Written by Don Byrd
Associated Press has a fascinating report today on the diverse expressions of Islam on display at this year’s pilgrimage to Mecca. Reflecting this array of Muslim beliefs, participants from Egypt are divided on the role they want religion to play in the country’s constitution and political structures.
Notably, hajj itself shows the variety in interpretations of Islamic rules. For example, in most of the Muslim world, men and women are segregated during prayers. But in the Grand Mosque, the two sexes pray side by side. For most of the hajj rites, women are not allowed to wear the veil that covers the entire face, even though ultraconservative Muslims insist a woman’s face should be hidden from males not related to her.
Bagnied, the media professor, said she does not fear Shariah but those who would try to interpret and apply it.
“What kind of Islam do they want to apply? Afghanistan, Iran or Saudi Arabia?” she said. Bagnied, who does not wear the headscarf that many Egyptian Muslim women don to cover their hair, said she can resist her family’s urging her to start wearing it. But she worries that an Islamist government will start to apply political pressure as well on such personal choices.
The world is watching the choices Egypt makes, whether they will go the route of freedom or the route of religious rule. Likely to be something in between theocracy and soul freedom, here’s hoping the voices of moderation, accommodation and diversity prevail.
