I traveled to Egypt last year. It was a powerful experience. I had conversions with a many struggling Muslim men. I was moved by their shared story. Therefore the uprising or revolution or whatever you want to call what’s happening in Egypt — it’s wonderful to witness, if from afar (I have access to Twitter, facebook, beyond; it’s a civil liberty that is being taken from many people who live in authoritarian states, including Egypt).
The Egyptian people are in a critical position. They need positive change.
More, Western leaders needs to understand and accept the origin of this issue. DNA Memory helps tell the story. Here is an except from my piece about the Israel/Palestinian conflict which goes into detail on how their neightbor, Egypt, plays an important role.
CHAPTER 5
My Palestinian guide in Jerusalem and new friend wasn’t the only Muslim I’ve spent time with. I was honored to make a connection with a few and had serious, meaningful discussion with half dozen Muslim across Israel and Egypt; some of which were or had strong ties with Palestinians.
A month after my trip to Jerusalem I traveled to Egypt seeking to get a sense of Israel’s relationship with its neighbor, to get a broader Muslim perspective of what is happening between Israel and the Palestinians. Plus it was about time that I studied father back in history, ancient Egyptian culture, hoping to find a thread of DNA Memory in tribal people still living in much of the same ways as their ancient forefathers, which I did (though I will save those findings for the next piece, regarding the final leg of the DNA trek to Tanzania, Africa).
I travelled from the Sinai Desert, the Red Sea (the same sea that the original migrating tribes from Africa crossed, expanding from there the human race around the world, or so science says). Then I made my way up to Cairo, father North to Alexandria, the beautiful Mediterranean city infamous for it ancient and more recently, new library. A city and library still shaping minds and alluring a sense of hope for people around the world; Arabs, Muslims central to the cause.
It was a valuable experience. Egypt’s history, like the nation of Israel, is telling; exposing the issues behind the current state of affairs.
Despondently I must announce that modern Cairo, and to a large extent Egypt’s overall heyday, is in the past. Its beauty has a dark shadow looming over the city, becoming darker with that past glory saying goodnight. I’m not sure the locals take notice, but as visitor it’s all I can do to hope Cairo sees another, even brighter clearer day.
When you drive into Cairo you enter a black and white world, all color is lost in the thick pollution clogging the air (offering one of it not the worst air quality in the region), it soon chokes your lungs and adds a dirty film on just about everything, hair, skin, the buildings show each layer. The litter clutters the streets with unemployed and disadvantaged persons. The upper percent are nowhere to be found, outside television and corruption.
I remember a few years ago one of Egypt’s most prominent political dissident and a one-time presidential candidate, Ayman Nour, was unexpectedly released from prison after the United States and European governments had pressed for years to have him set free.
Mr. Nour’s imprisonment ended Egypt’s brief experiment with allowing opposition politics to flourish. His Al Gahd Party had become the only legal opposition with a growing, anti-establishment following. In 2005 Mr. Nour garnered 600,000 votes in his bid for the presidency, placing a distant second behind Mr. Mubarak in a race controlled by the president’s governing party.
Where are the dissident voices of today?
I asked a taxi driver to give me some examples of what President Mubarak had accomplished for his country, how the leadership was working to improve the living conditions and offer more opportunity. The driver looked at me squarely in the rear view mirror, and put his hand over his mouth suggesting it’s not OK to speak his mind.
Enough said, or well, you get the point.
Other people, new friends tried to convince me that I needed more time to see the real Cairo. I accept this, as that is true of my hometown, Los Angeles. But there is a stark contrast between what is visible in Cairo and what is visible in Los Angeles, quality of life indicators that are easy enough to figure out. Plus there is plenty of information online [links added in the footnotes of this essay] that back-up my impressions.
More important and for the sake of this discussion, Egypt bitterly opposed the UN partition of Palestine in 1948 and played an important role in the Arab-Israeli Wars that followed. Even though Egypt has ratified an armistice with Israel, its relations continue to be tense.
This relationship is critical, which is why United States President Barack Obama leveraged Cairo as the location for an important speech on and directed to the Muslim world. He highlighted human rights, taking aim at terrorist organizations that do not represent the majority of Muslims, pledging friendship with true and peaceful Arab and Muslim nations and communities. And though I don’t think he’s lived up, quite yet, to the brilliantly orated rhetoric — he’s saying the right things, he is trying.
“Mutual interests and respect,” central to his point. He sited ancient Islam in educating Europe and having its role in the enviable enlightenment’s. Even though some might contest that our bedrocks of modern academics and scholarship, enlightenment periods and movements, was delivered to the Western world via many ancient sources, some of which were Arab versus Islamic accomplishments.
