An Honest Reflection By An Egyptian Newspaper

In an Egyptian newspaper named al-Doustour (The Constitution), an article appeared today, 20 September 2006, examining with objectivity the most recent conflict between Muslims and Christians which was triggered by the Pope's recent statements. The article was written by its senior editor, Mr. Ehab Abdel Hamid, entitled: Followers of every religion believe that they are "God's chosen ones" and that all the rest are either ignorant or heretics. He spoke of how easy it is for the followers of one religion to be totally oblivious of others' convictions and beliefs, and to fall into the exact same biases and errors that they accuse others of committing.

He then applied his analysis to the persecution of the Baha'is in Egypt, and used this as a perfect example in order to illustrate his point.

He stated the following: "...and we had in the Baha'i case an example and case-in-point. It is us that shout and scream that the west debases us and our religion. We united ourselves in one man's heart [one voice] calling for killing the Baha'is or expelling them from our country, or at least treating them as second-class citizens, accusing their fathers of [horrific acts]. And some do smartly pronounce that the Baha'i [Faith] is not a Divine religion. And we say that this is the belief and conviction of the Muslims. Meanwhile, the belief of the Christians is that Islam is not a Divine religion, and that no religions will follow Christianity." He then goes on to further his analysis of how this type of hypocrisy is so prevalent in the current worldwide religious debate.

This journalist, with his example of independent writing, shows us how the press could report objectively and honestly on critical issues without being influenced by any agenda, whether political, religious or otherwise. Incidentally, al-Doustour is labeled by some prominent Egyptian journalists as "daring!"