Signs of division on Egypt ‘s brow

ICC Note

Very informative article on the radicalization of Muslims in Egypt and how it is affecting the rights of Christians.

By Magdi Abdelhadi

06/23/2008 Egypt (BBC News)-The zebiba used to be the mark of an elderly Muslim man, the fruit of a lifetime’s devotion, but it is increasingly seen on the faces of young Egyptians.

Literally meaning “a raisin”, the zebiba is a patch of hardened skin where the forehead touches the ground during Muslim prayers.

Worse still there are fears public displays of faith like the zebiba and the hijab, or headscarf, are spilling over into vigilantism.

Liberals or Christians who don’t conform in the workplace or on the street say they are being harassed.

Gift from God

A practising Muslim’s forehead is meant to touch the ground at least 34 times a day – in symbolic submission to God’s will – which could add up to more than a million prostrations in a lifetime.

But over the past few decades, as more and more Egyptians turned to religion, the zebiba began appearing among young men as the veil did among young women.

Relentless rise

Egyptian women and Liberals I spoke to tell a different story. A Coptic doctor, who did not want to be named, told me she had been spat upon in broad daylight for not wearing the veil.

A young Muslim engineer, Shahinaz, who refuses to cover her hair, said she has become scared of intimidation.

“I was driving home one evening and had to stop next to a girls’ school. Suddenly the girls – all of whom were veiled – surrounded the car and start banging on the windows and screaming: ‘Infidel! Apostate!’ I was terrified.”

Dr Sayyed al-Qimni, one of Egypt ‘s best known liberal writers and historians, says society has been hijacked by a very conservative brand of religion, which he characterises as Saudi Wahhabi Islam.

“There are now 13,000 religious schools [in Egypt ] that produce terrorists, like the Taliban madrassas in Pakistan . At religious schools they teach children that Muslims who do not pray should be killed.”