I argue that is a bewildered battle of disrespect, or so my logic lands because in the history of the world, no cultural or linguistic group looms larger than Semitic peoples. Originating from the Arabian Peninsula, the Semitic people are responsible for the first civilizations, three major world religions, and a set of cultural practices that have been more globalized or universalized than any other peoples, including the Chinese and Europeans.
Therefore my journey into Egypt was needed and made for some interesting conversations in what is assuredly a modern and moderate, yes, I’ll repeat, a moderate Muslim country.
And I’ll preface the following discussions with a fact that the people I spoke to spoke English, and no doubt, that level of education made a huge difference in how people related to me, the United States, the West as a whole, and likely, Israel. I’m not ignorant to this important fact. If I had an interpreter who could help me interview locals in their native Arabic I may be sharing a much different story.
There is an optimistic way to look at this, which of course I have found and will share. English as a universal language has a few, if not many, advantages. There are numerous advantages to having a cultural (such as Hebrew and Arabic) and universal language (such as English).
From Egyptian service workers, to locals on a bus ride to Cairo, to a young man who recently completed his masters in Middle Eastern studies and a manger at one of the finest and oldest hotels in all of Egypt; they told me the same thing, in one-way or another. They were surprisingly consistent though each was an independent conversation.
Those with little education believe everything in the Qur’an and what their leaders told them was “truth.” Those with more education and curious minds believe the overall philosophy behind the Qur’an to be good with “truth” found in a broader message.
It’s their culture and it’s a part of who they are.
About 50% of the Muslim men told me they interpret Jihad as a holy war, one to wage against all the non-believers, but again it was split along educational history with others expressing the views of ‘others’ versus themselves, and each discussion came with a caveat that 100% of them shared, “We do not want war.”
The more educated the person, the more likely they believe that Jihad can have a more peaceful, personal meaning. So maybe you’re realizing something as you read this as I did when I was witness.
Education is critical to peace.
Also the Muslim men I spoke to unanimously said more than anything, that Islam is a culture of good people, and that the radical fundamentalist did not represent them.
The flip side of the story is that Jews are not well liked, in fact, quite misunderstood and frankly, sometimes hated. It’s not a surprise, though very interesting, that the response to my question, “What is your opinion about Israel?” received a primal instinctive quick response. Without much thought each man said something to the affect of, or as one man so aptly replied, “What they are doing to the Palestinians makes me sick to my stomach. If I was there I would kill them.”
Let’s think about this a moment and go back to our survival spectrums. Like the Jews rudely rushing and pushing off the bus, doing whatever it takes to get ahead, these Arab Muslim men have their own idea of what is right and wrong, to do and say. Their attitude is more extreme, shaped over time because of much different factors and variables.
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t wince and have aching empathy when they see oppressed people; the unfortunate results of war. But even so the reaction by Muslims to what is happening in Israel is beyond visceral, it hits them like only horrifying fear can. It’s pure survival instinct. Their DNA Memory is revealed.
The theater of fear, the words and actions of all too many Muslims conjures up that of a character, a book by Jack London named White Fang, a story of a “blessed wolf” whose evolution was absurdly harsh but ends indeed, blessed. It’s a fantastic fictional story that paints the picture of DNA Memory quite well. (I highly recommend the read as a supplement to this zeitgeist and my own coming book.)
Let’s look at the details affecting the Palestinians, many Arabs and Muslims.
A rebellion to colonialism may have more to do with our current state of affairs, than that of Islam. Let’s remember the British occupied the land of Palestine after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and before handing the rights over to Israel.
‘A number of scholars have pointed out that the revolutionary discourse of many modern Muslim leaders has most in common with the ideologies of resistance employed by Third World national liberation and self-determination movements. Khaled Abou El Fadl writes that, “modern nationalistic thought exercised a greater influence on the resistance ideologies of Muslim and Arab national liberation movements than anything in the Islamic tradition. The Islamic tradition was reconstructed to fit Third World nationalistic ideologies of anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism rather than the other way around.”
Before colonialism, authority was acquired by religious leaders in a much more subtle process, and religious leaders who advocated extreme hostility or aggression against the state were usually marginalized. After all, most Muslims did not want to be led into revolution, they simply wanted their lives to be better.’
‘In general, the most successful religious leaders were those who, in addition to serving the spiritual needs of the community, were able to moderate how state power was exercised on ordinary people, and in some sense, acted as intermediaries between the people and state. However, at those times when forces hostile to the practice of Islam attacked or occupied Muslim lands, for example, during the Mongol invasions, (Christian) Crusades, European colonialism, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, meaningful mediation was often impossible.’
‘Many historically Muslim lands have undergone unending turmoil since the beginning of European colonialism.’
