374 Traffic, Religion, and the Latest 9.11 Rumor
Michael Slackman’s story about traffic and chaos in Cairo does a nice job of evoking the essential miracle of Egypt: that somehow it survives, and with grace. Cabdriver voxpop interview taboo, eschew, aatchooit’s a good story, despite what my wife says. Here’s the germ:
No one is saying the traffic is responsible for the Islamic revival in Egypt, but some people say the burden of the street, like the struggle of daily life, has reinforced a conviction that Gods hand must be helping people get through their day.
Meshi. The only way to cross the street is to put your faith in God and your fellow man and “step boldly off the curb,” as the New York Times headlines. This rings true. I myself have prayed aloud as a taxi driver reversed 100 meters down the fast lane of a six-lane highway while microbuses sped toward us at 130 km/hr, horns wailing.
But more often I’ve seen Cairo’s traffic make men (and women) forget their religion and yell about the religion of their brotherman’s mother.
Which brings me to another essential truth about the much-discussed Islamic revival in Egypt. It’s a mix of sincere religiosity, yes, but also politics, identity, and (yes, though I choke to say it) disempowerment. With a healthy dose of astounding hypocrisy thrown in.
<digression>It’s also made in Saudi Arabia, and (if you take the hijab, the sibha, the little Allah trinkets hanging from rearview mirrors, even the Ramadan lanterns, as its primary expressions) in China.
I have no problem with sincere religiosity (or Chinese goods). I’ve seen many friends find religion in the past seven years. They’ve quit smoking. They’ve stopped drinking. They’ll unostentatiously head off to prayers at the appointed times. They now have happy marriages, and a lovely clarity and serenity in all their relations. They’re better off now. And Chinese goods are affordable.</digression>
But on the hypocrisy, politics, and disempowerment bit: One morning, oh, two weeks ago, I was in a cab on my way to work. As four lanes of traffic merged contentiously into two (and a half), the driver called the guy in the car next to him a son of a fucked woman. He then turned to me and told me about the Quran, and specifically how it predicted the massacre of civilians in New York on September 11, 2001.
“Really? That’s interesting. What surah?”
Hesitation, then: “Al-Hadid. Iron.”
“Hmm, I’ll have to check it out.” (I did; it didn’t check out, but I have to give him credit for being a good bullshitter. Iron, indeed.)
A few days later, another driver started to tell me the same story. I told him I’d heard this from another driver, that I’d gone to look it up, but I couldn’t find the surah. Pressed, he admitted he didn’t know where, exactly, the prophecy was to be found: “The second surah. Or somewhere near the beginning, anyway. Have a look.”
This came up in conversation the other night as a group of reporters was trying to figure out what was fueling the (capital ‘I’ capital ‘R’) Islamic Resurgence. What makes people want to believe that 9/11 was foretold in the Quran in the first place? And why is it not the respectable bureaucrat moonlighting from the ministry to make ends meet who fills your ear with this garbage as you’re stuck in traffic? Why is it not the kind-of-fishy-but-honey-sweet Islamist with a beard down to his stomach who’s been everywhere from the Philippines to West Africa doing “dawa?” (And how, by the way, did this guy not wind up a lab rat for the latest “enhanced interrogation techniques” in a secret dungeon in Bulgaria or Romania or whatever?)
Why is it the totally normal guys from working-class neighborhoods who feed you the latest 9/11 rumor?
“It’s anger,” one reporter said. She reports on a lot of political repressions. She also doesn’t think very highly of Michael Slackman and his essential-truths-about-Egypt stories.
But these guys weren’t particularly angry. No more than your next guy, anyway. Most of the taxi-cab or cafe preachers (9/11 rumor peddlers or not) just seem like they feel the need to cloak themselves in the mantle of religious authority else you might not politely listen to their opinions. Like the only way to get any opinion heard is by invoking God through a megaphone.
My reflexive response to amateur preachers is to tune out and agree to everything they say in the hope that this will make the conversation over so we can get round to Al-Ahli’s last game. (It doesn’t work, but it does lower the cab fare if you’ve made the driver feel like he’s a great mu3alim and like he’s done a good deed by enlightening you.)
Shame on me for my patronizing attitude. Let’s take cabbie number one at his word: What in the Surat al-Hadid foretells 9/11? Here it is in English and Arabic. And what opinion is it that’s wearing a religious cloak?
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That line about made in Saudi/China was just brilliant! This whole post was so honest. Here’s the question: Is the IR phenom in Cairo a bunch of people tha find Islam to be deeply personal, a way to better themselves in the Sheikh Amr Khalled mold? Or is it really political Islam, a kind of intolerance of everything that is not Islamic, a desire to transform the polity and the world. I don’t know.
And I love the tone. A resigned atheist asking why it has to be the regular joes who think all this shit is pre-ordained. Please be a “fishy honey smelling” Islamist.
Comment by Scion of Zion — July 19, 2007 #
[…] religion and 9/11 rumours are the topics of Elijah Zarwan’s latest post. Share […]
Pingback by Global Voices Online » Egypt: Traffic, Religion and 9/11 — July 19, 2007 #
The culture war is over: both sides seem to agree that the Quran predicted the events of September 11, 2001. The Islamophobes have been circulating the 9/11 rumour below:
>
A quick look at the Quran tells you that Sura 9, Ayya 11 says:
But (even so), if they repent,
Establish regular prayers,
And pay Zakat
They are your brethren in Faith:
(Thus) do We explain the Signs
In detail, for those who understand.
And Sura 11, Ayya 9 (since there’s that confusing difference between the US dating system, which puts the month first, and the European one, which puts the day first) says:
If we give man a taste
Of mercy from Ourselves,
And then withdraw it from him,
Behold! he is in despair
And (falls into) ingratitude,
According to snopes.com (which checks out rumours and urban legends), there’s no passage such as the 9/11 one being circulated anywhere in the Quran. I can’t confirm that myself. But surely there’s a searchable Quran out there somewhere.
Comment by petroushka — July 20, 2007 #
Woops. The rumour didn’t show up because of my attempt to put it in guillemets. Here it is (the text being circulated includes everything below):
The following verse is from the Koran, (the Islamic Bible)
Koran (9:11) – For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome Eagle. The wrath of the Eagle would be felt throughout the lands of Allah and lo, while some of the people trembled in despair still more rejoiced; for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah; and there was peace.
(Note the verse number!) Hmmmmmmm?!
Comment by petroushka — July 20, 2007 #
Good point, Petroushka, thanks. I’ve always thought that Arab fundies have much more in common with their American counterparts than either realize.
Comment by The Skeptic — July 26, 2007 #