Ok, I've been heavily criticized for my last entry, some thought I was throwing responsibility on the religious groups for swinging the vote towards a Yes and passing the amendments. Well, I did and I didn't.
Of course I do not believe all who voted pro the amendments were under influence of these groups, nor do I ever accuse them of being ignorant or traitors; they had their own reasons which I totally respect and for the sake of the democracy I've always wanted to live in and I have to respect the outcome of the voting process.
Then whom am i against? I'm against everyone who happens to use people's weaknesses and needs for his own need and interests, like the Muslim Brotherhood who were always playing the victims's role during the last regime's reign and are now using the very same tactics they suffered from (200 LE were being distributed in certain areas to encourage people to vote for Yes, eyewitnesses reported).
I'm against intimidation tactics and using people's soft spot towards religion to lure them to a certain vote, though Mr.Essam El Eryan claimed on tv the infamous "voting for yes is a religious duty" wasn't from the MB, there were lots of them all over, i saw some of them in Nasr City and some acquaintances in Alexandria claim there were minivans circulating some areas of the city and playing out the same message from recorders.
So if you were so jealous for you religion, why didn't we ever see a poster encouraging people to pray or fast as they are religious duties too? why wasn't it a religious duty to vote Yes for Mubarak?
I'm against deliberately misinforming people and taking advantage of their ignorance, Mohamed Hussein Yaqoub (a Salafi imam) appeared on a video on youtube today congratulating the masses attending his sermon of a "victory for the people who voted for religion", to a vote that was about 9 articles of a constitution that did not even include the debatable Article 2 of the constitution.
I wont be considering some of the Islamic groups past doctrines of violence as they declared they revised their ideologies and now it is a new page. I believe them in this one and I wont be judging them depending on their past.
We've always been annoyed by what we hear that the Church directs its followers to certain political opinions, which might all be rumors afterall.
So, I do not want religion to interfere in scenes it does not fit to intervene in, as much as I do not want politics to harm religion by any means.
A famous saying : Religion spoils politics and politics spoils religion.
**to this point I finished writing the original text, then i found some further interesting stuff so I felt obliged to add :
Of course I do not believe all who voted pro the amendments were under influence of these groups, nor do I ever accuse them of being ignorant or traitors; they had their own reasons which I totally respect and for the sake of the democracy I've always wanted to live in and I have to respect the outcome of the voting process.
Then whom am i against? I'm against everyone who happens to use people's weaknesses and needs for his own need and interests, like the Muslim Brotherhood who were always playing the victims's role during the last regime's reign and are now using the very same tactics they suffered from (200 LE were being distributed in certain areas to encourage people to vote for Yes, eyewitnesses reported).
I'm against intimidation tactics and using people's soft spot towards religion to lure them to a certain vote, though Mr.Essam El Eryan claimed on tv the infamous "voting for yes is a religious duty" wasn't from the MB, there were lots of them all over, i saw some of them in Nasr City and some acquaintances in Alexandria claim there were minivans circulating some areas of the city and playing out the same message from recorders.
So if you were so jealous for you religion, why didn't we ever see a poster encouraging people to pray or fast as they are religious duties too? why wasn't it a religious duty to vote Yes for Mubarak?
I'm against deliberately misinforming people and taking advantage of their ignorance, Mohamed Hussein Yaqoub (a Salafi imam) appeared on a video on youtube today congratulating the masses attending his sermon of a "victory for the people who voted for religion", to a vote that was about 9 articles of a constitution that did not even include the debatable Article 2 of the constitution.
I wont be considering some of the Islamic groups past doctrines of violence as they declared they revised their ideologies and now it is a new page. I believe them in this one and I wont be judging them depending on their past.
We've always been annoyed by what we hear that the Church directs its followers to certain political opinions, which might all be rumors afterall.
So, I do not want religion to interfere in scenes it does not fit to intervene in, as much as I do not want politics to harm religion by any means.
A famous saying : Religion spoils politics and politics spoils religion.
**to this point I finished writing the original text, then i found some further interesting stuff so I felt obliged to add :
And here's a flyer asking to vote Yes lest a non-muslim president can rule us one day under a secular state that can come through a new constitution.
Just for the knowledge, the neither the constitution nor its amended version state that the president must be a muslim.
And here is a very moderate Imam (Sheikh Osama Al Qousy) who shows the true side of the religion, and in a way sums up some of what I wanted to say
And here is a very moderate Imam (Sheikh Osama Al Qousy) who shows the true side of the religion, and in a way sums up some of what I wanted to say
