes with much sadness and confusion as well, is the religiously charged atmosphere. The majority of Egyptians, Muslims and Christians alike, devoutly practice their religion. Social pressures exist to follow the rituals of one’s own belief and to be fully committed to one’s religion. I have asked a question of many Christians and Muslims here. “How do you identify yourself and how do you rank those identities?” Almost every Egyptian has told me, “I am a (Christian or Muslim) first and then an Egyptian.” Every Egyptian identifies with one of these two religions and has usually been born into that religion. But despite being born into their beliefs, most are much more committed to their faith than your average religious American.

There have been many different opinions about how the two religions are viewed here and how they relate to each other. Each group sees the other differently. It has been hard to put my finger on the religious climate here due to the diversity of opinions about Christian persecution, moderate Islam, and what the true nature of Islam is. There have been three different groups that we have heard from predominantly about religion, the Christians, Muslims and Muslim background believers in Christ. I will detail the majority opinions that I have heard but keep in mind that this is all from my own experiences. We have heard from all three groups in formal settings and I also have personal friends in each as well.

The Christians here are mostly Coptic, which is not only the Orthodox tradition but also the ethnic group that they belong to. Most see themselves as being persecuted every day by the Egyptian government (which is completely Muslim) through discriminatory laws and they feel that their Muslim neighbors see them as “unclean” and second-class citizens. I have heard from other Christians that they are completely accepted by their Muslim neighbors and each is left to worship in their own way, but this viewpoint is not the opinion of the majority (from my experience). The Coptic Church teaches the values of being persecuted and honors the saints who have been killed for their faith. They believe that they are in an age of persecution and fear the day that Egypt becomes an Islamic state (like Iran) and they are made strangers in their own land. Many are migrating to the West to escape this persecution. The persecution is felt most from the Egyptian government and the Muslim Brotherhood (the powerful group that would surely win any free election in Egypt, but wish to implement Shariah law in Egypt).

The Muslims that I have come in contact with seem very tolerant and moderate. We recently met with Islam Online, a group working to educate Westerners as well as native Muslims about a more loving Islam. It seems that extreme views of hating “infidels” have been scaled back on the streets of Egypt since the 1990’s. Many influential preachers in Egyptian Islam have preached the values of love for their Christian brothers and I have seen a real passion in some Muslims for drawing the two communities together. Since I have been here I have prayed in a mosque beside Muslims and fasted during Ramadan with them. They have also shown themselves more than willing to talk about the love of Jesus (who is one of their prophets and the 2^nd most influential person in Islam, however Christians and Muslims differ on his divinity). My Muslim friends have a great respect for all of our commitments to our faith and have not tried in any way to convert us to Islam. When asked about radical Islam and jihad and violence in their religion, they are quick to condemn that as “not true Islam”. They say that they misinterpret the Qur’an and reject them as followers of the same God that they pray to. Overall, I have met many tolerant, loving Muslims who live a beautiful life in service of God, just living it out in different ways than I do and under a different creed.

The third group is the most interesting and probably the most enlightening on the situation between the two religions. These are the former Muslims who have converted to Christianity. They prefer to be called Muslim Background Believers. Much of the persecution of Christians has to do with the inability to legally change your religion from Islam to Christianity. When an Egyptian gives up Islam, their family and community reject them. The culture here is very restraining here as far as religious freedom goes. We have heard from two different people who left Islam for Christianity and began to preach the gospel to their friends and were jailed for it in the 1990’s. They have since been left alone by the state and continue to work to gain followers for Christ (which has been fairly successful given the impossible culture). Their faith has been amazing to hear about! Some continue to perform Islamic rituals as a structure for their Christian worship, such as the five prayers and Ramadan, as well as the zakat (the required giving of money to the poor).

