Greetings all. I apologize for my lack of communication in the past two weeks. Somehow the internet to Egypt was cut (yes, Egypt, the country, all of it) for a few days and we’ve been at homestays this past week. Please try to find some compassion for me and forgiveness for my trespass against you.
The last two weeks have been quite eventful. We saw the Cairo Symphony Orchestra for 2 bucks, saw another local concert in which my tabla teacher was performing, went to Siwa and frolicked about in the Sahara, and stayed a week in the homes of Muslim families. It would be fitting to say that I am a bit worn out.
Here are some details on the wonderful town of Siwa. It took us ten hours by bus to get there, which was less than enjoyable, but well worth the journey. Siwa is a massive oasis on the edge of the Sahara desert. The air is clean (il hamdullilah)and I haven’t seen stars that clear in a very long time. Our hotel didn’t have electricity or hot water, but, believe it or not, survival is possible without these “essentials”. We were there three days, one of which we piled into Land Cruisers and romped around the dunes all day. We flew down some dunes of epic proportions, screaming and swearing the whole way as we feared for our lives. (Liability is not a concern in Egypt and as I mentioned in my “thrill-seeking” post, fatalism is the norm). We stopped in a place for fossils and found some beautiful shells and sandollars preserved in the rock in the middle of the desert. Pretty cool. We also did a bit of sand boarding which is great until you realize that you’ve left your mouth open and are chewing sand for the next 3 days. You can’t turn at all while sandboarding, but it is somewhat like snowboarding. Unfortunately there are no lifts and the walk back up an 80 foot dune is a bit fatiguing (by which I mean I want to die by the time I get 3/4 of the way up). Great fun. There’s other stuff to see there as well, including ruins of a fortress built by Alexander the Great. The language in Siwa is interesting too, a mixture of Arabic and Burbur. I can’t understand either so it didn’t really make any difference; however, we could tell it was a bit different than Cairo language.
Our homestays this week put a very different perspective on Islam. When you’re invited into a home, share meals and even beds with these people who show nothing but love and adoration for you, it’s difficult to be so hardline in your faith. The family I stayed with is quite poor and the area of town quite dumpy, but the people are fantastic. Mohammad and Nisma have a two year old daughter named Malik who is a riot. So on to some deeper theological significance in this whole experience. The hard reality of Muslim-Christian relations is that Muslims are not going to become Christians and Christians aren’t going to become Muslims in the Middle East. To do so means at best complete ostracism and at worst death. It just doesn’t happen. And the more I interact with these people the more I am sure that our faiths have far more common ground than uncommon ground. The notion of Islam as an inherently violent religion is really quite silly when you get right down to it; the vast majority of Muslims with whom I have interacted are more peaceful than most people I know in the States. I am intrigued by what have been called “Muslim followers of Christ”, not a group of people but people within the Muslim community that have an elevated view of Christ. This allows them to not reject their communities and culture that have constituted their lives but move in the direction of the incarnate Word. I need to do some serious research on the subject because so far it is nothing more than an intriguing idea of which I have heard. If you’re interested, look up Mazhar Malloui and see what he says. I have only heard his name and have yet to learn more about his beliefs as a Muslim follower of Christ. At the very least it is an interesting a potentially enlightening notion to follow up.
These are some of the things I have been dealing with spiritually thus far. It’s always an adventure and constantly challenging what I believe. It’s definitely a refining process as I understand what is cultural rather than Biblical, what is cultural in the Bible, what is worth hanging on to and what is not, and what is essential to the Word made flesh. I appreciate your comments on the matter, your prayers and your criticisms if you think I’m losing my mind and/or faith. Allah yibarrik fiiku.
