The Muslim Brothers claim Egypt as Islamist. Their Salafi opponents regard Egypt, without the application of the traditions of early Islam, as only a work in progress. The secular opposition sees in Islamism as a threat to the cosmopolitanism of Egypt. The ultra-Salafis look upon the the ancient Egyptian civilization as pagan and on its great monuments as mere idols. The great community of artists, singers, dancers, opera goers, and film makers see in these cultural buffeting winds the early warnings of a devastating storm.
Within this division, which constitutes cultural chasms, stand three institutions which may ultimately save Egypt from being orphaned. An orphan status is a status where either there are no existing parents, or that parentage is claimed by many parties to the point that the child has no identification of specific parents.
The three institutions which today stand for one identifiable, unified and discernible Egypt which the June 30 uprising (TAMMARODD) threatens to tear asunder, are: The armed forces, Al-Azhar, and the Coptic Church. Each of them has a specific historic role in aborting the cultural orphaning of Egypt. The Coptic Church is more than 2000 years old; the Al-Azhar mosque and Islamic university is more than 1000 years old; and the contemporary Egyptian armed forces are more than 200 years old.
The roles of these three institutions are not only anchored in hundreds of years of national Egyptian traditions. They are also proud of their standing up for Egypt at its hours of peril. The Copts have always stood for the country's independence, and have fought the country's attackers, standing side by side with their Muslim brethren. Al-Azhar was, historically, the launching pad of great national resistance movements, especially as regards western encroachments in the 19th century. And the Egyptian armed forces, in spite of chronic deficiency in armament, have valiantly battled the country's external adversaries, since the dying days of the Ottoman empire.
Here we are talking about tangible institutions. But these institutions are also bolstered by intangible cultural factors. Foremost among these are the nationalist songs which we sang out in formation as primary school students, boys and girls, all over Egypt. In my days at that private school in my hometown of Zagazig, Sharkia Province, called at that time "King Fouad Al-Awwal School," we sang, prior to marching to our classrooms: "Bilady Bilady Fidaki Dammi" (My country, my country, I shed my blood for thee).
Egyptians, rank and file, never tire of repeating what their sages have often repeated. Two religious scholars of the 19th century, have taught them that Islam was a way of life not particular to a geographic area. Sheikh Rifaa Al-Tahtawi and Sheikh Muhammad Abdoh, educated at both Al-Azhar and France, had proclaimed that the practice of morality under Islamic traditions of tolerance is more observed in the non-Islamic west than in the Islamic east. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 is attributed, in part, to the traditional Muslim scholars in Istanbul opposing the training of the Ottoman troops by non-Muslim trainers. And most of the Egyptian banners raised in Tahrir Square during the formative years of the Egyptian Revolution of January 25, 2011 did not proclaim Islamic sayings. On the Egyptian flags, they declared: "I Love Egypt" (Baahibb Massr).
Such built-in safeguards, both institutional and cultural, against the orphaning of Egypt through divisions and fractures, are real protective barriers. Ignoring them might result in an historic infanticide -the death and burial of an infant called "Democracy" in the most populous Arab country -Egypt. Diversity (the elixir of historic Egypt) is all for one. Division (the curse of post-revolutionary Egypt) is one without all.
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