That said I’m sure there are some fundamental origins and/or cultural aspects of Islam that may have held them back from being a major player in modern world development, but I think those variables play a much lesser role in the overall current state of affairs. We don’t know what would have happened to the Muslim people if they were the ones forced out of their lands and made to survive in a Western society, benefiting and participating hands-on in worldwide enlightenment’s, being handed sacred territory and funded by super powers to build their own nation.
Which leads us to another important factor: Foreign aid.
A conservative estimate of total direct U.S. aid to Israel is almost $114 Billion. It’s not easy to find foreign aid numbers, or what we offered to Arab Muslim countries (but it is a fact that not a single Arab Muslim country received the substantial aid that Israel received, rather it was more a collective strategy) over the same time period.
To put this in better perspective, let’s look at one year of U.S. foreign aid: 2001.
The top three recipients in 2001 was Israel with 2.82 billion, followed by 2 out of 3 Israeli neighbors; 1.987 billion for Egypt and 0.227 billion for Jordan. To this day a third of all foreign aid goes to Israel Egypt, mostly for armament.
Now let’s consider the relationships with have with these countries. Of course we have close ties with Israel. It’s now one of the most powerful caucus and/or lobbies in the United States. And we’re on decent though sometimes tense terms with Egypt and Jordan, which has something to do with of our relationship/strategy with Israel. We keep dissident Egyptian and Jordanian voices at bay, for the most part, with funding, foreign aid and security.
And of course Egypt is one of our most powerful strategic allies against Iran (a fundamentalist Muslim country which funds terrorist engagement against Israel; and has issues with U.S. allied including Egypt and our other very close allies (militarily, commercially, strategically), the Arab Emirates). Egypt relies on the United States more than ever, for it’s own security. Jordan is benefits as well (interesting factoid: the Academy Award for best picture, ‘Hurt Locker’ was filmed in Jordan).
There are more than a few Arab Muslim countries on our top 10 foreign aid lists but not one equals in funding to the Jewish state of Israel. Also important to note, the Palestinians were not on that top list in 2001.
To play devils advocate or pose the thought, I will ask and answer the following question, ‘Why would the United States fund nations and organizations that are at war with us or our allies — or are dictatorships oppressing their people?’ The answer might be, ‘I don’t necessarily think we should. It’s complicated, no doubt. But nonetheless inaction leads to a death of most relationships, or turns it into an ugly one. We must do something.’
Our lack of care for the general people who don’t fit into our national strategic policy may explain a few things — September 11th 2001 being one of them — not without further logic to round back to the fact terrorism (whoever does it) is plainly evil. And of course the Taliban had it’s own issues, but terrorism was born from the same enemy — oppression, or in this case, likely an attempt at commercial colonization during the Cold War. The mad animal we created, literally trained to kill (however, at the time we helped them fight the Soviets), came after us when it was figured out we didn’t really care about them — we had our own selfish motives.
Western countries have dominated, colonized much of the world, raped and pillaged the land, and only recently (within the last 60-100 years or so, mostly post World War II) removing themselves with a rushed scalpel.
In too many cases this rush to hand over power turned into civil war, not to mention other hurts, such as lingering commercial contracts whereby Western countries still dominate the national resources of post colonized lands with little money put back into the local communities. Instead any shared profits are held hostage within corrupt governments and dictator pockets.
With that understood, the anomaly is blaring.
We didn’t give Palestine back to the local Arabs did we?
No, the British and the equivalent to the UN gave it to the Jews whose rights to the land are religious and/or ancient. The Jews certainly did not, at the time, have the majority demographic in Palestine (some estimated are less than 7-10%).
Yes, the intention was for Palestinians and the new Jewish state to share land and resources, but when that didn’t work, the League of Nations cut loose and ran, sending money to Israel when needed (essentially buying a strategic Middle Eastern ally).
Which makes me think of a saying, “You reap what you sow.” And with that I suggest we’ve seen the harvest of years past. We helped shape the DNA Memory of the groups of people who distrust us.
But the good news is, we can use this theory of DNA Memory to help us communicate our past wrongs, to evolve and made the necessary fixes. My hope is we can be humble enough to say we’re not superior. That we can find smart solutions to prove we want to use our advancement to help others advance as well.
First things first, we need to understand the past to come to terms with and accept the present. Only then can make smart informed decisions that can positively and sustainably impact our future. But it’s clear to me that the Arab Muslims, the Palestinians — the previously colonized world, everyday people need and want aid to take control of their own resources. They want to be in control, not be controlled; to become mutually beneficial partners with the American people.
Though how the foreign aid is managed is a whole other issue, for another time. I’ll cover this in my study of Africa. The question is, are we investing in programs that help 3rd world and developing communities educate their children, adults seeking help — or are we exclusively supporting strategic military, commercial objectives?
