Eight floors, one enormous tent, millions of campaign leaflets and 3,500 or so journalists and their supporters (sometimes even their children) may not sound like your type of party. But it was mine this past Saturday, as the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate threw its biennial elections.
You couldn’t go two feet without a flier and a “fadl,” (more-or-less “please”) stuck in your grill by an earnest reporter hoping you would vote (one of your 12 votes for the Syndicates 12 council seats or your one vote for the presidency) on his or her candidate. Television cameras abounded – reporting on reporters!
What was born out on this day and in my subsequent interviews was the sheer energy of the young corps of Egyptian journalists. In interviews with those who the young hot-shots call “the old generation,” there is an expression of excitement and wonder at the intensity and gusto with which these new professionals have taken to their calling.
In the vein of humanizing the Muslim world, let me point out three things. First, the absolute obsession of the Syndicate with holding fair elections. Second, it is people like the following three young journalists who are pushing the regime across a variety of areas. Third, while each of my new friends are Muslims, each of them makes it clear, in a variety of ways, that its their human identity they values the most.
The “Crazy Journalist”: Hossam, my perpetual fixer, translator and big dreamer is responsible for me being in the thick of things last weekend. He’s been in the business for seven years having gone on several “adventures,” my favorite being his 24-hour stint as a Cairo shoe-shine man.
He imagines himself in the mold of the do-it-all big-shot journalists, involved in Syndicate politics and, inshallah, moving up the ranks of government positions regarding the media. He schemes programs for the development of young journalists and being a strong hand to protect journalistic integrity against government intrusion. He calls himself a “crazy journalist,” because he is “unafraid of anything or anyone.”
The Professional: Muhammad Abdel-Baky is 22 and has scored a gig at the Egyptian weekly politics magazine “The Last Hour,” where he is the youngest member on staff and the youngest member of the press corps covering the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. He can talk until he’s red in the face on the theory of firms, economics and selling papers. Before jetting off to an assignment in the United Arab Emirates this weekend, Muhammad fills me in on his last trip to Germany and his work on Mohamad ElBaradei. Where Hossam harbors big political designs across a variety of pursuits, Muhammad is a journalistic stalwart. In his presence, you feel caught up in his energy. There must not be much, I think to myself quite often through our time together, that he can’t do.
The Graduate: Ola Abdallah is 19 and fresh out of the faculty of communication. She’s working for Egypt’s hottest paper, Egypt Today, and is hanging out around the Syndicate on election day with her eyes wide – she’s not a member yet (membership requires at least three years service in the industry and financial backing from one’s own paper) but is soaking up the atmosphere and handing out fliers for one of her paper’s candidates. She is full of talk about new media platforms and pushing Egypt’s fabled “red lines” – the president, the military, and interfaith relations. I find Ola’s mere existence a stab at general stereotypes about Muslim women: you would never say that Ola, who wears the hijab, is in any sense of the word “oppressed.” But Ola’s dynamism has yet to be fully realized. “I haven’t done much yet,” she told me. “But I hope to do much, very much.”
The depth and breadth of Islamic expression in the public eye is varied, to be sure. But I know Muhammad, Hossam and Ola would appreciate it if you would think of them the next time you pass judgment on Islam.
Comments (2)
Joel:
What about the Christofascists? Same crap, different religion. There are millions of them right here in the U.S., and they are a far greater danger to Americans than all Muslims combined.
Posted November 21, 2007 4:15 PM
Posted on November 21, 2007 16:15
throw it down big man!! very good but what about the Islamofascists?
Posted November 21, 2007 1:22 PM
Posted on November 21, 2007 13:22