They can offer the best perspective on each religion as they have been believers in each at one point, and still partly having a foot in each world (living in an Islamic culture, as Arab Christians). One man sees Islam as a very dangerous religion and claims that tolerant loving Muslims misinterpret the Qur’an. The true ideology of Islam is the heaven and hell, infidel and believer faith that we see in the West, he claims. He says that moderate Muslims deviate from the true Islam (as they would say radicals are not following the true Islam). However he was very happy with the moderate Islamic viewpoint towards Christians but said,” Islam has theoretical love and tolerance, but does not practice it.” For example, many Muslims say that whatever religion one practices is ok, but force their children to be Muslim. He also made a wonderful point about the Islamic view of heaven and hell and eternal rewards for the deeds done on earth, rather than the Christian viewpoint of heaven and hell depending on a loving relationship with Jesus.

In conclusion, I believe that there are different Islams out there. Some do persecute Christians and treat them as second class citizens. Al Quaeda wish to kill Americans under their interpretation of the Qur’an. Our Muslim teacher sees Christians as her brothers and sisters and we will all be in heaven someday. Each person’s Islam is different. I think that the Islam may be more open as one is better educated. Most of my Muslim friends here are highly educated and fully accepting of Christianity and reject radical Islam. All in all, Islam has different faces.

Ramadan and Football... that is what Egypt does

Ramadan is now over, but before it ended I was able to fast for a day with some Muslim friends. I got several of my American friends to do it with us. Of course the Muslims have to fast from food, water, and tobacco during the sunlit hours every day during the month of Ramadan so they were excited for us to feel the hunger and thirst with them! We woke up at 3:45 in the morning and ate our last meal and drink for the day. Then we went back to sleep and went throughout our day. The hunger didn’t bother me because of the meal during the night, but the thirst was hard from walking around in Cairo all day (it was our service project day and the NGO I work at is a long ways away). We had planned to meet at a Syrian restaurant for iftar (the breaking of the fast). Once the call to prayer was sent out over the loudspeakers from the surrounding mosques, signaling the time to break the fast, we ate dates and drank water. The first drink of cold water made me really appreciate the month of Ramadan and why Muslims see it as a holy month of sacrifice. We ate a wonderful meal and it was a great experience!

On Tuesday, several of us guys were invited to attend a football match here in Cairo. It was the Egyptian league, and the two teams playing were ranked #2 and #3 in Egypt. The #3 team won and it was really fun to watch! The most interesting thing was the 900 riot police every 5 feet around the field. That really gives validity to all the stories you hear about the riots and violence over soccer in Africa and abroad. No such excitement happened at our game but the fans were pretty raucous and it was fun to see!

I will have a post ready in a few days detailing a few events that we have been to involving Muslim/Christian relations. It is a very different story depending on who you talk to regarding the way the two religions interact in Egypt. I have collected notes on my experiences with my Coptic friends and my Muslim friends and how they see the religious issues here. It should be a good post, so stay tuned for that in a few days!

Trip to Ancient Egypt

This weekend we went to Luxor, which is the location of the ancient city of Thebes and where all the Ancient Egypt sites are. We took an overnight train to get there from Cairo and spent most of the first day laying around by the hotel pool on the roof. From our rooftop perch we had a great view of the Nile and the Temple of Luxor. Our various teachers had laid a pretty heavy reading load on us for the trip (which for some reason, I don’t mind) and I spent a lot of the day relaxing and reading.

On Saturday, we began our two-day tour experience, and went to the Valley of the Kings. This is the site of 140 something tombs of Pharaohs and family. We were able to go into three of them, Ramses II, Ramses III, and Ramses IX. All of the artifacts and treasures had been removed from the tombs but the walls were still beautifully painted with scenes from Ancient Egypt. Most of the painting centered on death and the afterlife and the greatness of the Pharaohs.

We then went to the Hedu Temple, which was the temple of Ramses III. As was the ancient Egyptian custom, Pharaohs were gods and their temples were extravagant. The palace was adjoined. Most of the temples that we saw were fairly similar in that they had massive columns, a holiest of holies shrine, an altar for sacrifices to the Gods and many edifices and statues. The Hedu Temple was particularly interesting because it is widely believed that Ramses III is the Pharaoh from the Bible. If that is true, then that temple and palace would be the setting for all the visits from Moses and Aaron, the staff turning into a snake and the Let my People Go story. Pharaoh would have watched all the plagues from this site as well. Seeing this also gives a little more clarity on why the Pharaoh was so reluctant to let the Hebrew slaves go. They were building these temples and monuments. Our tour guide told about how long and how hard it was to build each temple with all the columns and stones being several hundred tons. I think now I understand a little bit more about why Pharaoh was so hardened to the idea of losing his slaves.

