Sahar El-Nadi – Guest Blogger, MindfulofDreams.com
Since the first day I set foot in Tahrir during the revolution, I got addicted to the unique community feeling with fellow Egyptians. It’s transformational to experience the instant bonding with warm, smiling strangers from social levels I don’t get to meet in my everyday life; all of them open to friendly chat and behaving like one huge family.
That’s why I woke up at dawn on Election Day in anticipation of the experience, and to get a foothold in a mile-long line of women, who turned that dull winter morning into a kaleidoscope of styles and colours.
As I write this, it is estimated that 75% of the total voters actually turning up at the ballots, and some polling stations reportedly received 100% of their voters. An astonishing portion of those impressive numbers women voting for the very first time!
You’d probably think that parliamentary elections are just a boring political process, but not in Egypt. Trust Egyptians to turn any gathering into a fun social occasion, elections included.
The huge u-shaped line of voters made it clear we’d be waiting endlessly. But no one seemed to mind. In fact, the women seemed to be enjoying every minute of the 4-hour wait and they buzzed with excited conversations. Everyone cheerfully talked with everyone, no barriers between mansion owners and those who cleaned their fancy cars.
Female political activists are still a minority in Egypt, but female voters have proved in the past few days to be a political power to recon with, although they’re still amateurs at that game.
I decided to pass the time interviewing the women around me to gain new insights on why they came and which candidates they support. As a bonus, I ended up learning unexpected things from the chatter around me: from Photoshop tips, to cooking tips; and from car-theft protection, to relationship advice.
Some underprivileged women said they came to throw out the former NDP thugs, and vote instead for those who helped them and cared for their problems: the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis. On the other hand, some social butterflies were voting for the liberals in fear of losing their bikinis and their sunset cocktails if the “Islamists” ruled.
Some mothers in their 50’s and 60’s were voting for the revolutionary youth they referred to as their “children”, and girls who had just turned 18, legal voting age in Egypt, were there simply because they could. They came in their colourful clothes and glossy make up and giggled as they changed their minds last minute about their candidates under peer pressure.
One thing that really interested me was the “Queue Culture”: that social voting atmosphere which only existed in the women’s lines, turning them into inclusive social clubs.
Poor women were amused that privileged women were so excited about the novelty of standing in a long line and socializing, they explained that they wait patiently in endless lines everyday to buy almost anything from bread to train tickets, and they had to multi-task as they waited. Quickly, their “queue culture” rubbed off on everyone.
A “public information” system formed along the queue so the women at the head of the line could pass on updates of the electoral process to the rest of us. Those who voted didn’t go home, they stayed to socialize and volunteer for “delivery service”. They collected orders and went to the corner shop to buy phone cards, snacks and water for the voters standing for hours. Girls with smart phones were going on Twitter and Facebook to send and receive updates and pass on the news to those around them. Older women chatted on their mobile phones to their friends who were also waiting to vote in other districts and compared experiences.
Some of the most interesting conversations were about the candidates we were supposed to be electing into parliament. Women were not only evaluating political orientations and candidate programs, but they also applied another uniquely female scale of assessment: the same one used by fans discussing rock stars.
Young, novice politicians had sprouted all over the country after the revolution. Some of them are articulate and philosophical while others are energetic and rebellious. Since then, public interest shifted overnight from Amr Diab’s latest rock concert to adoring Amr Hamzawy instead, a long-haired, causally dressed 40’sh professor of political science. He’s the new heartthrob in town with an ever-expanding female fan club ushering him into parliament.
Young women have even turned away from movie stars; rather than Adel Emam and Tamer Hosny, they now rush to reserve seats in Mostafa Hegazy and Moataz Abdel Fattah’s public lectures instead. Both are professors of strategic politics.
As I tried to raise awareness among female voters on how to choose their candidates, I was surprised by a surreal experience: some only wanted to know whether some good-looking candidates were single; a case of female instincts overshadowing political participation.
But what really mattered in the end is that regardless of all the hurdles, including our political inexperience, we have finally managed to vote, and everyone enjoyed the experience and would happily participate again.
