Getting Worse

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We hear so much about Islamic extremism these days that I suspect most westerners think the Arabs have always been intolerant and fanatical. This isn’t at all the case, except perhaps in Saudi Arabia.

Take Libya. It was an Islamic country when I lived there and most Libyans were pretty devout Muslims. However, they were generally very tolerant when it came to other religions. For example, every Libyan fasted during Ramadan but nobody ever tried to impose fasting on westerners. In fact, people in villages would offer us Pepsis while they themselves were abstaining from drinking anything from 4:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. every day for a month.

Libyans would ask me and the other teachers at our school what our religion was. When we told them we were Christians, they would smile and say something like, “Christian, Muslim, Jew, same-same.” From what I see on the news, I very much doubt that the same attitude prevails today.

Even in Egypt, the most sophisticated Arab country, religion has gradually become more oppressive. When I first visited Cairo, in 1970, I don’t think I saw a single woman wearing a hijab or headscarf. By the mid 1980s the situation had changed and most women covered their heads when outside. From what I've been seeing on the news recently, it seems that that any Egyptian woman venturing onto the streets bareheaded nowadays risks being sexually assaulted or having acid thrown in her face.

I find it all terribly sad.
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