I am all for people being religious if they choose that path in life. I myself have not got a particular faith. I am aware of the hope/meaning religion gives to people everywhere and I respect that.
At work we have so called "runners", they are young men who take documents from one place to another and fix administrative things to the left and to the right. They are indispensable and very, very nice. I also suspect they have good degrees from University.
One of these runners is very religious and as usual this is actually "written" on his forehead: he has bruises from praying. I do not know why one chooses to bend down violently while praying, I hope it is not an end in itself because it seems to be quite painful to repeat that action 5 times a day, ever increasing the marks on the forehead. Still it is one of those small things that makes me realise I am in a different culture and that there are small subtle things which distinguishes people from each other. I like to discover these subtleties, even though they have a religious pretext and I wish that religion here would not be as important as it is, mostly because it is an expression of other things such as poverty, anti Western sentiment and a symbol of compassion with the group and the intolerance of "the other", etc.
2 comments:
Anna,
Welcome back, I hope you get your ADSL soon.
As for this post, I can see that u still feel some how threatened and afraid to interact more with your Egyptian colleagues at work.
maybe time can help with that.
Anyways, I think u might find this link useful
and as for the bruise on the forehead which we call "Zebebitt salah" in our Egyptian slang , it's not an indicator of anything .. it doesn't mean that the guy with the bruise is more religious than others with no bruises on their forehead , it doesn't mean that its holder is a fanatic , fundamentalist or even a futuristic suicidal terrorist. it just means that this person forehead's skin is more sensitive than others :o)
nothing in Islam requires or demands hurting ourselves -or others- during pray time or any other act of worshiping.
Hi,
actually I am not threatened at all and I do to a large extent communicate and socialise with my Egyptian colleagues, but being a very secular person I question things as bruises in my friends foreheads.
I have not got any thoughts about the person I wrote about being a fundamentalist or prone suicide bomber - I know that some people in the West who think so have made many Muslims think that all Westerners have this idea, it is not true! I am also not suggesting that this person is more religious than any other of my friends and I am not saying I do not respect him and certainly not that I am afraid of him or his faith!!! I want to make this clear. I find Islam (in its historical form) to be a very human religion and I can identify and empathise with the followers of it.
I want you to know - because it is important to me that I do not come across as judgemental - that I question Christianity and Judaism on the same grounds as I do Islam and I know that fundamentalism exists in this country - and this city, but not only in the Muslim community but also in the Christian community. I believe the root cause of such fundamentalism is despair of some kind.
My friend, the one with bruises on his forehead is someone I find very pleasant and he is by no means someone I would categorise as a fundamentalist, he is just religious and he or his practice of his religion doesn't frighten me. I wanted to communicate a thing that you cannot find in my home country and which I believe is a bit exaggerated (since I am not religious myself and could not think of inflicting myself with even little pain for any God) to others. As I said, I find religion to be problematic - ANY kind of religion and as I am in Egypt right now I am writing about the things I observe.
Please do not think I am frightened or find all people fundamentalist, the thought that you may think so makes me sad. I am very open minded and I like Islam (as I said in its historical and very tolerant form). I also understand people in Gaza for example becoming suicide bombers in the name of their religion and shooting rockets on Israel. I have lived in Palestine and I know the despair that exists there. I think our problem is that we cannot distinguish between religion and other social factors which triggers violent behaviour and which unfortunately exist in the Arab world to a large extent. What I mean is that in Gaza, even though Hamas and other Islamic groups there are carrying out violent acts this is not because of religion, it is because of the problems they face in their society. You see what I am getting at?
Boh, I hope I have explained myself. Thanks for the link, I will studied with more care at another occasion. I am at work and I should not be writing here.
Post a Comment