What are we harvesting today?
Chapter 6
Let’s wrap up the journey into common ground and get to the conclusion. There is a service worker in Egypt that I keep thinking about. I will share our discussion with you.
I had the habit of taking dinner at the same spot each night. I started to notice that one of the servers was curious about me, so I made eye contact and asked him how he was. He looked happy for the opportunity to talk, ‘I am fine, thank you. Hey, you read a lot, huh? You always have that book in your hand.”
This is how we became friends, with a simple smile and hello, similar to what happened between the Catholic woman and my guide in Jerusalem; two well intentioned people striking up a conversation, having very little in common, but not letting it stop us.
He asked what I was doing in Sinai, the Red Sea. I shared that I was working on a book, researching and study a theory on DNA Memory, but also came to take scuba lessons. He was used to people being there for scuba, clearly, because he smiled and said it’s the best place, “to see colorful fish” (though he’s never taken a dive himself), then jumped into asking me more questions, surprisingly interested in my project, but more that I was American. He wanted some answers.
His honest, curious and overall good nature won me over. He too became a friend. We met over the course of a few nights, after he got off work, spending a couple hours discussing various topics; so I could answer his questions, but of course, because I wanted to understand him as well.
He wanted to know, “Why American movies always depict Muslims as angry and mean?” I explained to him that the U.S. film industry is by no means a real representation of what the people of the United States think and feel, but also said that no doubt these movies affect how people initially respond and/or deal with Muslims. Or in other words, I don’t think all Americans believe Muslims are bad people, but certainly movies certainly have influenced some people to not think and feel for themselves, that this ignorance is shaped and helped by what people see in the news, the wars happening in the Middle East. It’s not easy to keep up with the facts when all you’re hearing is sound bytes and sadly few people read the details in respectful newspapers, because they are trying, as he is, working very hard each day to survive and don’t pay as much attention to issues unrelated to their daily lives. Therefore the stereotypes linger, for all of us.
So I asked him, “Where do you get your news?” He said he went online and read mostly local newspapers. “Do you ever question if the information you getting is correct?” and with that he paused a moment and said, “I don’t know.” Which I replied, “That could be what’s happening in the United State. People don’t always stop and consider that there are a few ways to look at a story, the so called he said, she said and the truth situation.”
He understood this. And we agreed that media is a part of the perception problem.
He wanted to know what I knew about Islam, so I went on to outline the following, “I understand that first came Judaism, then Christianity and that Islam is the most recent of the monotheistic Abraham religions. I know it’s one of the fastest growing religions in the world. I know that Muslims believe Mohammad was their prophet. He was considered a simple man, a shepherd and a merchant. That Muslims believe the angel Gabriel visited him and told him to read. At this point in time he could not read or write, but because it was demanded of him, he did. Much of what is in the Qur’an mirrors the Bible and Torah, or so many historians agree. And like the other monotheistic religions, Islam is based mostly on strong moral, ethical rules and encourages peace and just dealings; but like the other religions, has some dark stories, which could be interpreted in various ways. Islam has no religious establishment — no popes or bishops telling people what to do. Islam also teaches that the earlier scriptures were sometimes lost or altered, and that a final prophet, Muhammad, completed God’s message to humankind and hence the religion of Islam was born. But Islam is an oral tradition and it’s not accepted, as it is with the Bible or the Torah, that it is translated into any language other than the ancient Aramaic. And beyond that the dialect of this ancient language is specific to the land where Mohammed was born, Mecca, therefore any translation can be difficult and may vary wildly. I know that Mecca is also where Mohammed started his infamous journey, ending where the Temple of the Dome currently stands and where Muslims believe he rode his horse into heaven. I understand that traditional Muslims don’t eat pork, similar to the Jews and avoid alcohol as well. I know there are a very large segment of African Americans who are Muslims, which interests me a great deal but that is another analysis for another conversation. I see and hear, via the Minarets, that prayer is scheduled five times a day at 5am, 12pm, 3pm, 5pm and again at 7pm, depending on the position of the sun.”
I could have kept going, but he stopped me and rejoined, “I’m impressed!” and then asked, “What do you think about my religion?”
This was a more difficult question. I told him I was agnostic, adding I had a new definition for that (open, curious, harmonious, but not absolute). And if someone were to look at the spectrum with fundamentalist, zealous religious people on one side and atheists, non-believers on the other side, that I sit somewhere in the middle – of other spectrum — in a different universe. Then I winked. He understood.