The next day we visited the temple of Karnak and the Temple of Luxor. Both were once again, extremely impressive and architectural marvels. What amazed me about everything that we saw, was just how much had survived since 1500 BC (when most of all this was built). There is a lot of hieroglyphic writings all over the walls, statues of Gods and Pharaohs’ and many of the structures are completely intact. This is a tribute to the solid stone that it was built from and the amazing quality of craftsmanship that was employed.

After a couple of days of tours, a day and some evenings by the pool, and a thorough amazement for ancient Egypt we headed home to Cairo by overnight train. We have a day to relax and get fully prepared for classes again (which is hours of reading!).

Thanks for Following!

Articulation of Thoughts, US Foreign Policy and Luxor

We leave for Luxor in about 3 hours. For those of you unfamiliar with Luxor, it is where the ancient city of Thebes was and is near the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. Several Pharaonic temples are there and Luxor has more ancient Egyptian history than can be seen in 3 days. But we are going to try! I will be sure to give a huge post on Luxor and all the ancient Egyptian monuments we see when we get back. We leave tonight and take an overnight train to Luxor. After 3 days, we will be back early Monday morning.
As for this week, once we got back from Dahab, we heard a very inspiring talk from Hasam Baghat, which I already commented on. The next day we heard from our director, Dr. Heather Keaney’s husband, Jim Wright. He is a Cambridge educated lawyer who owns his own law firm here in Cairo. He spoke on cross-cultural living and how to live radical lives abroad. A lot of his focus was on how to show Christ in a Muslim city. He is very intelligent and his thoughts were extremely insightful. His talk really has helped me bring together my thoughts on the things I have been seeing around me. It has been a little bit disorienting at times seeing poverty, Islam, my own Christianity etc. in all new lights. I am starting to figure out what it means to be open-minded, have a solid core of belief and learn about what is around me.
We have had two long lecture sessions with our Islam teacher, Dr. Chahinda this week. She is a Muslim herself and has very moderate viewpoints on Christianity and inclusivism. It has been really interesting learning more about Islam and also seeing her brand of Islam, which I must say is very tolerant and loving. I know that not all Muslims share her view, but her Islam is inspiring!
Yesterday we had a political officer from the U.S. embassy in Cairo speak to us. His job is mainly watching the Egyptian government and making sure that American interests are being protected, as well as watching the human rights scene in Egypt. He came in and spoke a bit about his career and what it is like working for the US State Dept. He then opened the floor for questions. That began an hour and a half of us asking him tough questions. I feel bad for him because we bombarded him with well thought out and well supported questions about what our government is doing in the Middle East and why they are doing it. We covered Obama’s soft stance on Iran, America’s double standard on nuclear weapons, America’s special relationship with Israel, the turbulent political climate in Syria, America’s priorities in the Middle East, stability in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and of course Egypt. He was very dodgy with a lot of our questions, as one would expect from someone working for the State Department. But while it was an exercise in patience trying to get a straight, direct answer out of him, there were many important things I learned about American foreign policy, our Middle East priorities, and the changes made under Obama. Some of my thoughts and observations and interesting nuggets from the talk:
➢ He ranked the American priorities in the region this way:
1. The peace process with Israel
2. Stability in Iraq
3. Economic Development
➢ Egypt is the most important state in the region to be an American ally as far as diplomacy goes, because they have full diplomacy resources with Iran, they can help negotiate with Israel and Palestine, and they also talk to Hamas.
➢ The relationship between the U.S. and Arabs has improved under Obama and are more willing to talk peace in the region (probably because Obama doesn’t push the democratization agenda the same way Bush did).
➢ Once Iran gets nuclear weapons, the belief is that Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria would soon follow, which makes Iran’s nuclear program all the more a pivotal issue.
➢ The situation in Afghanistan demands more State Dept. and Defense Dept. resources than any other situation.
➢ He was the most veiled about the American plan for Egyptian politics when the 81 year old president, Hosni Mubarak dies. He claimed that America would push for a democratic election to determine the next leader. I then asked a pointed question about a democratic election leading to an election of the Muslim Brotherhood (known as a terrorist organization; this situation would be very similar to Gaza’s fair election of Hamas, which the U.S. has not recognized as a legitimate government). He hardly even answered that question. My take is that the National Democratic Party will fix an election to get Gamal Mubarak into power and the U.S. will look the other way to keep the Muslim Brotherhood out of the government.
➢ He said that the U.S. has been on much better terms with the United Nations under Obama.

