<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
A religious Muslim, when presented with world events, runs everything through the Muslim filter. <\/i>This filter often, mostly, okay, pretty much always runs counter to the popular notion of what is good, or is in accord with it somewhat but not completely. \u00a0This is the case as well with the situation in Egypt.<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
I\u2019ve been sick and busy recently, but I\u2019m also reluctant to comment on the uprising in Egypt, even though most who know me know I\u2019m not exactly shy when it comes to discussing current events. \u00a0So much has been happening so fast and it takes time to look at the situation in all its complicated parts, to tease apart the threads of revolt, Islam, democracy, Christianity, torture, secularism, politics, all the buzzwords and undercurrents. \u00a0But as a Muslim, I have to do this in order to sort out the right from the wrong and to consider for myself whether this revolution is blessed or cursed.<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
For myself, I come down on the side of those who say it IS permissible to rally in the streets, to seek the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, and to struggle against the status quo in Egypt, even though this struggle is not per se a religious issue. \u00a0There are a lot of questions. \u00a0Are we allowed to fight against our leaders? \u00a0Are we allowed to cooperate with Christian Copts and with those who have no religion at all, with those who, if they were in power, would have contempt for Islam and seek to marginalize it even more than it already is in Egypt? \u00a0I look at it this way. \u00a0People in Egypt are fighting for their very survival. \u00a0Sometimes, in order to survive, you have to band together with people that you don\u2019t have a lot in in common with.<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Imagine that you are a religious Muslim in Egypt. \u00a0One day, you get snatched from the street by the secret police and tossed into prison, where you are repeatedly tortured. \u00a0The police have made no secret of the fact that they want information from you, and once they get what they want, your life is over. \u00a0It turns out that your cellmate is an activist who happens to be an atheist, and he was tossed in prison for speaking out against oppression and corruption. \u00a0You two decide to band together to try to escape. \u00a0You have nothing in common on a religious level; you are a religious Muslim and he does not believe in God. \u00a0Yet you find that only by cooperating can you escape your cell and have a chance at survival. \u00a0So, what do you do? \u00a0Do you sit and make du\u2019a and pray for Allah to bring about your release, or wait patiently for your martyrdom, or do you plot with your cellmate, grab the guard when he brings dinner, toss him in the cell, grab his keys, and escape? \u00a0Me, I\u2019d firmly be on the side of escape, even though technically you are going against the ruler who is the de facto head of the secret police who kidnapped you in the first place.<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
I see the situation in Egypt being\u00a0analogous\u00a0to this, writ large. \u00a0Complicating the issue further is whether or not Mubarak can be considered a Muslim ruler at all, since he rules his country not according to the Sharia\u2019ah but rather by a mishmash of Western law and some Islamic personal law. \u00a0Those who would consider him a disbeliever due to the fact that he does not rule according to Islam sidestep the whole \u201crebelling against the Muslim ruler\u201d completely, and perhaps they are more correct in that belief. \u00a0I will refrain from calling anyone, even Mubarak, a kaafir, because I\u2019m not a scholar to give such a fatwa and I dislike to use the word at all. \u00a0Allah knows best, and I have my opinion, but I\u2019ll keep it to myself because I think it is not essential to the argument.<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
So here we are. \u00a0We have Muslims and \u201csecularists\u201d standing alongside Christians. \u00a0We have Christians protecting Muslims during Friday prayer and Muslims protecting Christians during Sunday Mass. \u00a0I watch all this and I feel my heart swell with pride that these human beings <\/i>have come together to be human, to fight against injustice. \u00a0I won\u2019t open their hearts and see if they are doing it in order to be able to worship without fear, or to have the freedom to live in a democracy so they can fornicate and use interest and make sure everyone can have porn channels on their satellite dishes. \u00a0I know there are those whose goals are only for the dunya, only so they can be \u201cfree\u201d to sin in this world, and that they have no awareness of how short this life is and what awaits them in the next. \u00a0That is between each person and Allah. \u00a0I will allow myself to be amazed at them all standing together for a common goal; \u00a0I will allow myself to laugh at the heartfelt funny sign held by a young man telling Mubarak to leave so \u00a0he can get married; I will allow myself to cry at the sight of a protester cupping the face of a terrified soldier in his hands while he tries to comfort him; I will allow myself to believe that less oppression is better than more oppression and even though the people of Egypt are mixed and their reasons are mixed and their goals are mixed, their struggle is a worthy one: the desire to live without fear, to be able to marry and work a halfway decent job, to not have to worry about appearing \u201ctoo\u201d religious, to not have to bribe everyone from the totally useless guy who \u201chelped\u201d find a parking spot, to the satellite company to the business licensing department to every other Tom Dick and Harry in the huge\u00a0bureaucracy\u00a0that damn near paralyzes the country. \u00a0If the country is more free and less corrupt, that is a good thing for Muslims and Islam. \u00a0Those who want to use their freedom for evil, well, they\u2019re probably doing that even now under oppression so what can you do? \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
A rising tide lifts all boats, so let\u2019s pray that the tide of revolution comes flooding in to wash out the evil of Mubarak\u2019s regime and allows Islam to become even stronger in the country and in the world, so that when the time is right and Allah allows us a Khalifah again, more Muslims will be ready for it. \u00a0And a true Khalifah will be a good thing for the entire world. \u00a0Yeah, I know you non-Muslims don\u2019t agree with that, but that doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t work together. \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
