Egyptian Police Arresting Those Who Publicly Breakfast During Ramadan: Frown or Jail?

I am deeply troubled by the Egyptian police going around arresting people who publicly breakfast during the day in Ramadan. Please don't get me wrong. I love traditions and I want everyone, or almost everyone, to be a part of them if possible. I love Ramadan, although my waking and sleeping schedule is radically disturbed by it. I enjoy Eid, although I seem to put on a few kilos every Eid. A few kilos which I never seem to be able to shed after Eid. I am fond of Christmas and used to dress up as Santa Claus myself. I adore Shemu, an ancient Egyptian Tradition of celebrating Easter, which we now call Sham El Nessim and I even like to paint the eggs and eat salted fish and fresh onions in spring celebrations.

I believe that in a society where most people fast, it would be courteous of those who do not fast to keep a low profile. Be mindful of those who do. I think of this as a form of social courtesy, kind of an extension to the "being nice to your neighbor" creed sort of thing. Yet, I am deeply disturbed by actions of the Egyptian police and not only because there is no law to support their self-appointed role of now enforcing a certain social behavior. It just reminds me of the Saudi Mutawwa, or religious police.

So, although I would just love it if most of us, even all of us, joined in the celebration of the social events and feasts related to our heritage, Muslim, Christian and Egyptian, I still find it unacceptable to enforce this by law.

To be truly honest, I am not the least bit offended by those who don't join in celebration or those who eat publicly while others fast. But that's just me. Living in a conservative society which has recently been swept by symptoms of religious hysteria, I can understand that there would be quite a few people who may be offended by those publicly breakfasting during the days of Ramadan.

But being lightly offended is something, yet demanding the arrest and punishment of those who break the social code is another. This is what it is all about, really. Pressures of social conformity and anger at those who do not conform. It has nothing to do with religion, because religion is a personal, and not a social thing. Only God can judge people for not praying or fasting, but in our case society is playing God. Society wants to punish those who do not conform.

I am most troubled by those supporting these unlawful arrests saying that it will bring order to our streets and preserve social harmony. To those I ask a simple question.

Do you believe, that those who do not in fact, celebrate the same social events as you, by observing fasting, or some other religious or social tradition, should be arrested for this?

Please think carefully now. I am not asking you if you like it when they breakfast publicly, I am asking you if you think that they should be arrested for breaking fast publicly. I ask everyone of those supporting punishment, have you always observed every tradition without exception and never done anything that would part from those traditions in your life? In these instances, where you were naughty and broke the traditions, do you think that you should have been jailed if you were caught?

OK, maybe you have always observed the traditions. So, let me ask you in a different way.

We want our children to be nice and mindful of our traditions. Most of us do. I am sure it will help them be socially popular for that. It may impede them in some other areas of personal growth, creativity and critical thinking, but I must admit that they will probably be more socially successful if they did that -- i.e., observe all or most of the socially accepted traditions.

Now the question; if they, our children, your children, broke some social traditions once or twice what do we do with them? I realize that it may not be nice and could in fact be seen as anti-social to do that. But, for breaking social tradition, without physically causing damage to anyone, do they deserve, in your opinion to be arrested? Do you agree that your loved ones should be arrested on such charges? Sort of "let them suffer, that should teach them a lesson"? A lesson of what exactly? Hypocrisy?

Or do you prefer to live in a more tolerant society, where those social-code-breakers, who could very well be your relatives or loved ones, those who occasionally or even frequently ignore the social traditions, without really causing any serious physical harm to anyone, would be just frowned upon by those offended? Yes, be frowned upon - and possibly punished in some social ways, like for instance, that those most offended will not invite them to the next party or would refrain from befriending them -- yet, they will be tolerated -- their rights and freedoms respected? Remember, some of us, those who are most deeply hurt by this mindfulness, will still punish them, in personal ways. They will not only frown at them, but they will also vote for someone else, should those naughty ones decide at some point in the future to run for mayor or some other public office.

Again, I am not asking you to like what they do; I am asking you a totally different question. I am asking you if you believe that they should be arrested. Lose their freedom even for a few hours for publicly breaking fast during the days of Ramadan.

So, what should it be?

Frown or Jail?

Tolerance ... or coercion?

A moderate society or a tightly governed one where laws and jail are used to enforce social behavior in matters which are widely considered well within the domain of personal freedom?

Now, what shall it be?

:::

"I am not asking you to be exactly like me. I am asking you to stop forcing me to be exactly like you."

