ИСЛАМИЗЪМ В ЮЖНИЯ ЕГИПТ

Джеймс Тот

От години, религиозното насилие и тероризмът в страните от Близкия изток като Египет се пръснаха по заглавията и се разраснаха по екрана, обявявайки още един кръг на безсмислена смърт и унищожение. Докато арабисти и ислямисти се опитват да си пробият път внимателно през идеологическите и интелектуални минни полета, за да разберат какво се случва, по-широката общественост обикновено пренебрегва техните прозрения и вместо това се придържа към това, което знае най-добре: дълбоко вкоренени предразсъдъци и пристрастия. Египетски,Арабски, Мюсюлмани - всички са рисувани в много неблагоприятна светлина. Дори в Египет, много наблюдатели показват същите съжаляващи предразсъдъци. В края, people simply blame the brutalityon inexplicable backward religious ideas and then move on.Yet comprehending terrorism and violence in places such as Egypt by recourse toan unnuanced religious fundamentalism is generally acknowledged not only to begthe question of why these events actually happen, but also to lead to misunderstandingsand misperceptions, and perhaps even to exacerbating existing tensions.1 Mostscholars agree that such seemingly “irrational” social behavior instead needs to beplaced in its appropriate context to be properly understood, and hence made rational.Analyzing these actions, тогава, involves situating this violence and destruction in theireconomic, политически, and ideological milieu as these have developed historically, forthis so-called Islamic terrorism does not merely arise, ex nihilo, out of a timeless void.What follows, тогава, is one case study of one portion of the Islamic movement as itemerged principally in southern Egypt and as it was revealed through anthropologicalfieldwork conducted in one of this region’s major cities. This account takes a completelydifferent direction from that of stigmatizing this movement as a sordid collectionof terrorist organizations hell bent on the senseless destruction of Egypt and itsIslamic civilization.2 Because this view is somewhat at odds with the perceptions oflocal spectators, Egyptians in Cairo, and non–Egyptians inside and outside the country,I go to some length not only to discuss the movement itself but also to shed lighton why it might have received such negative publicity.