I have no doubt that women’s involvement in shaping Egypt’s political future is a priceless gain of the revolution. It’s certainly going to be one very interesting parliament, with an unexpected collection of candidates inside, and millions of Egyptian women outside, following each candidate’s every move, learning to use their keen feminine scrutiny to monitor politicians and change history, one lengthy Facebook chat at a time.
See: Huffington Post: Egyptians Brave Long Lines for First Free Elections (Video)
“They’ve shown tremendous awareness of what it means to pursue a democracy. They’ve shown the nuance and the sophistication of understanding that there’s a difference between toppling a regime, and that’s one thing, and then erecting a democracy, and that’s a whole other thing,” he said.
Ahmed Rehab is a civil rights activist, columnist, media commentator, and social entrepreneur. 
Let’s Face it: It’s the Radical Right, not Islam, that is the Greatest Threat to the American Way
Imagine if the absence of characters “whacking knee caps” and “making offers you cannot refuse” was deemed as an “omission” and therefore pro-Italian propaganda, and as a result too controversial to sponsor.
Pathetic? Incredulous?
Well imagine no more.
Such is the pitiful state that Islamophobia has reached in this country, and it’s very real.
All-American Muslim is an American reality show like any other. It portrays the trials and travails of five Michigan families with typical reality show themes like marriage, birth, business, faith, food and of course drama queens.
There is one problem however, at least for the Florida Family Association: the characters in the show are American Muslims.
The Florida Family Association got its members to send in dozens of emails to the show’s advertisers based on a pre-written template that stated in part:
So basically, their objection is that the show is portraying “ordinary Muslims” as – you may need to sit down for this – “ordinary Muslims”! Of course this runs the risk that unsuspecting Americans may come to view their ordinary Muslim neighbors as ordinary. According to this Florida group of nuts, this would be a travesty that American corporations must not contribute to.
We are more or less used to the unfortunate fact that there are anti-Muslim loons lurking about out there. There’s the burn-a-Quran-day pastor from Florida, there’s the group from Florida that tried to ban a Muslim professor from the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission because he was Muslim, and there’s that guy who tried to organize against Muslim family day at a Six Flags Texas theme park in Texas. Yes, yes, he was from Florida.
But what is real cause for alarm is the creeping influence of Islamophobia into mainstream American politics and culture. From the Peter King radicalization hearings that use taxpayer funds to put mainstream American Muslims and their institutions on mock trial, to the frequent anti-Muslim rantings of the Congressman from Florida, Allen “Islam is not really a religion” West all the way to presidential hopeful Newt “Palestinians don’t really exist” Gingrich. And now, we have the weak-kneed primetime corporate sponsors.
That a group of extremists from Florida would exercise their first amendment right to carry out bigoted campaigns is unfortunate but not all that shocking. That 65 out of 67 advertisers (according to the Florida Family Association’s website of which only Lowe’s is independently confirmed) would capitulate to their nonsensical complaints that “ordinary Muslims are being portrayed as ordinary” is an alarming new milestone in the mainstreaming of bigotry in this country. For that reason, it ought to catch the attention of Americans who, for far too long, have stayed on the sidelines of the Islamophobia horror picture show.
Lowe’s admitted that they cut their ads short as a result of the emails they were receiving and after reviewing some websites and blogs out there (in the “bigotosphere”). Lowe’s is not just a “tool” in the hands of the far right, it’s the entire hardware store.
What Lowe’s is essentially saying by choosing to pull its sponsorship is that NOT portraying American Muslims as terrorists is just, well, too controversial for its brand:
Lowe’s is putting forth a very dangerous argument: that the far right bigots and the mainstream Muslim voices with their pro-tolerance allies of all faiths are equal opposites; that those who wish to humanize a faith community that comprises 25% of humanity and those who wish to demonize them are equal opposites; that the forces of bigotry and the forces of anti-bigotry are equal opposites. The pervasive assumption that there is a moral equivalency between the two sparring sides is a major factor in the rise of Islamophobia in the US. But Lowe’s goes further than to claim moral equivalency. It actually takes sides, the wrong side: the side of the bigots.
