Our Act Tank
10% can go a long way. We want to make it go even further.
As the next step towards what it is we want to accomplish here at One Arab World we are founding an “Act Tank” in Cairo. In an obvious sense of the term this Act Tank will act as both a think tank and a grass roots activism organization combined. We are going to first determine the problems we face, figure the most effective way to counter the problem; how best to approach a solution within the means we have, then actually go out and implement; hands dirty.
One of the companies I founded and chair has graciously agreed to direct 10% of all its net proceeds towards our Act Tank.
We’ve got several projects on our roster ; each person on our committee (5) has a baby. Here is mine.
I am one of few that believe that Egypt’s largest problems aren’t governmentally related; not even religious. In one of our debates here the question of Islamic reformation was met by a very interesting reply. “It is not Islam that needs reformation, it is Muslims that need reformation.”
I found that very interesting and I took it and applied it to our other notorious sectors. Politics, business, development…ect.
How far we can get on what we have is more important than how much more we can get.
So here it is.
I believe that one of, not Egypt’s, but Egyptians worst setbacks is a phenomenal increase in intolerance. I am fairly young but I am certainly old enough to see that phenomena grow. Christians, the white man in general, Shia/Sunni, gulf Arabs,…..ect. and of course… The Jew.
It’s bad for morality, business, and growth and it’s got to end. Here is what we are going to do; and as with any good plan it is simple as hell.
Analysis; It is easy to demonize something or someone you’ve never met (There are reportedly 38 Egyptian Jews left in Egypt and while I cant back this up with real statistics I would bet my life that not more than 1% of Egyptians have ever actually met a Jew). Solution; Met some Jews.
Implementation;
Step One, “Meet your Cousin”: Fly some Jews in from around the world (maybe five or six), hold a two day conference at a university, pack the hall with a bunch of curious Egyptian students, have the guests tell everyone about their lives, what they do, their political inclinations, their families, their beliefs, and so on, Q&A then refreshments.
I just got off the phone with a good friend of mine that was on my Thesis Committee (A 75 Year Urban City Plan for Jerusalem). He is the Rabbi of the third oldest congregation in America. He liked the idea a lot and is not only willing to help but thinking of coming himself. If anyone else would like to come or help shoot me an email.
Step Two, “The Pioneer Program”: Following in the footsteps of a very courageous idea, we are going to begin funding the temporary swap of Arab and Israeli bloggers… Let me explain. Rabbi Belzer is the founder and vp of an organization in Ireland that brings Palestinians and Israelis together to develop understanding… a beautiful objective.
This is like that on steroids. We are going to send Arab bloggers to Israel and Israeli bloggers to Arab countries to blog. When you do that you don’t just send the blogger ; you send his or her entire readership. Same amount of money, much bigger impact. I think we can fund a trip a month once we get started.
We are aiming to start before the end of the year (founding a NGO in Egypt is a ton of fun) but if you are interested start emailing us. For the bloggers thing we are going to be looking very heavily at stats.
If we don’t make an effort we are going to keep tightening the constraints on what it means to be us till there is no one left but you and your brother… not even your cousin.
I do have a couple in mind already though ;)
- Karim Elsahy
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This is a good idea.
But I fear most questions asked will be about Palestine, and probably not about real events that actually happen(ed) there.
Perhaps these students should be prepared, like told to only ask questions about events they can reference in western or Israeli newspapers rather than word of mouth? I am being serious here.
But I like the general idea. Good luck!
And I think you are right. It will help Egypt in the long run, perhaps quicker. (Comment this)
I can’t tell you how excited I was when I read your post! The problem however is the anti-normalization discourse which is so abundant in Egypt; the Coptic pope has forbade any followers of the Coptic Church from entering Palestine because of the belief that a visit to Gaza and the West Bank is tantamount with recognition, legitimization, and approval of the Israeli occupation; I think several members of Al Azhar also agree- so anyhow, I think as a first step, this mode of thinking needs to change.
Secondly, you should contact Seeds of Peace, it’s a camp which works primarily with youth for that a similar cause.
Third, I think that those who travel should also be given internship opportunities in whatever field they work in, on the condition that they work with both Israeli’s and Palestinians, i.e. if someone has teaching accreditation, they should work part time at Hand in Hand, (Hand in Hand is a private school recognized by the Israeli Ministry of Education. To date, there are 676 students, divided between nursery school and elementary school: students have doubled in just the past two years and last fall, 120 enrolment requests had to be turned down on account of a lack of space. The school is located in three branches: in Jerusalem, in Galilee and in the Arab village of Wadi Ara. And in the next five years, in consideration of catering to all the demands, ten new schools are expected to be constructed.)