I told him seriously that I respected his beliefs, as I respected the beliefs of any persons, whatever they were as long as it didn’t violate basic human and people’s rights. And I recognize some interesting developments such as Muslims in Indonesia who were until recently the World Bank’s model of a Third World country, but has since liberalized its economy and grown at 7% a year for almost three decades. They have embraced democracy — still a fragile experiment — and had elected a woman as its president, though she’s already been voted out, the fact there is regular voting is good.
The problem is that groups advocating violence is spreading and wrecking havoc on what use to be a relatively peaceful Muslim country. These are the issues of concern for me and many other people.
Also, that I am interested how Islam spread around the world, and Indonesian history is of considerable interest because it’s full of contradiction, such as the mix of Islam with Buddhism, and Muslim cross-dressers competing to be crowned Miss Indonesian Transvestite of the year, and also pray in the women’s section of the mosque while wearing the traditional headscarf.
The latter part of that passage made him laugh uncomfortably, a bit surprised. He made it clear he lives in a much different culture, stricter, more traditional.
I pressed, “I do have issues with any absolutist theory, on both sides of the scale. I take issue when someone says they know absolutely, ‘this is truth.’ because, in my opinion, that is a big reason why progress is stunted.”
So I asked him, “Is it true that from a young age Muslims are taught not to ask questions?” He said, “That is true, it’s easier that way.” He and other Muslims explained to me that some religious teaching could be difficult until you learn to have faith. I told him I had an issue with that because, “It teaches behavior that doesn’t inspire the critical thinking needed to move beyond the static, and to evolve.”
He seemed to leave it be, even though he had a perfect chance to tell me other religions do the same thing.
Instead he followed-up with the question, “Do you believe in god?”
I gave him my standard answer, “I don’t know if there is a god. As that ant doesn’t know who I am, doesn’t realize to what extent I exist — that I can’t communicated with it and it can’t communicate with me, though here I am and there it is; I am not so arrogant to believe that there isn’t a power or energy or whatever, something greater than me.”
He laughed and said, “Your mind is big!” to which my reply was, “Shukran! I think…” I said thank you but caught his sense of humor. We laughed.
He didn’t agree with my logic, he did not question my logic. I’m inclined to say he appreciated my agnostic philosophy, because its universal in lacking judgement, but maybe that is wishful thinking.
Something made me feel comfortable with this young man so I decided to change the subject and ask him point blank what he thought about the Jewish race being so incredibly advanced across a variety of disciplines.
His response, “Well, Egyptians are very smart too. We have 4 Noble Prizes,” he said proudly, to which my response was, “Sure, and that is great, but look at the population of Egypt (44 million) compared to the entire Jewish race (13 million)”
I outlined what I thought was the basic and general evolutionary history of the Jewish people (which you already read) and where they are today because of their oppression.
To this he literally took a step back beyond surprised. He had never thought about these things and I could tell he questioned my intentions a bit.
The look on his face could not hide the process going on inside his head, so I added leaning forward, “Now look, I’m not saying this because I think they are a superior. I simply believe they have evolved, and quite interestingly they evolved into this advanced people because of how they were oppressed.”
I explained the big picture or painted the picture, like this.
There are three cousins, Jews, Muslims and Christians.
One cousin, the Jews, can’t own land and is kicked out of his homeland, forced out and into the big bad world, surviving, for the most part, by using his brain, becoming an exceptional problem solver of modern issues, because this is how he made a living and this is what his culture encouraged him to do. This cousin loved his family and his culture and maintained it well, trusting those like him more than anyone else, because, overtime, his oppression gave him trust issues. He harbored a lot of fear because people outside his community didn’t like them and went out of their way to hurt them.
The other cousin, the Muslims, had a much different struggle for survival. He did own land or in fact had a nomadic an/or sedentary life where he and his family and community lived across great landmasses. This cousin had unfortunate and terrible fights with his neighbors for the natural resources of limited land. Plus there were other struggles related to power. The fights continued but for the most part these people lived off the land well enough, building bigger and bigger families, spreading quickly and kept a rather uncomplicated and static life.
Daily struggle for life stayed the same for these two cousins up to the recent modern day. The heyday for both was mostly in the past, until a major change happened.
The Jews, as a group of people, were attack by a horrible agent. Reluctantly a third cousin, mostly Christians, came in to save and protect the Jews. Once the fight was won, the Jews needed a place and time to heal. So the third cousin gave the first cousin land it had been occupying.
The Muslims were living in the area the third cousin was occupying, when all of sudden the third cousin decided to give the land it had occupied, not to the Muslims, but to the Jews.
For reasons the second cousin, the Muslims don’t fully understand, the outside world, mostly the third cousins, seems to favor the first cousin, the Jews taking the land for their own.
Starting a fight, this time between the first and second cousin; the third cousin decided to step out of the arena, though choose to fund one side more than the other.
