Old civilizations are not conjured away
Reader comment on item: Berbers as Anti-Islamists and Anti-Arab Nationalists

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Mar 7, 2009 at 08:46

There are many changes in the Arab world that are taking place and here are just a few examples:

1. Berber nationalism has always existed but we are only talking about it now . What is most amazing is that it seems that many people in al-maghrib are converting to Christianity and this made it to the press in the Arab world as well as to al-jazeera. I do not know the numbers or the accuracy of such reports or how many of them are Berbers but it seems that many are rejecting the Arabs and their religion and their imperialism

2. In the case of Egypt that has the largest non Muslim population in the Middle east I was really surpised when I was watching a TV progarm where the debate was about the Arab invasion of Egypt and that this was no more than the imperialism of the arabs and one of the guests was making it very clear that Muslims like it or not are the decendants not of the Arabs but of Copts and of real Egyptians, which comes as a surprise to many Islamists. He called Muslims in Egypt: al-aqbat al-Muslimeen or those Muslims that are of Coptic origin (read this as real Egyptians).

3. Dr Pipes: I urge you to check what I call the Father Zakaria Botros phenomenon which is really sweeping the Arab world and putting islamists on the defense and an example here: for a few weeks the most important topic in the Middle east was the infamous hadith that was presented by Father Zakaria bout rida3at al-kabeer or the breast feeding of the adult and the response of Muslims to such well documented sayings in the Muslim sources

4. I was also surpised to read that many Egyptians are realizing that Egytian Arabic (3ammi) is a unique language and it is not just a dialect of Arabic

I guess even after 1400 years of Arabian and islamic imperialism such great and old civilizations and in the words of Patrica Crone "are not conjured away"

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