You should also contact Amr Shalakany at AUC’s law school, he used to live in Palestine and could probable help in facilitating you with a couple students who’d be interested.
Keep us updated, MashAllah, I can’t tell you how great an initiative this is!
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Do you perceive a huge economic setback in the US because of intolerance there? (Comment this)
Let me know how this continues and if you want to include other Arabs in your project. (Comment this)
I think you'll have a bit of a legal problem with Part Two. I mean, it could work with Egypt, Jordan and Morocco - but even then the Israelis would be at mortal peril.
Moreover, I am afraid that the potential impact of the suggested program would be miniscule. Maybe if you could get enough sympathetic media coverage, it might have an effect - but given the current status of Arab media, it seems very unlikely that you could do that.
But then again, here's an idea: a reality TV show, possibly in the (admittedly horrid) Big Brother style, with Arabs and Jews from all over the world.
Good luck - and much respect for the initiative :)
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I have personal experience with newly-arrived Muslims from other countries whose anti-Semitism is nakedly obvious and offensive. They reveal their prejudice candidly with no thought that someone Jewish might be present. I think you are correct when you say that most Muslims have never actually met or seen a Jew in person. (Comment this)
Lisa Goldman at http://ontheface.blogware.com/ have been doing some Arab/Israeli blogger networking. You should touch base with her and see if what she has done so far can contribute to your project. (Comment this)
(Peter, we're so on it already. Stay tuned...) (Comment this)
Start and "Love thy neighbor" is more important than yesterday and until people can excersize this, nothing will be solved. (Comment this)
This is a beautiful idea and I wish you all the luck. I shall follow your successes like a hawk, and maybe one day...
Meanwhile, I shall find my own small ways to support links with Arab/Muslim bloggers, and I cannot avoid mentioning this example:
http://hopeandbeyond.blogspot.com/
of two (rightwing) Jews and an Arab student girl (quite extremist sometimes)getting together in a blog.
This is an open invitation to any moderate Arab blogger to:
1. Get together for a venture like the one above
2. To exchange links
3. Whatever comes next
Cheers. (Comment this)
I have had positive experiences, too, although come to think of it, most of them have been with Lebanese Christians. But okay, I had a pleasent enough Kuwaiti in my college seminar, and the Saudi prince I met at a party was just an idiot in the traditional sense.
The point is, one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. If I were to come to Egypt, for every 10 students who want to listen and learn, there will be at least 1 student who just wants to lecture me about how "evil" Israel/Jews/the West etc. is. In a crowd of 200, that's 20 unpleasant people. Why one earth would I subject myself to that? (Comment this)
If you get a chance, find a copy of Tom Clancy's book "Sum of all Fears." Don't bother to read the entire thing, it's enormous. However, inside, is a plan for turning the control of Jerusalem to an international, multicultural police force.
He obviously put a tremendous amount of thought into it, and I remember thinking "that's so crazy, it must might work."
I remember bits and pieces of it. With dispensation from the Pope, his Swiss Guard (that guard the Vatican), would be comprised of a full-tilt powerful "police" force, but would act under the auspices of the Geek Orthodoxy, which would serve as an "ambassador" to the heirarchy of Islam and Judaism.
It's been many years since I read it (and a lot has happend since then *sigh*). However, I remember being amazed at the lengths Clancy went to, to attempt to show tremendous respect to all religious leaders, Imams, Rabbis, etc. And even greater lenghts to convince them all that every citizen, Muslim, Jew, Christian, etc., would be afforded <i>precicely</i> the same protections and, if accused of a crime, could select the particular religious law under which he would be tried -- or place himself in the arms of the secular law that governs the city.
As bizarre as all that sounds, I'd love to hear an opinion from someone who understands more than I about the complex social forces at play in Jerusalem. (Comment this)
No way in hell this will EVER work. The Jerusalem thing.
The psycho religious Muslims believe that Jerusalem is THEIR land, and if anyone else is living/governing there, it's an insult to allah and therefore everyone must be killed. Or something along these lines.
The psycho religious Jews, on the other hand, believe that Jerusalem is THEIR land, and since they finally managed to get back en masse after 2000 years, they are not willing to relinquish control.
Not sure about the Christians, they don't seem to care too much if they are not bothered.
And the secular Jews will never agree to it because it happens to be the capital city of Israel.
And the Palestinians will never agree to it because they claim it as the occupied capital city of their state, which just happens to be on the full territory of Israel.
