QAHAAR: Live From The Middle East 8: In The Name Of Allah
Apr 30, 2005
By Khadija Abdul Qahaar, Published Exclusively By JUS

On any given day, throughout Egypt and many of the rest of so-called Islamic lands, a variety of indiscretions and misdeeds are carried out; all in the name of Allah. While the minarets ring out the call to prayer, and the faithful strut noticeably to attend, what happens in between the five daily prayers magnifies the true weakness of the Muslim Ummah.

While I had no illusions that as a westerner I would ever truly be accepted in a world that has no semblance on the one I know, Islam is a universal religion and at the heart of it is justice for all men and women regardless of race, color, creed or status. That said, I made the miscalculation early on that Egypt was a Muslim country. Egypt as a whole, having at one time or another been occupied by nearly ever foreign power from the Greeks and Turks to the Europeans and Israeli’s, tries desperately to hold fast to their culture of historic landmarks and ancient ruins rather than to Allah. Egypt has long ago lost its true Muslims identity, even with the noble mosques, the masses of Quran's that line the streets to sell at whatever price they can garner from those that travel though it and its Arabic calligraphy scribed in stone after stone of broken rubble. This scene is contrasted by a literal sea of Satellite dishes that amass on every rooftop, even on the poorest of homes without windows and even atop the graves that some live in rent free, and a constant chatter that resounds through the airwaves disseminating from cell phones which have become the literal third ear to the man on the street. With all its poverty, satellite television and cell phones are a multi-billion dollar business in Egypt.

Drowning In US Dole

To be fair, it is indeed a complex problem at the core of Egypt’s moral and economic corruption. To begin with, Egypt is on the US dole as the recipient of over $10 billion in US aid since 1978 for one purpose and one purpose only; to keep peace with America’s beloved Israel. Despite receiving this whopping sum, Egypt is still desperately poor. The fact is that Egyptians remain committed to government dominance of the economy, and the US could care less as long as it keeps peace with its US nation-state neighbor.

Of course keeping the population poor is how the corrupt government regimes control the population. US AID provided almost $200 million to help Egypt establish a domestic cement industry in 1980 to enable the country to produce locally what it previously purchased abroad. The façade was that a domestic cement industry would save Egypt valuable foreign exchange. AID funds were channeled into a "public private" cement company. Hundreds of millions of dollars later, the factories still did not produce due to construction delays, faulty machinery, inept labor, and dismal contracting practices. US AID also spent $24 million in Egypt over five years trying to construct 29 Mubarak-run and 10 private bakeries. Egypt decided to decrease bread-production costs by centralizing bread baking, but the project was badly mismanaged. Rather than hustling to build the bakeries, the contractor placed the original grant money in interest-bearing accounts, contradicting the laws of Allah. Even if the project had succeeded, the results would have been negative because the government would have driven scores of small private bakers out of business. Over half of all U.S.-supplied vehicles at seven AID projects in Egypt have been stolen, or appropriated by Egyptian government officials or others for their own personal use, or have broken down and been left unrepaired. US auditors found nine fork-lifts (costing $132,000) in mint condition; the Egyptians claimed they could not afford the gas necessary to run the machines. Fuddle Duddle!

I recently read an article in an American magazine about all the good the US was doing for Egypt, from cleaning the water to cleaning up the garbage and providing food to feed the poor. Hello? This author has obviously never been to Egypt! Let’s be clear. There is no garbage pickup in Egypt except for foreign ministries, tourist havens and President Hosni Mubarak's palaces and the water is so bad that drinking it is truly a death sentence. The number of Egyptians with liver problems (despite the fact that alcohol consumption is very low) and skin diseases is alarming and all directly stem from filthy water. Proper medical care, unless you are part of the corrupt government system, an actor and actress or a foreigner, is simply out of reach. The average 50 year old in Egypt looks 70 and by 40 you are considered old. Even now that the political system is said to be opening up, the fact is that Egyptians will “relect” Mubarak out of fear. During recent political rallies, 250 known participants were arrested in advance, one candidate jailed for “corruption”, the streets were lined with soldiers that brought Cairo’s overwhelming traffic to a halt and consequently these rallies suffered poor turnout. Egyptians will dutifully re-elect Mubarak (or his son should the former not run) for fear of repercussions and “political reform” is nothing more than window dressing.

Masquerading As Muslims

The fact is, Egypt’s 93% Sunni Muslims are, for the most part, Muslim in name alone and they fear Mubarak more than they fear Allah. Combine these misplaced priorities with poverty and you have a society that is paralyzed, that can’t wipe its own nose and that is too busy on any given day sniffing out food for its belly, burning up the airwaves with useless cell chatter and watching American TV. They will spend one hour arguing over 1 LE when, in the same time frame, they could have made 5 LE more. Time has no value in Egypt nor does “full weights and measures”; productivity is a foreign concept and every type of corruption is justified because of poverty and often in the name of Allah!

A good example of this is evidenced when I had to replace a lamp shade in the apartment. Salah took me to “Attabah’ square, a district known for cheap prices as indeed money is tight. Being unable to park the car, I went into the maze of stores to conduct the business myself – something I rarely do without Salah in these circumstances because as a westerner, I will surely pay more than the product is worth. After mingling through the stores for a seemly endless amount of time looking for a grey ‘chapeau”, I found a company that agreed to make it as none were to be found "off the shelf". I showed them the color, the style and gave them a 50% deposit, a whole 25 LE, and they said the lamp shade would be ready on Tuesday. Total cost: 50 LE or $10. I agreed and said I would be back Wednesday to pick it up. Walking back to the car, I felt quite proud of myself that I was able to carry out this small transaction independently. Unfortunately it was short lived.

