ALEXANDRIA: ANCIENT CENTER OF ENLIGHTENMENT TURNS BASTION OF CONSERVATISM
Hamza Hendawi
AP Worldstream
Published: Jun 08, 2007
A white marble statue of a nude Aphrodite in a playful pose is on
display in the antiquities museum of the Library of Alexandria. One
story up, sociology major Dalia Mohammed, a devout Muslim covered
head to toe, is studying for a spring term paper.
The ancient sculpture of the Greek goddess of beauty and the Egyptian
student represent contrasting Alexandrias.
The statue, discovered at a spot close to the library, harks back to
the Mediterranean city’s days as the center of enlightenment in the
ancient world _ and its 19th and 20th century past as a place where
Muslims, Christians and Jews of different ethnic backgrounds lived
in harmony.
Mohammed is a child of today’s Alexandria _ a city that has divorced
itself from its liberal traditions and easygoing ways and instead
adopted religious conservatism, with Islamists holding sway.
It is the way most Egypt has gone. But given Alexandria’s fabled past,
there may not be another place in this nation of some 77 million
people _ mostly Muslim but with a significant Christian minority _
where the change is more pronounced.
The only women in Alexandria who don’t wear the Islamic veil are
Christians and a small minority of Muslims. Women have long stopped
wearing swimsuits on the city’s popular beaches. Those who wish to
take a swim do so under the cover of pre-dawn darkness.
"Alexandrians have lost their traditional ties to the beach and sea,"
lamented Mona Abdel-Salam, a 42-year-old independent journalist, who
says she would only wear a swimsuit on exclusive private beaches or
at the pools in luxury hotels.
Most of the city’s famous bars, restaurants and night spots are
no longer in business, their owners long ago returned to Europe
for good. Only a few _ mostly elderly people _ remain from the
once prosperous and large expatriate community of Greeks, Cypriots,
Italians, French and Armenians who once made Alexandria Egypt’s most
cosmopolitan city.
The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest Islamist group, has
more lawmakers elected from Alexandria than from any other city. The
city of 5 million people also has a large Salafi movement, a brand of
Islam more extreme than the Brotherhood _ its followers are recognized
by their long beards and shorter than usual robes. They preach a ban
on contacts between Muslims and Christians and residents blame them
for violent clashes with Christians in recent years.
The city’s move toward fundamentalism has driven away the wealthy and
secular middle-class Egyptians who once flocked to Alexandria in the
summer for its beaches and nightlife.
It is a far cry from the Alexandria depicted in dozens of famous
Egyptian movies dating back to the 1940s, in which young men and women
found love while vacationing in the city. Endless popular songs from
the era laud the city’s cool sea breeze, the beauty of its women and
how easy love flourishes.
Mohammed is more the model for the new Alexandria.
She says she avoids contact with men in her college, doesn’t go to the
beach for reasons of modesty and has only Christian acquaintances,
not friends, in her mixed neighborhood of Muharram Bey, the scene
of Muslim-Christian clashes in late 2005 and early 2006 that killed
six people.
"We cannot be close friends with Christians, but we can be civil to
each other," she said.
The older of two daughters born to a father working in the Gulf and
a homemaking mother, Mohammed says she began wearing the veil out at
the age of 16.
"I felt it was the right time for me," said the slender young woman,
though she wears the bright colors, tight top and loads of jewelry
popular among young women who strive to fuse Islamic modesty with
being trendy.
"You cannot say that what I am wearing is strictly Islamic, but it
will do for now," she explained with a smile. "I will wear loose
clothes when I am older."
What has influenced a young woman like Mohammed to become so
conservative and insular is the story of Egypt, where authoritarian
rule, chronic economic woes and a culture of corruption have pushed
millions to find refuge in a strict interpretation of their faith.
President Hosni Mubarak has shown zero tolerance for militant Islamic
groups, jailing thousands and endorsing the execution of dozens since
coming to office 25 years ago. At the same time, his government has
sought to match the appeal of Islamist groups like the Brotherhood,
cracking down on public shows of irreverence to religion and dragging
its feet on granting women and Christians their full rights.
Combined, the spread of religious fundamentalism, economic hardships
and the political exclusion of most Egyptians have built an
increasingly intolerant society, resistant to change and suspicious
of outsiders.
"You are lonely in Alexandria if you’re not religious," said Malek
Mustapha, a 29-year-old political blogger who makes a living designing
Internet sites.
The departure of the city’s large expatriate community in the 1950s
and 1960s, a time when revolutionary leader Gamal Abdel-Nasser pursued
hardline nationalist policies, dealt the first blow to the city’s
cosmopolitan atmosphere.
Next came waves of migrants from Egypt’s conservative countryside
in the 1960s. Later, many left for the oil-rich Gulf region for
better incomes.
Tens of thousands returned to Alexandria, bringing back the Islamic
conservatism prevailing in much of the Gulf.
"Every one of them brought a satchel full of conservative and
antiquated patterns of behavior," said Hosni Abdel-Malak, a 58-year-old
Egyptology instructor.
Islamists boast of their gains in the city.
"There are no Muslim secularists in Alexandria. Only Christians,"
said Osama al-Adawy, a microbiology professor at the University of
Alexandria and a local Muslim Brotherhood leader.
In Muharram Bey, Mohammed’s mixed neighborhood, the Islamist influence
is clear in the hundreds of leaflets plastered on homes, schools
and storefronts, with slogans like, "Prayer is the backbone of your
faith," "Thanks be to God for he has shown me the way to the veil,"
and "Whoever quits praying or drinks alcohol is a pagan."
The US$230 million (A170 million) Library of Alexandria was an attempt
to revive the city’s past with a modern-day version of the destroyed
ancient library.
Suzanne Mubarak, the influential wife of the president, has been
in charge of the library and, in an address at its 2001 opening,
described it as a "window for Egypt to the world and a window for
the world to Egypt."
But many Alexandrians say the ultramodern building has failed to
spark a scholarly renaissance.
"Not a single step was taken toward realizing the library’s
objectives," said Abdel-Malak. "So far, it’s a prestige project that
has become touristic."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