This has 0 chance to work. Unless, of course, the wishes of assorted Muslims come true and all the Jews everywhere die a sudden and gruesome death. In the ensuing chaos, it might be just possible to do what was proposed (and the corpses of the Jews will fertilize the fields quite nicely, too). But about 10 minutes after the proposal is passed, you'll have suicide bombers and assorted other terrorists coming in droves to Jerusalem to "liberate" it, daily attempts at the Pope's life and so on and so forth.
To conclude -
The Middle East is insane. The sort of stuff that would work in Europe doesn't even get a hearing down here, mate :)
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Judging by your name you seem to be pretty immature, and I somehow doubt you party with Saudi princes. He was probably some nerdy Arab kid who was playing pretend. Why would an Egyptian, who are not nasally gifted themselves, make fun of your father's nose? If you're not prepared to answer questions regarding Israel, you are obviously unqualified to fulfill this position. (Comment this)
It is not a do-able project. I hope your heart is not that much into it because you will be very disappointed at the outcome.
There are other similar projects.. Seeds of Peace is one of them. In my view, they are not successful.
Wishing you the best. (Comment this)
Especially as it sounds like you are specifically targeting young people, it's so easy for young people to absorb all the prejudice and ranting they are surrounded with. Even if it only influences one person, the effort will have been worthwhile.
And the focus should not be political, but human. (Comment this)
these are really wonderful ideas! i also really believe that human contact can change people's ideas. i have seen it a lot.
okay i have a bunch of ideas, but i am going to type them up and email them to you. i hope very very much that something like this could get off the ground-- it is so possible because the money to get in between israel, palestine, and egypt is not so much. and because lots of very interesting jewish people come to israel and palestine, so coming to egypt at the end of their trip is not so hard.
lisa (Comment this)
I believe he was referring to Egyptian Muslims not having met a jew, not Muslims in general. I am a Muslim and my best friend is Jewish. Please do not generalise. (Comment this)
Why do you think the Arabs have 'negative' views of the Jews? Has it ever occurred to you that maybe if you stopped KILLING, OPPRESSING & TERRORIZING them, they may actually respect you. (Comment this)
<b>Why do you think the Arabs have 'negative' views of the Jews? Has it ever occurred to you that maybe if you stopped KILLING, OPPRESSING & TERRORIZING them, they may actually respect you</b>
Arabs do not hate Jews, for the Holy Bible says "In Christ, there is no Jew and Arab". Arab Christians particularly love Israel and Egypt has the largest Arab Christian population numbering 7 million-strong that helped secure peace between Israel and Egypt.
Its only the racist 'religion' of Islam that teaches Jew hatred. Islam is unfit to be called a religion at all but a CULT that was created by a paedophile Muhammad. To learn the truth about Islam, read up Ali Sina's Faith freedom at:
http://www.faithfreedom.org
Ali Sina is an Iranian national who is an apostate Muslim (murtad). He supports Israel and unlike the hardline Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad and supports regime change in Iran.
Palestinian conflict is about Islam and not Arabs, as you can see Arab Christians are discriminated by the Palestinian Authority. Observant Muslims who follow the 5 tenets of Islam destroy churches and lives of people who apostacise from Islam (aka murtads). Many Arab Christian missionaries are prevented from doing their job to preach Jesus our Lord to Muslims.
Look for yourself and you'll see that every Muslim-majority country, even non-Arab countries refuse to recognise Israel. Both Iran and Malaysia, two Islamic fascist regimes declare Israel an illegal state.
Malaysia is known to persecute Malay Christians, just as Palestine Authority (yes right the late Yassir Arafat) executes apostate Muslms (murtads) if they become Christians.
Christian political parties are illegal in Egypt, Palestine Authority, Syria, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia. Iraq is the first free nation that allows Christians (1) right to prosetylise Muslims, (2) right to build churches in Muslim-majority areas, and (3) right to form Christian political parties, such as Assyrian Democratic Movement and Kurdistan Democratic Party.
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Like Peace instead of war.
Street fights instead of missiles.
May be this is just carrying it at this level !?
Okay ... trying to make sense.
why 5 or 6 bloggers?
why artists exchange programs?
why Jerusalem celestial Jerusalem terrestial?
Isn't the machine that involve our kids with their grand parents useless believes as we might just be in the middle, deformed by Love & Peace ...?
We dreamt of a make sex no war than appeared Aids viagra. Zocor is another miraculous medecine they say for heart patients that we might become if we think we can try and change something.
Yes Peace and serenity.
Great to come from the meditterrannean!
May be we need to forget being great, big, pharonic and believe in Allah not being Akbar wala 7aga ?!
Ohmmmmm
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