Others' Perspectives About Egypt and Schutz

Before I came to Egypt, I wanted to learn all I could about it. For one thing, Egypt is in Africa, yet it is in the Middle East, too.  I was no different than most Americans in that I wanted to lump the whole Middle East together into one big, scary problem area.  I really did not think in terms of countries, more in terms of the whole region.  When I heard things on the news, I didn't really make much of a distinction between Iran, Jordan, Syria, Saudi, the UAE, or Egypt or Israel.  I had listened to the propaganda on our news stations and realized I had never really learned anything about the region - it was all "over there".  And, the news never tells us anything good about "over there" - all we ever hear about is when there is a bombing or an attack of some sort.  There is plenty of good happening here.  Trust me.  I see it each day.  The people here are no different than at home.  There are a lot of cool places to visit and it is no scarier than the USA.  And now that the USA is "over there" to us, we watch CNN and the BBC and all we see coming out of the USA is news of the horrible, scary bombings, the shootings and violence on the street by civilians and corrupt police, and  the embarrassing election news.  If we judged the USA by what we see on tv, we would never feel safe going back!  Thank goodness, we know better and know that these things are isolated incidents and don't affect the overall safety of most people in the USA.  

One way we were able to realize that Egypt is NOT the dangerous place we see on CNN, FOX, or any of the news stations was to follow the blogs of people who have worked here at Schutz.  My favorite blog is one that is written by our technology director, Scott Tombleson.  It can be found at http://asalamisteakumm.blogspot.com/  

My favorite post in Scott's blog deserves to be shared over and over, so I have copied and pasted it here:  

Sharm, Beirut, Paris, etcetera, etcterea, etctetera....

I write this sitting on my porch while the cacophony of the 5am call to prayer echos through the city around me.

There is lightening flashing in the clouds over the Mediterranean. It is two days after the horror in Paris and three days from the horror in Beirut.  Aside from the call from the many mosques of the city, it is quiet.  I can hear an alarm in the distance and someone shuffling down the street. Every once in a while a car or motorcycle whizzez past.  It is peaceful. I am peaceful.  The city is peaceful.  I live in Alexandria, Egypt.  I believe that many might imagine this scene differently considering the horror that is happening around the world and the way the Arab world is portrayed in the media.  I know this from the concerned calls from family and friends and the "stay safe" posts of the friends and family of my colleagues who are here with me in Egypt.

Don't get me wrong, the place is whackado, and there is much that I don't understand about the place and honestly quite a few things that I don't like about it.  But now it is peaceful.  It is quiet.  It is lovely.

Then I unfortunately took out my phone and I looked at the news.  The headline?  France just bombed the shit out of someplace in Syria.  How many dead?  Does it even matter?  Maybe it does to some people.  My reaction is only sadness.  More terror reigning down from above in a place that needs no more.  I guess on some base level I understand.  I get it.  An eye for an eye and all that.  But haven't we progressed beyond that?  Haven't we as a species in the millions of years of trying to figure this shit out moved beyond schoolyard diplomacy?  Must we all be blind before we try something different? Sigh.... OK let's try Facebook for some funny cat videos or something.... SERIOUSLY?!?!? Some "friend" or another celebrating the bombings with a racist and disgusting post.... A former student the same?!?!  Apparently I did not do my job well.

Look, I have a pretty unique perspective.  I am a non believer living in a majority Muslim country.  I have my issues with the place, but I don't fear for my life.  My very best friend is sleeping soundly in our apartment behind me and I would never put her in harm's way.  I am safe.  We are safe.  The FOUR MILLION souls that live around me are safe.  Egypt is about 90% Muslim so that means that I live in a city with about 3,600,000 Muslims around me, so I daresay that I speak with some authority on the subject. I work with Muslims.  I have good friends that are Muslim.  I know rich Muslims and I know poor Muslims.  The hardest working and most efficient person I have ever met is a Muslim, but I know lazy Muslims too. The most pious Muslim man that I know is tolerant of my views as I work hard to be tolerant of his. My point is this, people are people.  Full stop.  There are good people and bad people everywhere.  Mostly though there are just people trying to get by and do the best that they can.  They love their families and they are trying to better themselves. It is harder to do that in some places than others, but honestly, that is all the vast, vast majority of folks on the face of this blue dot are trying to do.

Don't take the bait.  What is happening in the world is not a Muslim problem. It's not that simple and it will never be so.  It is true that I believe the world would be a better place without organized religion, but I do acknowledge that there are good things about Christianity as there are good things about Islam.  Look, if I can acknowledge that, you should be able to as well.  If we want to influence some change of direction in the world and make things better for those that follow, we HAVE to do something different.  Is one who celebrates the killing of Muslims any better than one who celebrates the killing of non-Muslims?  We can't banish the darkness with more darkness.  Hate only breeds more hate.  Please....PLEASE try not to hate.  Let's try love.  Let's try compassion.

I get that that is an easy thing for me to say.  I am not dealing with the loss of a beloved at the hands of deranged lunatics.  I get that the word compassion would not easily come to the lips of those poor souls that have lost loved ones. I could not be more sorry for their loss. Truly.  I'm only saying that I simply don't think that more hate is the answer.

The sun is up.  My best friend came out onto the porch and asked what the hell I was doing. This city is coming alive and 3,600,000 Muslims surrounding me greet the day with "Allahu Akbar" and a prayer for ALL who were lost in Sharm, and Beirut, and Paris, etcetera.  Then they kiss their children and venture out into our one shared world to do the best they can to get by and make it a better place.

Don't take the bait.  What is happening in the world is not a Muslim problem.  It is an asshole problem.  If there is anything simple about where we are as a species it is that.

If you want to read any other blogs by people who work at Schutz, here are some other good ones:   

This one is by our new school librarian who is here with her young family:

http://proverbs3-23.blogspot.com.eg/2016/09/last-things-first.html

This one is by our school's art teacher who is here for his second time.  This time, he and his wife have their young daughter with them.   http://camelsandtacos.blogspot.com.eg/