Follow Wael Nawara on Twitter: www.twitter.com/wnawara

Comments

[Macready]

there is another issue that might be affecting Egyptian tolerance in Luxor . . . the new mayor is tearing down old Luxor . . . he is trying to turn it into a horrible disneyland kind of place . . . they have already torn down so many buildings and hotels . . . and most of Gurnah is gone . . . people like me who go to Luxor every year .. are not happy and neither are the people of Luxor and it is going to create huge social problems . . . developers, bureaucrats, architects and bankers do the world over when they start these kinds of problems . . they destroy communities and in Luxor the balance is fragile . .. .it is already creating friction between tourists and Egyptians . . .

the rumours are horrible . . . that they plan to get rid of all the papyrus factories on the Gurnah Road, they want to get rid of the restaurant just outside Medinet Habu . . why . . . spend 3 hours in Medinet Habu and you run to that restaurant for something to drink . . .

the new shops at Karnak are too expensive to rent and who wants them anyway . . .

better to build a railway line to Hughada and let leave the buildings and the people of Luxor continue the way they always have . . . that is why people like me go there

[Wael Nawara]

Many things done under the name of development end up destroying centuries-old communities and heritage. The super-structures are taking over our villages, towns and cities. I am not fully aware of the situation in Luxor but I have witnessed these monstrousities everywhere destroying natural beauty and upsetting delicate balance, environmental, social and psychological. I used to go to Sharm Sheikh when it was "undeleveloped". We used to camp on the beach or stay in one of the small hotels at Ne'ama Bay.

Now Ne'ama Bay has hundreds of hotels, restaurants, shops and malls - and a sprawling economy. I can not deny the economic advantages, but ... I can not help it but remember the beauty and serenity and natural harmony of the old Sharm.

[Macready]

I am surprised to hear this . . . I was in Luxor last year during Ramadan . . . I asked my Egyptian friends about drinking water and they said that was ok . . . they just warned me to be careful when I smoked because some poor guy might get upset because he wouldn't be able to smoke until after sunset . . . when I ate I ate at the hotel pool . . . out of respect for my Egyptian hosts . . .

I agree with Wael Nawara . . . unfortunately there are fanatics everywhere and more and more their numbers seem to be growing . . . . it is definitely a bad trend . . . and lest we forget fundamentalism started in the US . . . America sure does start some pretty awful trends . . . the latest in the American fundamentalist mode is that no US film distributor has taken the movie about Darwin . . . seems as though the creationists won't like it .. . our founding fathers must be spinning in their graves

[Wael Nawara]

Most Egyptians are OK when others - specially foreigners, I must add - would eat while they themselves are fasting. A minority of fanatics, however, can and do poison the whole climate by strict extremist interpretations, fatwas and behaviors.

And as you say, Fanaticism is sweeping our world. It is not just in Egypt, Saudi or Pakistan, but you can see it in the US, Israel and even Europe. I heard that in some States in the US they even try to change the Educational Curriculum removing scientific theories about Evolution for instance.

We need to rid ourselves of Fanaticism. I am not opposed to any religion but there must be a limit to how religious fanatics can be allowed to control our lives and spread intolerance using coercion in propagating their personal life-styles, beliefs and traditions by force upon everyone else.

[duxguts]

Egypt, isn't that another one of those repressive societies that we give money to every year?

[Wael Nawara]

I Often hear this comment when something negative is broadcast about Egypt. Should the US and EU continue to provide financial aid to Egypt? And what is the best way to do that?

I think it is fair to ask these questions and wonder if aid money in the past was spent to achieve mutual interests, or went down the drain, or worse, was siphoned by corrupt officials and used to further entrench repressive regimes.

I personally think that a Strong, Democratic, Prosperous Egypt is essential for regional peace, stability and world peace at large. How to reach these goals is a different question. Whether Financial Aid is sufficient or working and how it is best spent requires major re-thinking between Egyptians and other friendly nations which see it in their best interests to help.

Financial Aid backed by Good intentions alone is not sufficient to ensure success.

[LMPE]

The fundamentalist Christians in the US love it when governments seek to impose religious law on everyone.

[Wael Nawara]

It is the same everywhere. Fanatics want to force everyone else to following their religious traditions by coercion, fines and detention if necessary. Saudi Arabia has an active religious police of Mutaww'een which used to enforce certain dress code on women, force shops to shut down during prayer time and so on. But in Egypt we never had this before. This is a bad sign. I hope it does not turn into a trend.

thanks for your comment.