Every question and answer was very interesting. I think that I learned more about what it means to work for the State Department (having to promote American values, rather than your own values; having to give the public State Department opinion on everything etc.) than I did about America’s true plan in the Middle East. But, all in all it was a good session and everyone ended on very good terms and he finished by asking us what we want to see from our government (which we gave him a polite earful).
We leave soon for Luxor and I will give a full post once I get back.
P.S. Feel free to weigh in with an opinion on any of this stuff. I would love to talk a little bit about all this.

Mt. Sinai, Dahab, The Blue Blue Red Sea, and Human Rights Activism

This weekend we visited Mt. Sinai and Dahab, Egypt! We traveled 7 hours over the Sinai desert to arrive at Mt. Sinai by 2 AM. All I can say about the desert of the Sinai is that I can understand why it was a curse for the Israelites to live there. 40 years of wandering there would be quite a punishment. We arrived in time to start the trek up the mountain with enough time to reach the top by sunrise.

Side note: No one really knows for certain which mountain Moses’ received the Ten Commandments on. This mountain is proclaimed to be the Mt. Sinai because it is the most likely mountain and historians have pegged this as the best possible answer to that geographical question.

We begin our journey and Bedouin tribesman are constantly offering camels for the ride up (for a nice sum of money of course). At first it is a nice walking trail but as we get into the mountain range and start going up the side of the mountain it begins to get to be a bit of a nice, little hike. It took us 3 hours to get to the top, but it felt great to do some physical exertion and not breath the polluted Cairo air for a change. The stars were beautiful and the mountains were breathtaking in the bright moonlight that God offered us.

At the top we find a good place to sit to watch the sunrise. It is quite cold and windy at the summit, which we were prepared for. As one can imagine, the sunrise was astounding and it was one of the most peaceful, quiet, and surreal things I have ever seen. It was one of those moments that I thought, “How can anyone doubt God’s existence?” Its almost a disgrace to post a picture to represent what I saw, but I guess I have to!

We visited the monastery at the bottom of the mountain, where the “burning bush” supposedly is. The bush was just a normal, living bush, which I didn’t even deem picture worthy. There are cooler ways to project a burning bush fabrication, I believe.

Then we go to Dahab on the Red Sea coast, on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. It is a small beach town, that is overshadowed by Sharm al-Sheik, the major resort city about 40 miles away that is much more crowded and popular (and where President Hosni Mubarak spends most of his time). The highlight of the 3 days we spent in Dahab is easily snorkeling at the “Blue Hole”. The “Blue Hole” has been named the #2 best snorkeling and diving spot in the world (behind Australia’s Great Barrier Reef). I had never snorkeled before so this was an especially great experience. The rest of the time was spent hanging out by the Red Sea, eating at interesting Egyptian restaurants and playing cards with each other.

Couple of notes on the Red Sea:

1. It is the Bluest, Clearest water you will ever see.

2. It has a high salt content and is effortless to float in.

Today, we had Hasam Baghet speak to us (just the 30 MESP students) about Human Rights. It is a pretty amazing thing that I got to see him in such a small arena. He is an extremely respected lawyer who runs an NGO specializing in challenging laws restricting human rights. He has won several high profile cases that overturn discriminatory laws, which is no small feat considering that Egypt is an autocratic, military state run by a dictator and corrupt government. He is only 30 and appears regularly on political talk shows and has been quoted in a lot of the reading that we have done so far on the social conditions in Egypt. So hearing him in such a small environment was pretty cool. He had some mind-blowing things to say about conditions in Egypt, what is being done about it, the dangers of standing against the government, the U.S role in Egypt and its development. He is a hot commodity in the burgeoning global human rights arena, so it was quite inspiring to hear him speak.

