Insha'Allah--God Willing

My hope for the Egyptian people:


May they reap the fruits of their courage.
May they savor the freedom for which they stood.
May their diverse voices rise in harmony, not conflict.
May Muslim and Christian stand together in mutual respect.
May their challenge of the past build a new democracy.
May their leaderless revolution raise leaders, not tyrants.
May peace, security and prosperity be theirs, as they deserve.
Insha’Allah – God Willing

If you wonder why this is important to me, it’s because I visited Egypt in November of 2001, two months after 9/11(2001). I was a rare American in their midst at a time when the lines were already being drawn, both on the world stage and in American cities and towns. I was welcomed. No, I was embraced! The Egyptian people whom I met and traveled with expressed sympathy and loathing – sympathy for our losses in NY and PA and DC and loathing for those who committed the crimes. Those whom I met made the distinction between people (me) and politics. Sadly, I could not claim the same for all Americans. My seat-mate on my flight from Luxor to Cairo told me of his hijab-wearing niece in Chicago who was spat upon in the days following 9/11. What could I say?

I was back in Egypt the following February, this time with Nick. Again, we were welcomed, even though by this time, our government was refocusing on Iraq as the enemy, much to Egyptians’ dismay and lack of understanding. Well, mine too! Nick walked the streets and neighborhoods of Cairo while I worked. While walking through a poor neighborhood, he passed a woman completely covered, with the exception of her eyes. In that culture, a man does not speak to a woman not known to him. As Nick walked by her, head averted, she said to his back, “Welcome back. We’ve missed you.”

I heard a little about life under Mubarak. On my first trip, I toured on my own, with arrangements for a tour guide and driver in Aswan, Luxor and Cairo. In Luxor my tour guide was a young well-educated man and my driver was a little older and from a rural community. The three of us were eating lunch in a restaurant where the guide knew the restaurateur. He was telling me his opinion of Mubarak and the regime and his perspective of the problems and needs of the people. The driver became concerned and cautioned the guide to silence. When the guide continued in his perspective, the driver left the restaurant. A small example.

So, in the footsteps perhaps of Ghandi and Martin Luther King, the people of Egypt took to the streets armed only with their voices and their belief in their rights. Although certainly not unanimously. They organized themselves, policed themselves and for the most part resisted the rise to violence. They raised one voice: secular, Islamic, hopefully Christians; men, young jeans-clad women from the University, women in hijab, conservative women fully covered; working people, un-employed, educated, well-off and poor. A single call for rights, democracy and freedom from fear, reprisal and suppression. May they reap what their courage has brought them. Insha’Allah—God Willing.