Enduring Egypt

We got such an array of advice, that I could all too easily read between the lines at what people did not want to ask, “Are you guys crazy?” My wife, daughter and mother-in-law and I have just returned from a 12-day trip to Egypt. And as we were preparing for the trip, some folks were a bit perplexed. The Middle East does not exactly sound like a relaxing travel destination at the moment. In the areas where there is not outright war, isn’t the rest of the Middle East just a seething hotbed of Islamic Fundamentalists?

As is usually the case, the truth is a little less sensational and more complex than the media has room for in a short sound bite. We certainly came in close contact with Islam, as well as the 10 percent of Egyptians who are Christian. We found some signs of unrest caused by militants, but that is not the whole story.

We were in Egypt with a Biblical Archeological Studies tour, so I was not the only pastor on the trip and we were a decidedly churched group. But the trip itself was not designed to keep us insulated in a biblical worldview. We were traveling in a real country with its own challenges and we heard lectures and saw sights to help put things in context.

The thing you couldn’t help but notice is the guns. You could not even turn without seeing someone toting an automatic rifle. Victoria, Griffin and I were familiar enough with this from our March of 2000 trip to Israel, where guns at the ready are a fact of life. As our Israeli guide said, she felt safer with the guns around, knowing they were there to protect her. The same was true in Egypt.

A tourist policeman on camelback watches over the desert around the Bent Pyramid. Photo by Victoria Logue. Click picture above for more photos.

Every tour group is assigned a tourist policeman everyday. These business suit wearing, pistol-packing policemen have your one group as their sole responsibility everywhere you go during the day. In addition, from the Great Pyramids of Giza to many lesser sites, every public place in Egypt on the tourist routes has Tourist Policemen with automatic rifles at the ready.

All of this security is because of Islamic Extremist violence against tourists which culminated in a massacre of 62 tourists at a Theban Temple in 1997. Following the attack, thousands of Egyptians took to that temple and to the streets in anti-terrorism protests.

Starting at that point seven years ago, the Egyptian government went to war against the terrorists within their own country and more than 2,000 died in the ensuing bloodshed. The violence stopped and some years later tourism began anew. Egypt stills sees itself as being at the forefront of the war on terror as it seeks to contain the enemy within.

So knowing that the many guns I saw were Egypt’s own answer to the menace of terrorism, I took them in stride. The proliferation of guns was an outward sign that Egypt has not grown complacent in its own war on terrorism. The struggle will not be easy for them.

Egypt’s economy is doing poorly and there are signs of impending economic doom. The socialist government provides a lot of the services people need, but as the population keeps rising, Egyptian income can’t keep up with spending for health care, subsidized utilities and other benefits to which Egyptians have grown accustomed.

Unemployment, particularly among college-educated Egyptians is high. This gives a large pool of disaffected young people ripe for someone twisting words of faith into words of violence. Working on economic issues will likely be the best weapon Egypt has in combating terrorism.

The other thing you cannot help but notice when you travel in an Islamic country is the thousands of people obeying their religion’s teaching that everyone should pray five times a day. In mosques and in back alleyways, we saw people bowing down in prayer facing Mecca. Think what you will of their doctrine, it is hard to be unmoved by Islamic devotion to prayer.

Of course, not everyone prayed at these prayer times. There were the one in ten who are Christian who prayed in other places at other times. Then there are the others who would say they are Muslim but do nothing to put their faith into action, and people of no faith at all. Sound familiar? That’s because the more I travel, the more I see that people all around the world are more alike than we are different.

The people in Egypt may have different cultural and religious backgrounds through which they see their daily lives, but they are essentially like you and me. Yes, I am oversimplifying a bit, but only to strip things down to the essence. When you get down to it, Egyptians have similar hopes and dreams for themselves and for their children.

Jesus knew this. That is why he so routinely turned his stories around to get under your skin. Those Samaritans y’all are so big on belittling are not all bad. Those tax collectors and sinners you so studiously avoid are just regular folks with a God-sized whole in their hearts.

So I’ll admit that it must have seemed fool hearty and a bit reckless to head off to the Middle East. But I did see something worth noticing anew. With all the differences I experienced, what I saw was a country struggling against the evil within and millions of people just trying to get on with life. And I came face to face with people in an Islamic land supposed to be full of hate, who were just regular folks, part of the neighbor I’m supposed to be loving.

(The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland.)

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