How do I tell my mom I want to leave Islam in Egypt? As you know, Egypt is 90% Muslim and 10% Christian.
I’m in an extremely extremely extremely similar situation, but I can’t describe it, due to security-related reasons.(lots of people I know might kill me, or at least get me arrested, if they know about this) You’ll notice that this answer contains a lot of safety-related content.First of all, ignore the critics avoiding the question and “answering” instead of commenting. 12 is a perfectly healthy age to doubt political/religious ideologies and change them.Egypt isn’t too religious in comparison to other Muslim countries like Pakistan and definitely Saudi Arabia. I have friends in these countries and everything is gender segregated and a lot is censored. It’s(relatively) not that bad in Egypt, but it is still very dangerous to openly be an apostate.(you better hope the cops are the first ones to find you so that you can be arrested, else you could literally be lynched by an angry mob) Lots of people support the death penalty for apostates.Now about your mother, it depends on how religious she is. If she’s not that religious, it’s ok to state that you’re doubting the religion, usually she’ll see you as the victim of Satan’s whispers and try to “help” you. Your Mum will try to convince you to “fix” those doubts, and she will deny you trying to become an atheist and will call it a phase. You should most likely never come out if you do decide to leave and always keep things to yourself(ESPECIALLY as a 12 year old kid with no contacts), but if you do come out, don’t insult Islam and you will learn that you’re better off “converting” back. Life > Dignity; lying is the best thing to do in your scenario.Remember that not coming out to anyone is the best way to not die.By the way, check out this link(in incognito mode). It’s extremely useful and it has helped me stay sane for quite a while.You Are Not Alone, For We Are Many • r/exmuslim
Did the Napoleon soldiers really target practice their cannon on the Sphinx nose in Egypt?
It has been rumored that Napoleon's soldiers broke the nose of the Great Sphinx of Giza while practicing with their cannons. However, this accusation is seemingly unfair, considering Napoleon had great respect for the monument -- even conducting the first systematic study of the sphinx. Additionally, Frederic Louis Norden's sketch of the Sphinx in 1737 reveals the nose to be broken prior to Napoleon invading Egypt in 1798. Check out Robert Frost's answer to the question How did the Sphinx lose its nose? There's actually a historical account of Sufi Muslim leader Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr destroying the nose out of anger when he saw people practicing idolatry to the sphinx around 1378.
As today is the 6th of October, 39 years ago was the Yom Kippur War. Who do you think really won the war?
I have noticed that many of the ladies and gentlemen who answered, claim that Egypt and Syria were aiming to “Destroy Israel” during that war. well perhaps that was more of a personal wish than an actual target laid on paper.In his memoirs that was published in Exile in the late seventies, General Saad Al-Shazly, the Egyptian Chief of Staff and the master planner of the war mentioned the written directive order he received that included the war objectives.it was basically about engaging in a military action against Israel to make it suffer as much casualties as possible to make Israel realize that continuing in seizing Egyptian lands will be costly.Shazly clearly mentioned that his plan was all about capturing a narrow strip of land to the extent protected by the Egyptian SAM missiles, knowing that any advance beyond the SAM umbrella would never be successful. During the first 10 days of the war the Egyptian command was very satisfied, the managed to catch Israel unprepared, they crossed the canal and seized the target, all Israeli-counter attacks failed, as long as they were dug-in under the SAM umbrella, they were happy to keep the Israelis knocking their heads against the wall. The Egyptians (40 million then) afforded to stay mobilized for months unlike the Israelis,when he was ordered to advance beyond the SAM coverage, he went furious and almost disobeyed the orders.In a TV interview recorded in 1997, he spoke bitterly about these days and how he considers that Sadat frustrated the plan and prevented a victory.So in conclusion, who won?, i tend to agree that it was a half victory for the Egyptians and half defeat for Israel. loosing 10 or even 20,000 casualties would not hurt the Egyptians a lot, they already loose twice this number every year in car accidents. certainly the Israelis came out of this war less confident than they were before. before that war, had Sadat offered peace, the Israelis would have turned him down without hesitation.Many Israelis realized that wars -even victorious ones- come with a price. US soldiers who fought with Patton’s army in WWII were victorious but war was not a happy memory to them at all. Many commentators consider that 1973 was the first “true war” fought by Israel and step to realize that no one can afford to live with angry neighbours all around him.
What is it like to live in Cairo, Egypt?
