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Merry Christmas From Arab West Report!
December 24, 2011
Dear Friends of Arab-West Report,
The year 2011 is coming to an end and we would like to wish you a blessed Christmas and happy new year.
It is obvious that this has been a most eventful year in our existence. Of course you have followed the news about Egypt’s ongoing revolution. There were both dark and bright moments. Dark were the losses of so many lives and the economic recession Egypt was pushed into. Bright was the hope it brought to Egyptians, both Muslims and Christians. Dark was the violence against Christians in different locations. Bright was the large percentage of Egyptians that participated in the first rounds of the multi-phased parliamentary election process.
There are rumors about reports of some irregularities with the elections. These could be merely sour grapes by liberals, but there could also be some legitimacy to the claims. Stories have circulated about how false campaigning methods were used by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and how the Salafi vote was aided by official fraud. But regardless, these elections were better than any other since the military coup in 1952.
Turnout has been high at the first two rounds of parliamentary elections
Also the past weeks have been very eventful. We got dragged into a discussion about highly biased reporting on Dutch TV that alleged that Christians burned their own church in Marinab and subsequently blamed Muslims. We spent much time on this, responding to questions in Dutch and Egyptian media about our fact-finding trip to Marinab that clearly contradicts this inflammatory Dutch report.
Cornelis Hulsman and Lamis Yahya visit with villagers in Marinab Village
Meanwhile Jayson Casper has done excellent work in presenting the views of Salafi scholar Usama al-Qusi, showing an Islamist with his own way of reasoning that we should respect. Al-Qusi shows that it is simply not true and fair to depict all Islamists as radicals. We need to continuously make efforts to understand, ask questions and listen to responses. To read the full interview, click here.
Salafi intellectual Usama al-Qusi
Meanwhile, I have been in Maghagha, Minia, where Orthodox priest father Yo’annis was campaigning for Salafi sheikh Hamdi Abdel Fatah, not because he is a Salafi, but because they are from the same village and have known each other from childhood. Personal relations count! That too is Egypt!
Muslim Brothers are generally more flexible and open to different thoughts then Salafis, but there is widespread fear of them, which is a consequence of decades of negative coverage of them in the media. The people I have met are, of course, decent and willing to discuss any question we raised. Egypt is most definitely turning into a more Islamic country, but this does not mean that it will necessarily be negative for Christians or liberal Muslims in Egypt.
Sad are the recent fights at Tahrir. I met with the youth at Tahrir and disagree with them. They want the army to leave the streets of Cairo immediately, but fail to realize the chaos this would create. I certainly do not agree with the violence that we have seen against civilians. But elections are continuing to take place and once a new president is in power, then the army can withdraw.
CIDT News
Jayson Casper left CIDT as managing director in January 2011 and was replaced by Hany Labib. Jayson later returned as free-lance researcher for CIDT and produced some excellent reports for us. Bill Gallo left for the US permanently but made a virtual return in June 2011 and is working online for us in addition to his other job in the US. I had to return to Egypt again. While the unrest has posed certain difficulties in maintaining consistent staffing in the office, many volunteers in Egypt and abroad have helped us to get through this period.
Around May conditions stabilized in the office and we have been able to work on various projects since that time. Media attention for CIDT/AWR has grown substantially in 2011 and so did the number of hits to our website.
A major project we are now undertaking is a study on Article 2 of the Egyptian constitution that stipulates that Islamic law is the main source of legislation in Egypt. Islamists want to keep this article in force, while Christians and liberal Muslims fear it would restrict their rights. Our study, representing different opinions, will be published in both Arabic and English.
We are also working on a study with an overview of Islamist parties and presidential candidates. Both should be ready for publication in January 2012.
It is our hope that these reports, along the many other reports published in the past, will contribute to a better understanding of Egypt.
CIDT/Arab-West Report needs your support to continue our work and produce quality reports as you have seen in the past year. We thus would most appreciate your generous contribution. Payments can be made through PayPal or transfer to the bank account of the Arab-West Foundation in The Netherlands.
We offer you our best wishes for a blessed 2012.
Sincerely,
Cornelis Hulsman
Editor-in-chief of the Arab-West Report
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