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Egyptische blogger schrijft gastblog over Nederland

Sherif: Exactly the way I thougt it would be

Door Carola Houtekamer Carola Houtekamer op 30 maart 2010

Om het beeld van  Nederland in de wereld bij te stellen en meer begrip voor Nederland te creeëren, had het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken twee weken geleden acht Egyptische bloggers hier uitgenodigd.Vorige week vertelden twee van hen, Wael Abbas en Sherif Abdelaziz Ahmed, in nrc.next wat mensenrechtenblogs in Egypte teweeg brengen, en hoe gevaarlijk bloggen daarover is.

Maar wat vonden ze nou van Nederland? We hebben het hun gevraagd. Vandaag een gastblog van blogger Sherif Abdelaziz Ahmed, die op zijn blog vrijheden en sociale rechten in Egypte aan de kaak stelt. Sherif wil graag een dialoog. Reageren en vragen stellen kan hieronder.

Screenshot van blog van Sherif Abdelaziz

Screenshot van blog van Sherif Abdelaziz Ahmed

Exactly the way I thought it would be

Perhaps I am not your average Joe in the Egyptian street, but I do represent a slight yet influential portion of the Egyptian society. I have been invited by the Dutch Embassy in Cairo to visit Holland with a group of influential Egyptian bloggers in one of the embassy’s exchange programs. It made me recall some of the images I have always pictured in mind about Holland. The greenery, the windmills, cheese products, beauty of the nature, and of course the Fitna Movie of Wilders.

I have always seen Holland in a positive light even after the release of Fitna, and after the repeated anti-Islamic slurs made by Wilders and his followers.

I understand how democracy works in the west in general, and I do appreciate the freedom of speech with all its forms and manifestations.

But what worried me much is that hatred disguises in freedom of speech at first, but then it does not stop at words and chanted slogans, it always surpasses that to action, and unfortunately the “action” I mean will materialize in violence, discrimination, and perhaps major violations of basic human rights.

I have seen this happened in the anti-Semitic era that ruled Europe for decades, I am seeing this now in Egypt where anti-Christian sentiment is on the rise among Egyptians, and I am seeing this happening as Islamophobia is spreading across the world.

I always see that hatred begets hatred, and it ends up in utmost catastrophe that makes everybody suffer. I understand where hatred comes from; it always comes from ignorance and arrogance. Both ignorance and arrogance complement each other, no matter which one of them existed first, the second one will follow suite.

In my country , I have stood for minorities rights and I have paid a heavy price for that at times , let alone that the majority of the Egyptians also lack basic human rights , which makes my job and many like me even harder . There is that soil that can harbor hatred in Egypt, there is despair, poverty, and lack of national dream or hope, but why does hatred prosper in Holland, where all these negative aspects are at its minimum?

We met so many people in Amsterdam, the city of global inclusion, and celebrated human values. I was happy to see myself and my friends welcomed everywhere we go. I loved the parliament, the streets, the history museum, the old buildings, the bikes, the river, and the clear skies.
I have seen Holland exactly the way I thought it would be; a beautiful country, full of success, hopes, and fears.

Sherif Abdelaziz Ahmed

11 reacties op "Egyptische blogger schrijft gastblog over Nederland"rss-icon

If people would only know their history, they would understand the present and not act in an emotional pragmatic way that is only doing harm.  
It is like you said. Hatred comes from arrogance and ignorance. Even in Holland. 
If the avarage person that votes for Wilders would know just a little bit more about our history and the world they would know why all the immigrants are here and that polarization and hatred is not the solution.

Dear Sherif, 
 
I’m glad to hear you were welcomed and felt welcome in Holland. I hope this is a reflexion of the fact that the Dutch are generally still open to foreigners and their culture.  
 
And that even the people that vote for Wilders do so because they are discontented, dissatified with life and their circumstances, not because they hate. 
 
This might be a beginning of an answer to your question as to why people in a whealty, free country vote for a populist party.  
 
I hope that discontent and fear will fade slowly and change into hope and a better political climate, which respects all people regardless of what they wear on their head!

I wish I could be that optimistic. Ignorance and arrogance are evolving into hatred very quickly. That is, I can find no other reason as to why Wilders PVV wants to ban headcloths. It certainly will not solve any of our problems. 
 
Therefore I have to agree with Sherif. I wish it were different.

You are right that hatred often has an unrelated source. In your country it is poverty, just as it was in the Western world before the second world war (not just 1930-1945, the anti-Semitic feelings are much older). It is always easy to blame someone for your own problems, and different political parties have different people-groups to blame: to keep this to the Netherlands, Wilders blames the Islam, VVD blames the big government, SP blames the rich, and so on (over-simplified).  
 
