Shalom/Salaam. I write this, not as a member of any political party or any
nongovernmental agency, nor even of any religion, but simply as one human being
speaking to other human beings.
Though I speak only for myself, I know I
am not alone, and urge some other simple human who feels as I do to translate
this into a language your countrymen can understand.
I celebrate your
ouster of a tyrant who has run your lives for decades, and for your hard-won,
historychanging liberation from a mind-set that has governed your country for
millennia.
It is like watching the dawn in a land which has never seen
the sun.
But I worry too. I worry that you may trade a political tyranny
which controlled the body, for a religious tyranny which aims to control both
body and soul. We were all made by the same One, and given the same commands: Do
not murder, do not steal, do not worship any other or speak against your
creator, do not eat the limb from a living animal, do not descend into
bestiality, and establish courts of law to enforce these basic rules of
humanity.
We have so many important things in common. Why argue, fight
and kill over what are truly trivial differences? Why listen to leaders –
political or religious – who urge us to do so? So don’t be fooled. Don’t be
bullied. Don’t be swayed from seeing your revolution against tyranny all the way
through.
Long live free Egypt! The writer is a veteran Jerusalem Post
staffer. The article first appeared on February 16 in the daily edition of The
Jerusalem Post.
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