The anger grows until finally the cousin who never left, the Muslims are screaming to the rest of the world that this is not fair, this land is called Palestine and I am a Palestinian, this is not Israel, this land is not owned by the Jews, you cannot give it to them.
But the Jewish cousin moved in anyway and began to build, and build and build until finally they had one of the most powerful nations in the world. As this happened the Muslim Palestinian cousins quality-of-life deteriorated, and war continued, but now behind occupied territory.
The Jewish cousin believes the land once called Palestine and is now called Israel, is rightfully theirs — so this first cousin starts to use all it’s advanced knowledge of the modern world and uses it against the second cousin. Cutting-edge warfare is waged.
The Muslim Palestinian cousin did not have the advanced tools and weapons like the Jewish people, and feeling angry and desperate did what they could to fight for what they believed. Palestine, in their eyes, is their land, a naturally born right.
From here we see the beginnings of modern terrorism, the cornered tactics of the second cousin, the Muslims – followed by an escaling attack by the Jews; extreme measures are taken to secure the Jewish state.
The war not only continues to this day, it is evolving into something earth shattering.
The result? Palestinians are living in 3rd world conditions. Israel is becoming more and more powerful, but instead of leading peace, it’s approaching a nuclear war — a stand-off with other bigger stronger cousins, Arab Muslim nations, the likes of Iran and Syrian, who are coming to the defense of the Palestinians; and of course when push comes to shove, Western allied nations will come to the defense of Israel. With this, we have the makings, a similar combination of variables and factors that brought about historic World Wars.
I stopped the story here. We sat quiet for a moment.
He broke our silence and said he thought the story “described fairly” what had and is happening.
With a pause I asked him, “So, what’s next?”
He doesn’t know, like none of us know. He said he wants peace. And he did say that Jews and Muslim used to be able to get along and he hopes that can happen again. He told stories of how his Father used to work with Jews, etc.
We sat quiet again.
I was thinking: Where do we find compromise? Who is willing to let go and or give, and of what? How to avoid a 3rd world war?
My new friend was quiet, contemplating the story as well. I could sense he didn’t know what to say.
I decided to change the subject and asked him some personal questions. I knew he was expecting his first child, and sadly his wife was in Cairo, more than 5 hours away. He takes care of his family, like many men do in Egypt, from a distance. He was looking forward to leaving work to make his monthly visit, but his manager was making him stay, even though she was due soon.
I took the opportunity to focus on his child. I said, “Don’t you want a better quality of life for your child?” and to this he was a bit offended, “My family has a good quality of life!”
I back peddled a bit saying, “ Yes, I know, you work hard and support your family. You work 6-7 days a week, all day long, with little break, yes? And he nods his head. “You see your family maybe a few days a month, yes?” He says “That right.” And to be fair, you could say these living conditions are not easy, yes? “We have a simple, happy life,” he replied. Encouraged, I continued, “But doesn’t every parent want a better life for their child?”
He was quiet, again waiting for me to continue, so I expanded the point. “You have a good enough job, so imagine how much harder it is for other families who were not as lucky as yours, or even all the families that are like yours. Are you happy with your educational and health systems, with the pollution that is all around? Do you believe you have the a fair opportunity to better or increase your quality of life?” He finally said, “I understand your point.”
“Look,” I said “The Middle Eastern Muslims and the Jews, Western society too — all can continue or escalate this war, or we can simply understand and accept, with humbling knowledge how we got to this point so – and then move on from the past. There is no going back, we can only move forward. Israel is a powerful economic force, a good though not perfect example of a solid democracy in the Middle East. Why not partner with them? Fight them in the world of public discourse. Demand of them, peacefully, to learn from their own history and to help the Palestinians achieve a healthier, fairer, better quality of life.”
He humored me by continuing to listen, with a friendly smirk on his face so I went on to give examples of how people in 3rd world countries are as capable of producing intellectual results on the scale of the Jewish people in a very short period of time, and in fact this is proven in evolutionary biology (demonstrated exceptional well in Richard Dawkins book, The Ancestor’s Tale).
But I sited President Obama as the best example. I tell him that it was only a couple generations ago that Obama’s grandfather lived in a rural environment, living as a local leader, yes, but a uncomplicated one, a shepherd. Not that there is anything wrong with that, the point is, it’s possible to make the leap, in a few generations, to be the President of the United States of America.
He liked this idea, but said, “I am a simple man, a holy man. I can’t change my country. I must take care of my family. It’s expensive to have a family. I must work.” And with this my reply was, “Well somebody needs to make a stand. If the United States never had Martin Luther King, we wouldn’t have a President Obama. There must be a Muslim somewhere in the Arab world who is thinking about these things, taking a lead for peace, willing to accept a two-state solution with Israel, focusing demands on equal opportunity, access and use of natural resources?”