Living in Egypt:There are all classes of residential areas from handmade tin sheds to high end compounds with luxurious houses and all sorts of amenities both widely availableThere are very high population areas at downtown and nearby districts and there are the more quiet suburbs at the city outskirts.All kinds of jobs available from cleaning to corporate CEO in nearly all sectorsAverage standard of living is on the low sideLaw enforcement is not that good (but the crime rate is lower than US)People are easy going and mostly friendly and warmPeople are not very civilTechnology is widely availableThe average people are more on the conservative side (although there is evidence of the opposite to be seen everywhere)Roughly 90% Muslims - 10% Christian (agnostics and others are very rare)Manners are not very goodPopular vehicles: KIA, Hyundai, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes …etc.Taxis and Uber are available also higher end options (limos ..etc.)Driving manners are not good (remember the civility point above)Most people in the city wear international attire (shirt, pants), more culturaly rooted people wear Galabeya (a one piece neck to foot shirt), the majority of women wear headscarf.Winter and spring/autumn weather are beautiful, midsummer is very hot.Families are nicely coherent.People travel to Beaches and they are beautifulPeople love soccerIf you’re smart in Business, you can do good money.Relations and do-whatever-you-wish are much much much more efficient than rules (if rules are of any efficiency at all)People play sports and do other social activities at places called “clubs”Google maps navigation works goodPeople use web social networks a lotYou usually hear the call for prayer everywhere five times a dayPublic schools are a disaster, public universities are betterLots of public services are a disaster too, including public transportation and healthUsually using private services are your option when you have money to get humanly service (and you have good options in this case)Average staff are not very professionalPeople love laughingPeople mostly treat tourists/aliens very wellMost of the population does not use alcohol due to IslamMost of the people call themselves Mulsims yet they practice little of Islam (there are a few religious people to be seen everyday)Enough for now, I might add more later :)
What are the causes of conflict in the Middle East?
People may give many reasons for lack of peace in Middle-East but the true reason is the rich oil resources of the region.Not just oil but this piece of land is also blessed with natural gas and other natural resources; 32% of the world’s natural gas rests in the hands of Middle-East states.So, to be very serious the war going on in Middle-East is more a result of international conspiracies than it is of sectarian violence.Middle-East is rich of oil,petroleum,gas,opium,gold and aluminium resources.Seeing these facts one must consider that ‘’Why these countries are not developing?The reason is that international powers are using these countries as nothing but their war grounds to fulfil their vested interests.All of this is a conspiracy of anti-Muslim powers.Yes, some of the middle-east states i.e. Saudi Arabia are progressing much faster than others but the reason is that not a single one of the 1.6 billion Muslims of the world would stay low if something happens to Saudi Arabia.Also that Saudi Arabia and other such nations sell petrol and natural gas to world’s powers on low rates and easy terms.You might be surprised but this is true, the human-blood is being shed for nothing but the gain of power.The UN has failed miserably in prevailing peace in Middle-East. In fact UN The United Nations is not more than a Debating Society.The so-called ambassadors of peace instead of making efforts to prevent war and save human lives give preference to their own interests.The current situation in Syria is hidden from none.Armies enter these countries ignoring their regional sovereignty, in the name of prevailing peace,fight for their own interests and once they have been fulfilled they leave. No one cares for the hundreds of thousands that have that and the ones that are being killed daily either by terrorists or the ambassadors of peace.The only thing these cowards care about is gaining control natural resources of the region at any cost of all.
Someone just asked me are you Christian or Catholic and I was confused .. whats the difference? Btw I’m Muslim
Catholics are a type of Christian, just as Sunni and Shi’a are types of Muslim.Catholicism is a specific sub-set of Christianity. Depending on who you ask it is either one of the oldest continuing branches of Christianity, or the oldest.The Catholic Church is the line in Red.Catholics make up over half of all Christians in the world and are most easily differentiated from other Christians by their adherence to a centralized hierarchical structure headed by the Pope in Rome. The closest thing he could be compared to in Islam is a Caliph, although the modern Pope holds almost no secular political power.However, in the United States the majority of Christians are Protestants, a different sub-set of Christianity which is made up of hundreds of smaller churches, each one with different governing structures and theologies. Because of this, there are certain Americans who do not know many (or any) Catholics, and as a result use “Christian” as a short hand to mean “Protestant.”However, there are also many Protestants in America who hold that Catholics are not “real” Christians, but rather members of either a corrupted form of Christianity or a different religion altogether.You can see an example of a Protestant arguing that Catholics are a different religion from real Christianity here. (Its worth noting that the position he takes is fringe even amongst Protestants, as it would also lump in multiple Protestant Denominations as well as the Orthodox as being “not Christian”).This is a bias that has very old roots in the Protestant Reformation over 500 years ago, and while it has mostly receded from mainstream Protestantism, it is still quite prevalent in certain Evangelical Churches.So when that person asked you if you were “Christian or Catholic”they were eitherSimply using “Christian” as a shorthand for “Protestant” orTelegraphing the belief that Catholics are not Christians.