When D-Day came, Salah parked the car and we went back to the store to pick it up. Well surprise surprise, after waiting for over 40 minutes, it became obvious the shade wasn’t ready and in fact, it had not even been made. I said "Look just give me my deposit back and we will call it a day" as in the overall mix of things, this was a small issue and many more pressing matters needed attention. Of course that was asking for justice, something Egyptians rarely ask for, demand or get. By this time, there where a group of people around as I demanded the return of my deposit. "No! No! We get the owner!" "Wait! Wait!" My driver Salah is costing me money – how long am I going to wait? Not long. Eventually the owner came and told Salah in Arabic that the color I chose was not available but they could get it for me (it would take another week of course) on the grounds that “you are our Muslim sister and we will do it for Allah for only an extra 25 LE." The hair went up on the back of my head and I knew it was too late; I unloaded on the guy. Of course he had no idea what I was saying as I called him a “stupid scheming Arab” and proceeded to give him a earful, heading out of the store, through the crowd that was enjoying the entertainment, and saying to Salah "come on, we’re going."

Although I have no doubt that Salah was only trying to take care of my interests considering I had already giving these thieves 25 LE, he continued to discuss the matter with the owner. I know enough Arabic to know that they were arguing back and forth and for me the whole issue was already over. “Wait, wait” says Salah. “Le Le - No. its over” I replied and walked out of the square to the street, still shaking I was so angry. After several minutes, Salah did not come out of the square. At that point I went back to the store and said “Salah if you want to remain in my employee, come now!” And with that, he headed out with me. Salah's intentions were good however he failed to understand one very important fact. The minute we showed up to get the lamp and it wasn’t there, I had already lost and from there it was only a matter of how much of a loss I was going to take. I had lost time in going to get it and it meant at very best another trip and I paid for a driver that could have been better spent accomplishing something else. There is a difference between price and cost. The minute I was told “more money for the sake of Allah” the cost was too great; not only had Allah been insulted but I also lost my temper, something a Muslim should not do. Would I really dignify this company with more money after this? Of course not. Better they keep the 25 LE as the entire matter was foiled. When we got back to the street, I quickly gave charity to atone for “loosing it” as Salah continued to insist he would go back on his own to get it worked out. I explained to him that I would not accept the “chapeau” now under any terms – even if they gave it to me. This was an insult to Allah and I will not accept goods on these terms. The shop owners will be held accountable for their actions as I will and to defame the name of Allah for a 50 LE lampshade in an effort to weasel out 25 LE more is beyond comprehension and I will not take part in it.

Another case and point occurred one day while I was at Azhar waiting for my lesson with Sheikh Abdullah. I was outside talking with one of the people that work there when someone ran up to him and handed him some CD Rom’s and a money transaction took place. “What are those” I enquired. My friends face went red. “Don’t ask me sister” he said. “No, really what are they”” I asked again as I assumed they were some sort of lectures or some such thing. Confronted with either telling me a lie or the truth he blurted out ‘their porn”. “Porn!” I replied. “What are you doing with porn?” I scolded. “Oh don’t worry sister, I don’t watch it” he said proudly. I spent the next hour explaining to him that he is facilitating it and this is equally a sin. “No, no, as long as I don’t watch it is allowable sister” he insisted. Watching it or not, profiting from it and disseminating it for a couple of lousy LE outside what is to be the most notable Islamic institution left me feeling sick. Allowable? I think not!!

This exemplifies the contradiction that’s exists throughout Egyptian society. While claiming to be servants of Allah, they deviate from the very core principles of Islam and then justify this by altering the very examples that our Prophet (Sallallaho Alihi Wassallam) set down for us. This by no means is an affliction of Egypt alone, but rather one of the Middle East in general and it is this weakness that allows our lands to be invaded, controlled and robbed by foreign powers. While returning to true Islam is given lip service by many, in reality, it is American greenbacks, not Allah, that is worshipped. This fact is not lost of the enemies of Allah by a long shot and while it may be unpopular amongst ordinary Americans to have provided so much money to Egypt with such little result, it is part of the grand foreign policy strategy to keep the so-called Muslims clamoring for this blood money and selling their brothers and sisters for a few lousy bucks.

These are just a few examples of the short sightedness, the compromises that are made each and every day and the lack of trust in general that the Muslims in Egypt place in Allah that truly saddens me. Allah feeds the birds – will He not feeds his servants? Of course He will but we must remain true to our deen and as long as the Egyptian Muslims take matters into their own hands, wheel, deal and deceive (which they are not even good at), they will continue to be hungry. The problem facing Egyptians is not Mubarak, who could be overthrown without bloodshed in a heartbeat, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy or lack of resources; it is a lack of faith in Allah and until this is changed, the future for an Islamic Egypt is dismal. While dawah to the West is an important initiative, dawah is most required in the heart of the Arab and Muslim world if it is to return to Islam and if our Ummah is to rise to our rightful position as leaders of a truly free world under the sole sovereignty of Allah alone.

End Chapter 8

Concluded March 19, 2004

Copyright © 2005 By Khadija Abdul Qahaar (formerly Bev Giesbrecht). Published Exclusively By Jihad Unspun. All Rights Are Reserved. Previous chapters are available at http://www.jihadunspun.com/columns/khadija/index.htm