The problems we have in the Netherlands are luxury problems compared to Egypt, but they do exist: there are parts of big cities where I don’t dare to walk at night, criminals often go unpunished, and so on. People don’t feel safe anymore. And unfortunately often Islamic people are involved, because the recent immigrants with a low education are Islamic. That’s why Wilders blames Islam, even though the religion is hardly related at all. And the primary reason that Wilders can grow in the polls, is the lacking efforts of the traditional parties to solve the problems. They allowed the problems to grow between 1980 and 2000 to the current heights, and still think thay can fix the problems using the same methods that failed in that period.  
 
(I assume this discussion won’t be in Dutch ;))

By the way, the cartoon that in my opinion describes the Wilders party best is this Fokke&Sukke cartoon:  
http://www.foksuk.nl/nl?cm=79&.....8;cid=5022 
It translates to: 
 
Fokke & Sukke are the think tank of PVV 
- More roads, smaller groups in primary schools, pension stays at the age of 65 (instead of 67) and taxes go to 25% (instead of roughly 33% average)… 
- And we finance that by abolishing swimming lessons for Islamic mothers! (almost the only adults getting swimming lessons are from foreign origin)

Ik krijg altijd weer een ongemakkelijk gevoel als Nederlanders of buitenlanders ons land een voorbeeld achten van een tolerante en sociale natie. Dat is historisch simpelweg op niets gebaseerd. In tegendeel. Ik probeer het te bezingen in mijn canon ‘Trots op Nederland’: http://www.deliedjeskrant.nl/l.....ecordID=17

Jij kent duidelijk je geschiedenis niet goed. Nederland was in de gouden eeuw één van de meest vrije en multiculturele landen ter wereld.  
Vrouwen hadden veel aanzien, we accepteerden vluchtelingen als calvinistische hugenoten uit Frankrijk, joden (al hadden die het wel eens moeilijk wb maatschappelijke functies)etc.  
De Nederlandse opstand aan de vooravond van de gouden eeuw ging er notabene om om godsdienstvrijheid te handhaven. 
De kruistochten moet je ook zien in de tijdsgeest. Veel Nederlanders hoopten op deze manier een beter leven te krijgen en werd daarnaast ook een enkeltje hemel beloofd als ze voor het geloof zouden sterven. Ik zou het ook gedaan hebben. 
Kolonialisme/slavernij ben ik het wel mee eens. Dat kon niet, maar gelukkig kwam daar ook al vrij snel kritiek op tijdens de verlichting. 
Tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog accepteerden wij enorm veel belgische vluchtelingen!! En wat betreft de 2e wereldoorlog. Wel eens van accommodatiepolitiek gehoord? Ben benieuwd of jij zo’n heldhaftige verzetsstrijder zou zijn geweest….Wij hebben de moffen één keer in de weg gestaan in 1941 tijdens de februaristaking. We weten allemaal de afloop. Jij ook? 
Die naoorlogse achterhaalde kolonisatiedrang van Nederland kon inderdaad niet door de beugel. I agree! 
Logisch dat wij nederlands protesteerden tegen de Yankees. Toen door de media aan het licht kwam hoezeer de amerikanen zich daar misdroegen was het logisch dat er protest kwam. Denk aan My Lai! De SU en China, daar hoorde je helaas niks over….Jij zou zeker wel in je ééntje tegen Mao en Stalin geprotesteerd hebben? Bovendien was Stalin allang de pijp uit tijdens de protesten. 
En wat betreft Irak, tsja, met de wetenschap van nu…;) 
Anyway, ik vind je liedje dus voor een groot gedeelte volledig de plank mis slaan!

moffen=Duitsers

Die tolerantie was ook vaak gebaseerd op het feit dat we d’r flink aan konden verdienen…Joden waren zo welkom omdat ze ook zoveel opleverden met weinig overlast. Zo zijn veel landen wel tolerant. Ik vind dat die zogenaamde tolerantie altijd erg word overdreven.  
 
De moslims worden slecht/niet getolereerd omdat bij de gemiddelde Nederlander het beeld heerst van laag opgeleide criminelen. Ik hoor nooit iemand klagen over Chinezen, zijn we heel tolerant tegenover. We hebben er meer dan 100.000 in Nederland. Hoor je nooit wat over.

Mooi lied. Dit soort ironie trek ik wel.

There is that soil that can harbor hatred in Egypt, there is despair, poverty, and lack of national dream or hope, but why does hatred prosper in Holland, where all these negative aspects are at its minimum? 
 
Despair and lack of dreams are not necessarily coupled to financial poverty. In the Dutch suburbs, that superficially seem prosperous and well organized, you will find a desperate lack of identity. Suburbia is an environment where everything is organized and taken care for, depriving their inhabitants from any emotional grip. It is here you will find the Wilders supporters. They do feel desperate. They have a feeling something essential has been lost and, even if they don’t know what, it makes them angry.