Friday

I was talking to my mother on the phone and she asked me how my conversion to Islam was going. While the odds of me picking up a faith while in Egypt are slim, I figured that, it being Friday and all, I would write a post about some of my more interesting experiences having to do with the heavy Muslim influence in Egypt. 

I was having a conversation with someone I met about the possibility of Barack Obama going to a major Muslim capital within the first 100 days of his administration, to make a speech to the Muslim world. It was quickly pointed out to me that the term "Muslim Country" is incorrect, and can actually make people mad. The man I was talking to said that even though a vast majority of Egyptians are Muslim, and law in Egypt is still based in Islamic scripture, they don't like to be identified as a "Muslim Country". OK. Arab Republic of Egypt. Apologies. 

I have written before about the call to prayer, and that however annoying it may be, it still rings with me as remarkable that there exists a 5-times-daily reminder that everyone here has something in common, a tying bind. But it is larger than that. Coming from America, you cannot imagine something, anything (let alone religion or faith), having this kind of effect on the daily life, routine and culture of an entire nation. 

For example, when I went to Ain Sokhna, Laura and I went to bus station midday on Friday to see the bus times (because heaven forbid they put them on the internet). It wasn't massively inconvenient, since we didn't intend on leaving until the evening, but when we got the station at 12:15 on Friday, it was absolutely deserted. We found a lone security guard, who informed us that the ticket takers were praying, and that we would have to wait. Until 1:10. At a bus station!!?!?! Good luck getting food or any kind of service.  

This sacred morning once a week is not the only influence on culture and society. There are many cultural oddities that I suspect are grounded in the scripture. Wearing shorts immediately labels you as a "khawaga," a somewhat affectionate term implying something along the lines of "silly foreigner." If a cafe serving drinks has an outdoor eating section, alcohol is strictly forbidden in that section. I have never seen a woman sitting in the front seat of a taxi (the normal place to sit for any male riding alone). And when my friends decided they were going to teach me some swear words in Arabic in a taxi one night, the driver nearly kicked us out of the cab. I have no idea what ties these cultural oddities have with the Muslim faith, but to me, the khawaga, random and strange they certainly are, and as I sit here starving on this Friday morning, I wonder what horrific faux pas I commit on a daily basis.