Is Secularism the answer to Egypt’s Sectarianism? · Global Voices
Marwa Rakha

Egypt has always been known as an Islamic country where Muslims, Christians, and Jews peacefully co-existed. Today this is no longer the case. Is secularism the solution?
Voice of Egypt reported the recent Muslim-Christian sectarian strife about turning an old clothes factory into a church in the area of Matareya:
Voice of Egypt added:
The dilemma gets worse as The Religion Virus sheds light on another debatable issue:
Here is a story is so absurd it requires almost no comment. It seems Egypt may ban organ transplants between people unless both are the same religion (Christian or Muslim). The ban is supposedly to cut down on wealthy Christians buying organs from destitute Muslims, but it doesn't take a genius to see through the ruse. It's nothing more than religious discrimination at its worst.
On a brighter side, Mona Eltahawy was faced with the following questions:
What does a Muslim look like? What does a Muslim home look like? And just who exactly makes up the Muslim mainstream? These questions came to mind after I took part in a panel discussion in New York City recently called “American Muslims”. It was meant to highlight the diversity of Muslim voices and experiences in the United States.
Two women from the audience were later overheard saying “They’re trying to convince us they’re the mainstream? They’re not the mainstream.” That, coupled with a question during the Q&A on “what does a Muslim home look like” (read: it can’t possibly look like a home I would recognize got me wondering against whom my co-panelists and I were being compared.
I’m quite sure it’s Angry Bearded Muslim Man. And Covered in Black Muslim Woman.
Angry Bearded Muslim Man is easily recognizable. He is usually yelling “Allahu Akbar” and burning something – an effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush, an American flag or an Israeli flag, preferably all three.
Angry Bearded Muslim’s female counterpart is Covered in Black Muslim Woman. She either walks silently behind Angry Bearded Muslim or she is the subject of countless books, magazine articles and documentaries about the miserable plight of Muslim women. While I do not doubt for a second that terrible abuses of women’s rights are sadly too often justified in the name of Islam, it is incredibly frustrating to feel one is always on the losing end of the authenticity battle. It feels at times as if I’m not Muslim enough simply by virtue of not needing to be rescued from an evil, abusive father, brother or husband.
The next time I’m asked how representative I am, I will ask back “What kind of Muslim do you want?” and quietly celebrate that I am obviously not what they had in mind.
And Ahmed El Masry wrote an apology to his Christian friend
My dear Christian friend I apologize to you for my religion forbids me not to.
Without borders shared a post about secularism in Spain saying:
In his call for a secular Egypt, the blogger says: