Where's the ACLU When You Need It?

June 26, 2006

Every Thursday and Sunday Emily and I make our way over to ETC (Episcopal Training Center) where we each take an Arabic class. My lessons generally consist of discussion, where I endeavor to improve my colloquial Egyptian. On Sunday we were talking about apartments, and I mentioned that the elevator in our apartment plays a few seconds of the Qur'an as soon as one pushes a button to go up or down. Emily and I get a kick out of that, considering it something like local color.. We even missed it when it was gone for a couple of days! But my Arabic teacher.. who is a Coptic Christian.. was not so amused, and she thought it was rude that people act as if they are the only religion in Egypt.

That reminded me too of our experience on Friday (the day Muslims gather for a sermon and prayers.. like the Christian Sunday) when we took the metro to downtown. We got out at Sadat.. and it was strange how deserted the station felt. But the few people who were in the station were treated to a morning sermon. Imagine this for a moment: you are standing in a large subway station in a major city.. New York or Washington.. a fine example of public space.. and then on the loudspeaker comes the voice of Pat Robertson delivering a Sunday sermon. It would be an odd moment, surely.. for we are not accustomed to sectarian religious discourse in public places. But if you are a Coptic Christian in Egypt, everyday is filled with reminders that this country is Muslim.

So how would an American Evangelical Christian deal with this situation? I am betting that most would rebel and immediately find the Egyptian ACLU to try and get religion out of public places. They could make a reasonable argument, with the help of the Egyptian ACLU: this is our country, and we have a right not to be bombarded with publicly funded religious messages. Why should a Christian have to get into an elevator several times a day and have to listen to someone else's chanted scripture?

American Evangelicals would do well to consider more how they would react in a minority situation. I get the feeling, though, that their problem with the current Egyptian system would not be out of principle, but rather out of dismay that the wrong side has the power. In fact, I would have a hard time defining just how their positions about the visibility of religious symbols in public places differs from the Muslim reality here.. they just switch the religion. Would James Dobson and Rick Santorum really have a problem with a Christian sermon being broadcast in a public subway station? I doubt it.

Below is also another video.. this one showing a metro train arriving and then leaving. When we go to Arabic lessons.. just one stop away.. we invariably hop on the metro. There is alsoa brief view of Emily eating lime ice cream at the end of this video.. so immature viewers beware..