The running complaint used to be that Muslims are always portrayed as terrorists. But now, the message being sent is that “not portraying American Muslims as terrorists” is sufficient for complaint and controversy. It’s moving the goal posts to a dangerous new “lowe”.
There are three lessons to be extracted from this episode:
First, it is a confirmation of what we have been stating all along: Islamophobia is not merely a reaction to terrorism or radical ideologies (which would have been a welcome exercise), but, in fact, it is a form of bigotry that targets an entire faith community: the religion of Islam itself and its mainstream practitioners.
Second, Islamophobia is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s sort of like “we hate you because you are terrorists, but when you’re not terrorists, we want you to be terrorists so we can hate you.” In the case of American Muslim leaders and organizations, the line is “we hate you because you are terror-linked, but when you’re not, we need you to be terror-linked so we can hate you.”
Third, Islamophobia is but a smokescreen, a projection of sorts. We are often told that Muslims are trying to Islamize America and institute Islamic Shariah law (“Sharrorize” America as Imam Suhaib Webb puts it). We are told that the less than 1% of American Muslims is but a fifth column who is here to take over and subjugate the remaining 99% plus. Setting aside the obvious ludicrousness of the claim for a second, ask yourself when was the last time American Muslims organized to pull advertisements off the air from shows that do not conform with their faith values (and trust me there are many)? Our organizing campaigns are themed around anti-bigotry and social justice, not the imposition of our faith.
To the contrary, it is the Christian right, the same folks who comprise many of the leading anti-Muslim alarmists, groups like the Florida Family Association (and trust me there are many) that are time and again organizing to force their way of thinking on other Americans. A quick visit to their website shows that this is not the first time they have successfully harassed advertisers for advertising on shows that do not conform to their ideology. They’ve targeted gays, sexually liberal shows, and others they disagree with.
It is not a coincidence that the organized Islamophobia networks in this country often include the same people who are trying to force-feed the Bible into government, schools, and public life.
And so comes the most important realization:
The organized American Muslim community’s agenda is in fact a social justice agenda. Any objective scrutiny of our organizations, campaigns, projects, and discourse reveals that this is widely and consistently the case.
On the other hand, as I already mentioned, you will find that it is it is none other than the far right that is out to force their narrowly conceived socio-religious ideology and way of life on Americans.
They conveniently promulgate the whole Islamist supremacist takeover fantasy and the Shariah scare as a divergence, a distraction, a smokescreen.
Projection is the name of the game.
They often use soft namesakes like “family” and “freedom” to give the impression of docility, and they inundate their websites and blogs with American flags and eagles to give the impression that they are the tried and true patriotic Americans who are best poised to speak for the majority.
They are not the majority, but they are not less than 1% either. They are in the millions, have access to billions of dollars, and have sufficiently organized at both the grassroots level and onas well as the internet in recent years to start to flex some muscle. (It is often stated that if fascism were to ever come to America, it would be wrapped in the US flag and bearing a cross.)
There is a ray of light. More Americans are beginning to wake up to the Islamophobia disease and the attempts at divergence from the real threat to our freedoms and democracy.
A year ago, the scorching Park51 controversy, while contrived and sensationalized at the end of the day, failed to impress the media or the public. In the case of the Lowe’s controversy, Americans are joining hands in speaking out against bigotry. Muslim, Catholic, and Jewish groups, as well as notable individuals, including 2010 Spirit of Anne Frank awardee Anya Cordell, California State Senator Ted Lieu, music mogul Russell Simmons, actress Mia Farrow, and several other celebrities, have come out strongly to say “enough is enough.”
For Lowe’s and other companies that gave in to bigotry, the choice is simple: own up to your error and do the right thing – or risk being chalked up on the wrong side of history (not to mention the wrong side of an impending boycott). Their motto is “let’s build something together.” Well how about some backbone for starters?