We discussed this a bit more to no avail. This person does not exist yet, apparently. So I told him about my Muslim friends in the United States, that I’m impressed in what they are able to balance. They are excelling, living in the upper percept of society while also being 100% dedicated to their religion and culture, Arabic language as well as English. And they certainly accept and understand many different groups of people. The proof is in their friendship with me.
We went back and forth on more cultural issues; what he says are the “Misunderstandings,” in regards to woman and more. I promised I’d read more about it, and have. Just as it’s true we have various breeds, so to say, of each religion. It’s true that those breeds have different ways of treating woman. He is on the moderate side of the spectrum. And although I agree now more than ever that most Muslim women are not treated poorly, I pushed a little bit more, “I believe, and Obama mentioned in his discussion in Cairo, that woman are critical to the overall development of Muslim communities, which means they too require the best of educational opportunities.” He didn’t think his wife needed to go to college so we rested the topic.
He wrapped up our question and answer series with the most challenging question.
“Do you believe in destiny?”
I went into a moment of thought remembering my last day in Jerusalem and taking into consideration his question with an unfortunate reality. It’s the fundamentalists that make a two-state and peaceful agreement between Israel and Palestinians difficult, not the everyday people I’ve spent time with.
Chapter 7
I had a chance meeting with another writer, while standing in line, again, to get up to the Temple Mount. I planned to meet my guide friend there for our last day together, though got delayed in a very slow moving line.
“Do you know when they close the Temple Mount?” I was a bit startled when this question was directed to me because I was lost in thought after standing quietly in line for so long, I respond slowly, “No, sorry I don’t, but I know we have only a brief time to walk the grounds before prayer begins again.” He looks at me for a second, then questions, “Where you from?” Again the question and answer series begins, the discussion continues.
He’s from Los Angeles too. Also writing a book, though his is about the Bible. He believes he can prove, more than ever, that the Bible is 100% accurate, that each word is the perfect word of God. And he’s been studying the Hebrew text, which he says is the only believable version (though he uses a translation tool), which he’s discovered outlines an exact map to various biblical events. That is why he’s in Jerusalem. I’m guessing this newly understood map is what his book is all about, but he doesn’t want to say.
Our conversation continues through the security line, which is nice, because it help speed up time.
As we broke free from the prolonged process he started to walk fast, expecting me to listen and follow, so I did, and we end up, funny enough, right where my Muslim friend, my guide took me the first time, where we made our prayer for peace.
He said, in quite clear enough terms that their will be a 3rd world war, that the Jewish people will build a 3rd Temple, as the Bible says, on the same spot the current Temple of the Dome stands. He made sure I understood, that “The Bible must be 100% accurate, because if not, it is 100% wrong.”
This man reminded me (to be fair he said he was not religious, neither Jewish nor Muslim nor Christian, however, he did put all his faith in the Bible; he also plans to teach his new findings in Christian schools) the dangerous nature of zealous belief, of fundamentalism — no matter what religion is comes from.
If we’ve learned anything we’ve learned that thoughts can manifest into action.
It was the first time on this journey where I felt like hope was fading because an absolute point of view is hard to penetrate with fresh logic.
This righteous man realized at some point in our conversation that I wasn’t talking or responding beyond nods and facial expressions. Signalling enough to let him know I was interested for him to keep talking. I want to hear his story.
He was so different from the Catholic nun, my Muslim guide and Egyptian friend; the other people I had the pleasure to spend time with in the Old City and beyond, who dismissed these choice of absolutist words, instead preferring or focusing on the desire for peace.
Anyways, this man began to catch on and suddenly stopped, looked at me with a funny gaze and said, “I don’t know why I’m talking to you. I’ve been coming to Jerusalem a few times a year and never tell people these things.” I said in response, “I don’t know why either, but I was listening.”
And I did.
He had strong negative thoughts about the Muslims, believing their religion was made-up and straight-up, wrong. That Jews and Christian have it right, for the most part. He questioned everybody that didn’t believe 100% in the Bible.
I didn’t know what to say in response. I believe this man is dangerous for his total lack of tolerance or willingness to let go in order for all of us to live and let live.
I told my new friend this story, the service worker in Egypt. I explained to him that this Christian-non-Christian man or whatever he was, this man I met who spoke about 3rd World War has an “absolute faith.”
So I answered my new friend, his question if I believe in destiny with the following answer.
“I rather believe that each of us controls our destiny. And my hope is most of us want and can achieve peace, a more sustainable healthy environment for us all.”
