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Published On: Jan 15, 2008 02:56 PM
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Published On: Jan 15, 2008 02:56 PM
Egyptians and Religious Tolerance
I'm on the Nile, on a cruising boat. Later
tonight we should reach Aswan, our final boat stop. Today we have already
stopped at temples at Edfu and Kom-Ombo. But more about that
later.
The boat is supposed to have internet access; the folks at the reception desk assure me that it is amazingly fast, but not working right now. There are problems with the service provider in Cairo, they tell me. This matches up with what I have observed; I have a very strong wireless signal, but I can't seem to get it to do anything.
Before I left the land of internet access, however, I noticed this commented question to a previous post:
Do you happen to know how the locals view Kemetic reconstruction?
My answer: I don't know.
I will, however, attempt to analyze the worldview of modern Egyptians, as I have experienced it both now and from previous experiences, to help point you toward some possible answers.
Firstly, there are three main religions in Egypt, and they're the Big Three, the JCI: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Muslims make up about 85% of the population, Christians about 15, and according to our guide there are less than 60 families of Semites in Egypt at this time.
Egyptians are very interested in other religions! It is extremely common for Muslim children to go to Catholic schools, and for Coptic Christian children to go to Muslim schools. The philosophy here is just the reverse of what you see in the United States: here the parents feel that their children get enough teaching about their own religion through the family, and they should be exposed to something different at school. Contrast this to the reactions to that proposed Arabic public school in New York and see what you come up with.
Muslims and Christians get along in Egypt, and they realize how rare and special this is. The Muslims here must get unfairly accused a lot. One described to me one day how their neighbor is Christian, and he is just like an uncle. "Christians and Muslims eat together. We don't shoot each other like people say," he said.
So in general, Egyptians are very open to followers of religions other than their own.
Their reaction to Kemetic Reconstructionists, however, might not be in this same vein. Christianity came to Egypt with Alexander the Great, and Islam arrived around 700 CE. There are no non-assimilated Egyptian populations -- i.e. native practitioners of the original religions. However, because of the amount of time these populations have been here, their national identity is tied up with the ancient Egyptian beliefs, even if it's not their own beliefs. A strong nationalist feeling has developed, mostly recently, and much of it seems to be tied around this cultural heritage which they inherited with their lands.
I personally think that an Egyptian faced with a non-Egyptian Kemetic Reconstructionist would be puzzled at how, exactly, the ancient religion could have meaning outside the country of Egypt. There might be a reaction similar to American Indian groups who object to having their cultural heritage stolen, even if most of them are Christians, nowadays.
Like I said, though, I don't know, and I'm just not quite either brave or socially adept enough to ask properly.
The boat is supposed to have internet access; the folks at the reception desk assure me that it is amazingly fast, but not working right now. There are problems with the service provider in Cairo, they tell me. This matches up with what I have observed; I have a very strong wireless signal, but I can't seem to get it to do anything.
Before I left the land of internet access, however, I noticed this commented question to a previous post:
Do you happen to know how the locals view Kemetic reconstruction?
My answer: I don't know.
I will, however, attempt to analyze the worldview of modern Egyptians, as I have experienced it both now and from previous experiences, to help point you toward some possible answers.
Firstly, there are three main religions in Egypt, and they're the Big Three, the JCI: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Muslims make up about 85% of the population, Christians about 15, and according to our guide there are less than 60 families of Semites in Egypt at this time.
Egyptians are very interested in other religions! It is extremely common for Muslim children to go to Catholic schools, and for Coptic Christian children to go to Muslim schools. The philosophy here is just the reverse of what you see in the United States: here the parents feel that their children get enough teaching about their own religion through the family, and they should be exposed to something different at school. Contrast this to the reactions to that proposed Arabic public school in New York and see what you come up with.
Muslims and Christians get along in Egypt, and they realize how rare and special this is. The Muslims here must get unfairly accused a lot. One described to me one day how their neighbor is Christian, and he is just like an uncle. "Christians and Muslims eat together. We don't shoot each other like people say," he said.
So in general, Egyptians are very open to followers of religions other than their own.
Their reaction to Kemetic Reconstructionists, however, might not be in this same vein. Christianity came to Egypt with Alexander the Great, and Islam arrived around 700 CE. There are no non-assimilated Egyptian populations -- i.e. native practitioners of the original religions. However, because of the amount of time these populations have been here, their national identity is tied up with the ancient Egyptian beliefs, even if it's not their own beliefs. A strong nationalist feeling has developed, mostly recently, and much of it seems to be tied around this cultural heritage which they inherited with their lands.
I personally think that an Egyptian faced with a non-Egyptian Kemetic Reconstructionist would be puzzled at how, exactly, the ancient religion could have meaning outside the country of Egypt. There might be a reaction similar to American Indian groups who object to having their cultural heritage stolen, even if most of them are Christians, nowadays.
Like I said, though, I don't know, and I'm just not quite either brave or socially adept enough to ask properly.
Posted: Mon - January 14, 2008 at 09:06 PM |
