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From Selma to Montgomery; From Alexandria to Cairo
A Muslim holding the Koran (top L) and a Coptic Christian holding a cross are carried through opposition supporters in Tahrir Square in Cairo February 6, 2011. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
Today's guest blogger is Mustafa Abdullah, the associate organizer for CHANGE: communities helping all neighbors gain empowerment in Salem, North Carolina. He was an Interfaith Youth Core Fellow from 2009-2010.
In the midst of revolution in Egypt, and with lessons from Martin Luther King Day still echoing in the air, I am reminded that our world requires of us--in times of incredible injustice--to resort to an expansive imagination, a deep sense of courage, and a desire for challenge.
These are qualities that are best exemplified by the youth organizers in Egypt who, in the face of 30 years of oppression, a crumbling economy, and increasing tensions between the Muslim and Christian communities both domestically and internationally, have looked beyond their current state of despair by imagining their country as it should be--a place where they can be the agents of tomorrow and participate in the possibility of democracy.
The story of these young community organizers, who sparked the recent events via a wildly successful protest organized on Facebook, has much in common with the story of the youth in America's Civil Rights Movement, including the Greensboro-founded Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee.
On April 18, 1959, in Washington, D.C. Dr. King spoke before 26,000 black high school and college students in a process to begin empowering the youth to support the 1954 Supreme Court decision against racial segregation in our public schools.
"What this march demonstrates to me...is that young people, through your own experience, have somehow discovered the central fact of American life--that the extension of democracy for all Americans depends upon complete integration of Negro Americans."
Dr. King was calling on the youth to continue to be highly responsible and engaged citizens because increased awareness of responsibility leads to the privilege and power of the right to vote and participate in the democratic process. The Egyptian youth came together for the very same reason the American youth gathered in 1959: to put an end to the degradation of the human spirit and render themselves visible. Mubarak's ability to minimize meaningful civic engagement and monopolize political power rendered the Egyptian civil society mute and destroyed.
The median age of the Egyptian population is 24. Mubarak has been president for over 29 years. In that time, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush Senior, and Reagan have served as presidents of the United States, but the Egyptian population has only been under the rule of Mubarak.
In America's mainstream interpretation of the separation of church and state, many say that religion and politics do not mix. However, Dr. King and youth leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, while deeply grounded in their own Christian faith, were, according to his famous sermon A Time to Break Silence, inspired by "this Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is that the force of love is the supreme unifying principle of life."
This view of the powerful commonality across all faiths is best embodied in the image of Dr. King walking arm-in-arm with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, while leading hundreds of citizens in the march from Selma to Montgomery. Similarly, the protests organized in Egypt have demonstrated interfaith components echoing King's teaching that "we must learn to live together as brothers or perish as fools."
Pictures and videos have swarmed the internet of Christians standing guard and defending mosques during Friday prayers, as well as some youth chanting: "Muslim, Christian, we are all Egyptian!" And perhaps, the most incredible sight was of a group of young Muslims and Christians creating a human chain around the Cairo Museum in their best effort to protect it from criminals and looters.
The power of these youth voice lies in their unyielding desire to preserve and practice their right to self-determination. They understand that, regardless of one's religious background, the promise of Egypt's future is imagining "Egypt as it should be" and extending true democracy to all Egyptians.
And, I can imagine Dr. King, at the age of 30, marching with the youth from Alexandria to Cairo, as he did from Selma to Montgomery singing, "We shall overcome!"
The content of this blog reflects the views of its author and does not necessarily reflect the views of either Eboo Patel or the Interfaith Youth Core.
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Eboo Patel
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February 4, 2011; 2:04 PM ET
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Posted by: IN_IT_WE_TRUST | February 10, 2011 5:37 PM
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A faster cure:
Curing Muslims is quite easy!!!
The Five Steps To Deprogram/Cure 1400 Years of Islamic Myths:
( –The Steps take less than two minutes to finish- simply amazing, two minutes to bring peace and rationality to over one billion lost souls- Priceless!!!)