CONCLUSION
I understand why Christopher Hitchens takes the position religion is abhorrent. When you look at the details laid out in his smart-alec book, God is not Great (the same book I was reading and finished in Egypt when the server caught my eye), you get a sense of where his bad attitude comes from; a humanist who’s been very hurt and is confused, ever questioning why people need religion.
Honestly, I can relate to that.
It’s not easy to be optimistic, from a historic, human and people’s rights point-of-view, to be tolerant of fundamentalist. It’s not easy when you see the damage being done, how the saga continues, history repeating itself and the DNA Memory being compounded by the oppressed and oppressing isn’t helping, but rather hurting all of us.
But when you start to understand and accept DNA Memory you may realize there is a reason why people are the way they are, good-bad-or-indifferent. You can start to see the depth required of reason, as well; that it is not so plain to see the how and why. Thankfully the logic beyond DNA Memory has broad power.
Therefore pointing figures and telling people they are wrong or bad is not only insulting, it’s futile; more, historically doesn’t work to inspire personal change or an evolution of thought of a group of people.
So where I disagree with atheists, folks like Mr. Hitchens (though I have much respect for the likes of Richard Dawkins and recommend many of his books) — and on the other end of the absolutist debate — the Christian-non-Christian writer that I met in Jerusalem and other zealous fundamentalist — is what I’m realizing my project, Zoe Bios, is partially though profoundly about.
Zoe Bios offers a fresh definition on what it means to be agnostic, going beyond belief, becoming a viable philosophy on human and social relations. This theory of DNA Memory is an evolution of past thinking, and maybe a tool for a new enlightenment. And I’m taking this bold position because I think it could have a revolutionary affect.
It’s time the secular world stepped in again. We have an obligation.
Also, and in terms of this case study of Jewish and Muslim DNA Memory; we like to say, “Home is where the heart is.’
Well in this version of this heart felt story I see the Middle East beating strong. Its pulse is throbbing, felt around the world. But it’s been working too hard for too long, it’s struggling to survive. It’s critical state is such if doesn’t heal the consequences will be dire, for the whole, all of us. To get real, we can’t afford (if only monetarily, though there is much more to consider) to let this situation worsen. This may come-off dramatic, but I honestly believe we’re at a critical point, a junction in history.
I’ve learned along this DNA trek that many if not all things are somewhat connected. Israel is a cross section of ancient, post modern and cutting-edge. For me, it feels like home – like many of the places that I visited on my DNA trek, this journey into common ground. It’s about the people, all of them, as much as the land and it’s reflections. But it’s not only me that is connected. The majority of the modern world is.
I didn’t know where this DNA trek would take me, but it’s becoming clearer now.
Can we change the nature of the battle: to use DNA Memory to fight for a universal understanding of different religions, as we support different cultures and lifestyles. Can we educate our kids, adults who seek help – accept them as they come. Can we empower those who are willing to help the cause; shifting the battle to understanding and acceptance, to fight corruption, to encourage participation. Can we embrace, into prosperity, those who are like us, pursuing happiness.
Notice these are not questions, rather statements, or a call to action; because inaction is not an option. We need enlightened new choices.
It’s in our own best interests to put people in 3rd world environments and development countries on a level playing field, teach them critical thinking. Let them control their own destinies. It’s the best investment towards peace, and a broader competitive economy.
This is the long view, which only works if we start, preferably as soon as possible. Our foreign aid must match our desired outcome.
The short-term fight is for a transparent democracy and a free open media, again to educate the masses, give them the tools to take the battle to their local arena.
This is why I support Israel (not because of the less than 5% Jewish blood I may have) — but I do put immense pressure on my dear Jewish friends, to go beyond a nation, to help others in need, to be a role model and a hub for development across the Middle East; to heal themselves of the disease of war, because they are more than capable and therefore have a responsibility. No more occupation and oppression.
And these same principals guide me and are the reason why I support and am a friend of the Muslims. I hope they find a revolutionary leader, the likes of Martin Luther King, to lead them into a peaceful mutually beneficial two-state solution, a fresh relationship with Israel and the rest of the world. To evolve into the modern way of life, in a way that makes sense for them, and take their rightful blessed place at the round table.
Yes, it is my opinion and I believe the evolution of these groups of people, especially in Israel and surrounding Arab Muslim developing communities might make the biggest difference in the overall quality of life around the world, a positive tipping point (because we can put our foreign aid to better use).
Easier said than done. OK, but universal understanding and acceptance is the first step. DNA Memory can help us get to that starting point. Then one step leads to another – that is, dare I say, how this works.
Cheers to that. Or as I like to say with friends in celebration of a cherished moment, our split seconds in history, ‘– to the good life, however you define it.”