And Allah knows best.<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/8276196425188955527-8653919554156518938?l=muslimahinprogress.blogspot.com\")
<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Egypt, Democracy, Islam, Revolt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bismillahi Rahmani RahimSalaam Alaikum wa RahmatullahA religious Muslim, when presented with world events, runs everything through the Muslim filter. This\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/02\/egypt-democracy-islam-revolt.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Egypt, Democracy, Islam, Revolt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bismillahi Rahmani RahimSalaam Alaikum wa RahmatullahA religious Muslim, when presented with world events, runs everything through the Muslim filter. This\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/02\/egypt-democracy-islam-revolt.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Muslimah in Progress\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-07T17:19:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/8276196425188955527-8653919554156518938?l=muslimahinprogress.blogspot.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nancy Qualls-Shehata\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nancy Qualls-Shehata\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/02\/egypt-democracy-islam-revolt.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/02\/egypt-democracy-islam-revolt.html\",\"name\":\"Egypt, Democracy, Islam, Revolt\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-02-07T17:19:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-02-07T17:19:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#\/schema\/person\/6218cbef696f8f6c933831dfcc2096b9\"},\"description\":\"Bismillahi Rahmani RahimSalaam Alaikum wa RahmatullahA religious Muslim, when presented with world events, runs everything through the Muslim filter. This\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/02\/egypt-democracy-islam-revolt.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/02\/egypt-democracy-islam-revolt.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/02\/egypt-democracy-islam-revolt.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Egypt, Democracy, Islam, Revolt\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/\",\"name\":\"Muslimah in Progress\",\"description\":\"I'm an American Muslimah of a certain age with some pretty strong opinions. Feel free to agree or disagree. You won't hurt my feelings.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#\/schema\/person\/6218cbef696f8f6c933831dfcc2096b9\",\"name\":\"Nancy Qualls-Shehata\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1005ec72c60bd66c283862ff890c47ae?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1005ec72c60bd66c283862ff890c47ae?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nancy Qualls-Shehata\"},\"description\":\"Muslimah, wife, mom, writer, dispenser of advice. I have been Muslim for over 20 years and my passion is sharing what I have learned in an effort to dispel the misconceptions surrounding Islam.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.muslimahinprogress.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/author\/nancyshehata\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Egypt, Democracy, Islam, Revolt","description":"Bismillahi Rahmani RahimSalaam Alaikum wa RahmatullahA religious Muslim, when presented with world events, runs everything through the Muslim filter. This","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/02\/egypt-democracy-islam-revolt.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Egypt, Democracy, Islam, Revolt","og_description":"Bismillahi Rahmani RahimSalaam Alaikum wa RahmatullahA religious Muslim, when presented with world events, runs everything through the Muslim filter. This","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/02\/egypt-democracy-islam-revolt.html","og_site_name":"Muslimah in Progress","article_published_time":"2011-02-07T17:19:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/8276196425188955527-8653919554156518938?l=muslimahinprogress.blogspot.com"}],"author":"Nancy Qualls-Shehata","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nancy Qualls-Shehata","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/02\/egypt-democracy-islam-revolt.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/02\/egypt-democracy-islam-revolt.html","name":"Egypt, Democracy, Islam, Revolt","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-02-07T17:19:00+00:00","dateModified":"2011-02-07T17:19:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#\/schema\/person\/6218cbef696f8f6c933831dfcc2096b9"},"description":"Bismillahi Rahmani RahimSalaam Alaikum wa RahmatullahA religious Muslim, when presented with world events, runs everything through the Muslim filter. This","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/02\/egypt-democracy-islam-revolt.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/02\/egypt-democracy-islam-revolt.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/02\/egypt-democracy-islam-revolt.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Egypt, Democracy, Islam, Revolt"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/","name":"Muslimah in Progress","description":"I'm an American Muslimah of a certain age with some pretty strong opinions. Feel free to agree or disagree. You won't hurt my feelings.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#\/schema\/person\/6218cbef696f8f6c933831dfcc2096b9","name":"Nancy Qualls-Shehata","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1005ec72c60bd66c283862ff890c47ae?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1005ec72c60bd66c283862ff890c47ae?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Nancy Qualls-Shehata"},"description":"Muslimah, wife, mom, writer, dispenser of advice. I have been Muslim for over 20 years and my passion is sharing what I have learned in an effort to dispel the misconceptions surrounding Islam.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.muslimahinprogress.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/author\/nancyshehata"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah A religious Muslim, when presented with world events, runs everything through the Muslim filter. This filter often, mostly, okay, pretty much always runs counter to the popular notion of what is good, or is in accord with it somewhat but not completely. \u00a0This is the case as well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n