Weekend Plans

So tonight we leave for the Sinai Peninsula. We will be driving through the night and arriving at Mt. Sinai in the middle of the night. It will be about a 3 hr hike to the top which will be followed by an amazing sunrise from Mt. Sinai. Yeah, let that sink in.

After the hike back down we will drive about an hour to the Red Sea coast. We will be in Dahab, a little beach town that is famous for being one of the best snorkeling spots in the world. Supposedly, they have the "blue hole" which is literally a hole in the sea with coral and wildlife on all sides.

I will have an update once we get back. Thanks for following!

Mosque Tour

So today we had our first Islam Thought and Practice class in which we spent the day visiting mosques in Cairo. Our teacher is Dr. Shahinda, an Islamic architecture professor at American University in Cairo. She is a devout Muslim although she is unveiled (a touchy subject in the Islamic world).

We visited 3 mosques from different time periods. The first was the Tulun mosque in the first picture. It was once the central and royal mosque of Egypt. It was built in the 9th century and is a real masterpiece of architecture.

The second mosque, shown in the 2nd and 3rd picture is from the 13th century and was built by Sultan Hassan and is a massive, massive structure. It is close by the Citadel and was built as an Islamic school as well as a mosque. Obama visited this mosque on his Cairo visit, so a lot of things had been tidied up and the carpet was new.

The third mosque was right across the courtyard from the Hassan mosque. It is a 19th century mosque and was built fully enclosed, Turkish style. There are some interesting tombs in this mosque of Egyptian kings and the shah that was overthrown in the Iranian revolution (he was related to the Egyptian royal family).

One interesting tidbit is that there is a bit of a controversy in this mosque over a set of windows on the north wall (pictured). One idea is that the French, Christian architect built this in as a Christian icon. Another idea is that it is an innocent arrangement of windows. My thoughts are that if a mosque is trying to avoid anything resembling a cross, then how is this not a deliberate act? Either way it is interesting to see and think about.

The Conflicts of the Arabs, Naima and Necessary Arabic

So this past weekend was mostly reading and housekeeping around our flat, with a pretty awesome Citadel visit mixed in. We cooked our first meal in the flat, as most days we eat with all the people from the program at the MESP villa, where Kareema, an Egyptian woman cooks for all of us. Most nights we are on our own but my flat mates and I almost always go eat at Naima’s. Naima’s is this great little restaurant on the Nile that is ridiculously cheap and serves really good native Egyptian food. When I say cheap, I mean you can get filled up on less than $1 American. So far I have only had a couple of things from there, mainly because the menu is all in Arabic and they all speak only Arabic. So until my Arabic improves I will probably stick to my comfort zone in choosing food items. My two staples here in Egypt at Naima’s have been fuul, which is basically a bread pocket of spicy, salty beans (goes for about 25 cents USD) and kofTa which is basically a Philly cheese steak sandwich without the cheese and with lamb. So not like a Philly cheese steak at all.
We had Arabic this morning and about 3 hours of lectures on Middle East history. As mundane as that may sound, I really love classes and studying all of this stuff. We have a reader on Iran and Egypt, one on Syria, Jordan and Turkey, and one on Israel – Palestine that stands to a total of about 5 inches thick of paper to be read this semester. I am pretty excited and what I have read so far!
Lately we have been focusing on the Arab world as a whole and how un-united it is, even though all the countries seem to have common problems. Oil is a curse, Israel is a distraction and governments are authoritarian. But they seem to have tried everything from uniting the Arab world, applying a European model of Modernism, opening up to free trade, but nothing has worked for them economically. So the new idea standing in the gap with a proposed solution for the Arab world? Islamism

The Citadel from the Outside

One wall of the Muhammed Ali mosque

View from the Citadel of the Al-Nasr mosque

Inside the Muhammed Ali mosque - The view from inside here is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen