Gut Reaction: An open letter to the people of Egypt

Watching your ouster of a tyrant is like watching the dawn in a land which has never seen the sun.

By GERSHOM GALE
Egypt protesters FOR GALLERY 5 (photo credit: MELANIE LIDMAN)
Egypt protesters FOR GALLERY 5
(photo credit: MELANIE LIDMAN)
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.