A Tale of Two Taxis

[DJKeefy]

Two taxi rides, two worlds apart and a veteran foreigner lost in the cultural translation.
By Kate Durham

When you live abroad, you hopefully learn that the world is not black and white. I abandoned that premise in my first few months in Cairo as I discovered that every preconception I had of Egypt was right, wrong and somewhere in the middle — all at the same time. That might be why the pair of taxi rides I had last week hit both ends of the spectrum and still managed to be completely off script of what the international media thinks is going on over here.

Tuesday, September 11, I was traveling back to Cairo after a week in Geneva, blissfully unconnected from any news broadcasts.

After uneventfully navigating immigration and customs, I negotiated a ride from Omar, one of the tourist company drivers lurking at the airport. I started in Arabic but Omar was eager to speak English, having mastered it living seven years in America — which in his mind is the greatest place on the planet. He was even more excited to find out he had a real, live American in his car, and from the point he closed the trunk on my bags, he never stopped talking.

For the next hour, I heard all about the states he had lived in, the different jobs he held and the lyrics to his favorite American songs.

I learned that he came back to Egypt four years ago after his mother died to deal with a lawsuit over the family apartment. Once it was settled, he couldn’t wait to get back to America. As he dropped me off, Omar told me that had he known he would meet an American that night, he would have brought me one of his Statue of Liberty postcards.

What Omar notably didn’t talk about was the now-infamous Innocence of Muslims video. I had heard nothing about it at all, much less about the reaction in Egypt, and I’m not sure if Omar knew what was going on that day either. His 12-hour shift had started at 1pm. But while Omar was enthusiastically telling me, “America is the land of freedom, the land of justice – I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” angry protesters were Downtown scaling the wall of the US embassy and tearing down the American flag.

I caught up with the news over the next two days, angry at the murders in Libya, the lies surrounding the video and its producer and especially at the mindboggling amateur film itself. I marveled at the schoolyard immaturity of both sides, with the video’s puerile taunts inciting a minority of hotheads to brawl with security forces outside the embassy.

The murder, brawling and all other violent reactions are way out of line and not representative of the Muslims that I live near, work with and interact with every day. At the same time, conversations I’ve had over the years have impressed upon me how deeply Muslims revere the Prophet Muhammad and how deeply hurtful the taunts in that video are to them.

So when I got into the taxi Thursday night after work, it didn’t take but a second to realize this could be an awkward situation. The driver was a young man in a galabeya, with a bushy beard and no mustache — all the trappings of a Salafi, one of the most conservative adherents of Islam. Salafis were one of the prominent organizers of Tuesday’s initial embassy protests, and now I, an obvious Westerner, was alone in a cab with one. But taxis are hard to come by on a Thursday night, so I opted to give it a chance and see where things went.

“The Maadi Corniche, insha’allah,” I said, adding my standard “God willing” to my destination. After years dealing with Cairo's public transportation and traffic, I firmly believe there is a certain amount of divine intervention involved in getting from point A to point B; for me, “insha’allah” just acknowledges that fact.

“You’re a Muslim?” the driver asked.

When I told him no in Arabic, he proceeded to explain why I had the wrong religion. According to this man, God has no son and all prophets from Abraham and Moses through to Jesus were actually Muslim, not Jewish or Christian, so God wants me to be Muslim. So, am I ready to be a Muslim now?

I’ve never been a fan of proselytizing from any religious denomination. Still, it was better, if not more comfortable, than listening to a diatribe about the film and the evil infidel West, which was what I was bracing for. But the driver never once mentioned the video.

That said, I was a bit annoyed. I personally think you have the right to believe what you believe, I have the right to not believe what you believe. But I know many people who would be very offended at how this guy characterized the revered figures of Christianity and Judaism, dismissing the other two religions of the book as if they didn’t exist.

It got a little creepy when I realized he was driving slower and slower so he’d have more time to try to convince me to read the Qu’ran. And when we reached my destination, he wanted my phone number so he could personally bring me a Qu’ran in English.

He looked baffled and upset when I politely declined and hastily exited the cab.

Two taxi rides, two Muslim drivers peacefully and ardently defending the black and white sides of this foolish video business – without ever referring to the video in question – to this American who finds herself in the gray zone of this culture clash.

There’s a lot of relativity when you live between two cultures, but moments like this show what you hold absolute from your home culture. For me, in this issue, it is freedom of speech. I disagree with the video producer and think he was irresponsible in making it, but he had the right to put that message out there. And that view puts me at odds with many of my Egyptian neighbors and co-workers, I know.

I also think that even if a few people are irresponsible to respond with violence, Muslims have every right to protest the video — a view that puts me at odds with some of my Western friends who don’t get what all the fuss is about.

To those who don't get all the fuss: Even without understanding how Islam is intricately woven into a Muslim’s life and identity, you should still be able to grasp how obnoxious Innocence of Muslims is. Watch the video and imagine that instead of “Muhammad,” the overdub said “Jesus Christ,” “Abraham,” “Buddha” or whatever religious figure you hold most dear. Offended yet?

To those who think certain speech is off limits: I have made my share of cultural faux pas and inadvertently offended the religious feelings of Egyptian colleagues and friends. Rather than hauling me off to be fired, jailed or deported, they explained why they were offended. I may not have always agreed with their point of view, but I respected it and took care not to make the same mistakes. In the process, I learned a little more about the culture that is hosting me.

That’s what’s getting lost amid the Western media furor over murdered diplomats, torched fast food chains and protests across the Middle East and North Africa. It’s unlikely there will ever be complete agreement in the free speech vs. respecting religion debate. But unless this debate happens, neither culture will get any closer to understanding and learning to respect the other.

Source: http://www.egypttoday.com/news/display/ ... 1/catId:30

[Christine]

A really good read, she makes perfect sense, hitting the nail on the head in the last paragraph in my view !

[LovelyLadyLux]

I also agree with the last paragraph that 'we all' need more tolerance but somehow I keep getting the feeling that the more tolerant 'we' are (our culture) the more aggressively acting out (their culture/Islam) is and is becoming.

I think freedom of speech is paramount for all and I also believe the right to protest is something that everybody should be able to do without sanction to either promote their cause, draw attention to and/or show anger at being maligned HOWEVER the right to protest cannot, ABSOLUTELY CANNOT, be the murder of innocent individuals. If you want to protest then fly at it. Carry placard, march 'til you've wore your feel off to the knees, spray walls with graffiti, scream insults, burn the odd flag or car but MURDER CANNOT ever be term a 'protest.'

I get that people like to 'sell' their religion. We got groups here who regularly come door to door touting their beliefs, passing out pamphlets and if they want to do this that it ok by me. If I see them coming I don't bother answering the door and if they happen to catch me I have no problem telling them 'not interested' and by and large they take the hint and go away. Not too sure this is at all the case with Islam. I hardly think they're going to 'go away' and they have no problem asserting their religious beliefs over ours and acting out over any slight.