Don't Insult Our Intellegence

For self-educational purposes, I've spent some time watching the Eqraa Channel.

At first, I caught that Mostafa Hosny guy... and I must admit that watching him took a lot of self-restraint, because that guy manages to be all touchy-feely while putting on a macho attitude, which is no mean feat I'm sure, but it gets on my nerves like nothing else, even before I've listened to what he has to say!

Then I came across some programme episodes for Basma Wahba, one of them is the infamous "Wa Ma Malakat Aymanakom" show where she plays cat & mouse with two Azhar proffessors.

In that show, she keeps asking & they keep avoiding her questions.

The show features one angry proffessor who storms out midway through the show then comes back (I'm not sure how the producers brought him back, maybe they waved some contract at him & threatened a lawsuit, or maybe they talked him into having a drink of yansoon then grovelled a bit... I don't know, and I hardly care *shrugs*)

The show also features another proffessor whose motto seemed to be "When in doubt, Sing!", as he consistently chanted verses of Quran in response to every question, which would have been useful (although a tad theatrical) had the particular verses he chose provided answers to the questions, which sadly, they didn't.

Now, when I watched that Basma Wahba show, I didn't think of those people as merely addressing muslims (although of course they are), but particularly as addressing Egyptians.

The woman was Egyptian, and so were the Azhar people... and she was trying to get them to respond to Fr. Zakareya Boutros who is also Egyptian... so the whole thing felt like a local problem!

And as an Egyptian, I felt involved (although I admit, not as closely involved as any muslim watching), and as an involved party (no matter how remotely) I have a right to feel insulted by that show!

It's not that they looked like they had no answer, and it's not just that they seemed to think none was necessary... but it's mostly because they wasted more than half an hour talking & still managed to say absolutely nothing of use!

It felt very insulting to my intellegence... it's like I wasn't supposed to notice when they dodged a question by providing an irrelevent answer, or when they lingered on side topics to avoid the main issue, or when they threw up tantrums to divert attention away from their lack of knowledge, or when the "singing proffessor" started chanting to add an aura of "holiness" to the emptyness of his answers! (as well as waste programme time, get more screen time, and advertise for his chanting talents!)

That Egyptian youth have to put up with these games, along with all the arrogance, ignorance and weak arguments (if we're lucky enough to hear any arguments at all) is insulting.

And not only that, the implicit fact that Egyptian muslim youth are supposed to be like them is very, very insulting!

Egyptian muslims are supposed to repeat what those Azharians said (what was that, again?!) in response to questions about themselves, other people and God... from themselves, other people and yes maybe even from God!

So to anybody who ever assumes a position where they become teachers, please don't insult our intellegence. And if not for our sakes, let it be for your sakes, for logic's sake and for your God's sake!