A Little History Lesson for Mr. Fundie

Two events have brought the never-ending Christian/Muslim dichotomy to the forefront of my usually quite superfluous and daft ponderings. Yes, deep and profound brain things are really happening inside my empty head!

Egyptian courts recently ruled that Christians who had converted to Islam then back were allowed to have their National ID’s reprinted with Christianity as their religion – but with a thick oddly-noose-like string attached. They had to have the words “ex-Muslim” printed next to Christian.

So not only is this person going to live in fear of retribution for what more fundamentalist Muslims would view as apostasy, their entire religious history has to be on display for the world to see, to criticize, and to avenge.

The other event is a blogger being threatened online by an obviously unwell individual who among many things is anti-Christian (see the comments at Forsooth's "Three" post).

I would like to direct him – and really all Egyptians who find Christians unpleasant – to a short little op-ed written by a prominent journalist, who shares his name with the Prophet himself. His name is Mohamed Salmawi, and his February 22^nd piece in Al Marsy Al Youm is called “He Who Abandons His Past Is Lost,” in which he comments on the “ex-Muslim” appendage.

Salmawi very correctly reminds all those who are decidedly anti-Christian of their beloved country’s origins. He says that in all fairness, the government should add “former Christian” to all its Muslim citizens’ ID’s, as Egypt was the hub of Christianity for centuries prior to Amr Ibn Al ‘Aas’ conquest.

So maybe the Egypt-loving Christian-hater should take a look at his roots. He might just have to either rethink his attitude, or just make this world a better place by dropping off its face to save his own.