Are you ready?
Using "The 77 Branches of Islamic "faith" a collection compiled by Imam Bayhaqi as a starting point. In it, he explains the essential virtues that reflect true "faith" (iman) through related Qur’anic verses and Prophetic sayings." i.e. a nice summary of the Koran and Islamic beliefs.
The First Five of the 77 Branches:
"1. Belief in Allah"
aka as God, Yahweh, Zeus, Jehovah, Mother Nature, etc. should be added to your cleansing neurons.
"2. To believe that everything other than Allah was non-existent. Thereafter, Allah Most High created these things and subsequently they came into existence."
Evolution and the Big Bang or the "Gi-b G-nab" (when the universe starts to recycle) are more plausible and the "akas" for Allah should be included if you continue to be a "crea-tionist".
"3. To believe in the existence of angels."
A major item for neuron cleansing. Angels/de-vils are the mythical creations of ancient civilizations, e.g. Hitt-ites, to explain/define natural events, contacts with their gods, big birds, sudden winds, protectors during the dark nights, etc.
No "pretty/ug-ly wingy thingies" ever visited or talked to Mohammed, Jesus, Mary or Joseph or Joe Smith. Today we would classify angels as f–airies and "tin–ker be-lls". Modern de-vils are classified as the de-mons of the de-mented.
"4. To believe that all the heavenly books that were sent to the different prophets are true. However, apart from the Quran, all other books are not valid anymore."
Another major item to delete. There are no books written in the spirit state of Heaven (if there is one) just as there are no angels to write/publish/distribute them. The Koran, OT, NT etc. are simply books written by humans for humans.
Prophets were invented by ancient scribes typically to keep the un-educated masses in line. Today we call them for-tune tellers.
Prophecies are also invali-dated by the natural/God/Allah gifts of Free Will and Future.
"5. To believe that all the prophets are true. However, we are commanded to follow the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) alone."
Mohammed spent thirty days "fasting" (the Ramadan legend) in a hot cave before his first contact with Allah aka God etc. via a "pretty wingy thingy". Common sense demands a neuron deletion of #5. #5 is also the major source of Islamic vi-olence i.e. turning Mohammed's "fast, hunger-driven" hallu-cinations into horrible reality for unbelievers.
Walk these Five Steps and we guarantee a complete recovery from your Islamic ways!!!!
Analogous cures are available for Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and Pagans are free.
Posted by: YEAL9 | February 9, 2011 12:35 PM
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The author states:
“This view of the powerful commonality (of love) across all faiths.”
The “love” talked about in your scriptures whether Hadith or Quran, is different from the absolute love preached by “all other faiths”. The priority of love in your theology should be to Allah and His prophet, meaning the Arab prophet. This love is demonstrated by hating the infidels to the point that “they do not deserve to live”. Infidel stands for anyone whose theology is not congruent with that of the “believer”.
Posted by: abrahamhab1 | February 8, 2011 11:19 AM
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It's not the motives and behavior of the young people now that worry people, it's rather more what will happen in the end after all the chaos and noise are over.
People will get tired of it, of not knowing what's going to happen. Many will be attracted to the control and organization offered by military, political, and religious autocrats.
Democracy is an extremely messy business, a young democracy even more so. You can't raise a baby without having to change diapers, some will be attracted to the false promises of those who claim they can create a baby that doesn't poop.
Dr. King lived in the US, a country with a constitution specifically prohibiting the enforcement of religious beliefs on its citizens, and he knew it.
Egypt has a long way to go to reach such a state, if it can do so at all. It's not an impossible dream, and I feel the vast majority of humanity itself wishes the best for the people of Egypt. But we can see an impending theocracy on the horizon if these excited youth exhaust themselves on the revolution and have no energy or vitality left for the actual dirty work needed to guarantee themselves and their posterity the freedom they are fighting for now.
Posted by: eezmamata | February 8, 2011 4:06 AM
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