Last year, I bought some red, white, and blue fabric to make myself an American flag belly dance costume. Well, to have Eman Zaki make it for me. I never thought I would do such a thing, but I couldn’t resist those glitter stars and stripes set against a background of stretch lycra. Politics aside, it is a beautiful flag. And I’m crazy like that.**
The costume was absolutely stunning, but I wasn’t brave enough to wear it. At least not initially. I was well aware of Egyptians’ generally unfavorable views towards the United States, and I didn’t want to risk being offensive (or being pelted). Then one day, I decided to risk it. I figured the worst that could happen was being booed off the stage. I was willing to take that chance. To my surprise, nothing like that happened. In fact, my audience started clapping and cheering the moment I entered the room. Many of them begged to take pictures with me after my show.
I have since worn that flag costume several times, and it always elicits the same reaction. It never fails. It has therefore become of my more popular costumes. Clients have even requested that I wear it at certain private functions. The last time someone asked me to wear it was about three weeks ago, when I danced for former Egyptian Minister of Interior Ahmed Rushdie. And when I danced on Egypt’s new 24-hour belly dance TV channel, “El-Tit.” (You read that right.) The TV shoot was particularly funny, because out of ten costumes I brought with me, the production staff insisted I wear the flag one. On both occasions, however, I politely declined.
In spite of the fact that my American flag costume is a real crowd pleaser, I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing it these days. Especially not on Egyptian TV! Times are different now. I never thought I would actually say this, but being American in Cairo is starting to get a little uncomfortable. Yes, my Arabic is quite convincing, and no, I do not shove democracy down people’s throats. But with all the political finger pointing going on these days, I feel a bit uneasy divulging my nationality, let alone wearing it when I dance.
This feeling is not normal for me. And it’s not normal for Egypt. Egyptians are some of the most welcoming people in the world, and they are expert at distinguishing between the government of a country and its people. Egyptians are also great about discussing politics…so much so that I would roll my eyes every time an incredulous American asked me “but aren’t you afraid to tell people there that you’re American?”
Unfortunately, I can no longer roll my eyes at this question. As much as it irritates me to feed into the myopic beliefs of some Americans, being American in Egypt just isn’t the same anymore. I spent the past eight years traveling to and studying in bastions of anti-Americanism such as Yemen, Syria, Cuba, and Egypt, and yet I never thought twice about hiding my nationality. Here and now, however, I’m starting to think twice. And thrice.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t exactly feel threatened. (Yet.) And who knows? Maybe my feelings are totally unjustified. It’s just that popular Egyptian opinion is getting a little xenophobic. Especially towards Americans. Currently, the word on the “Arab Street” (and in the media and universities and elsewhere) has it that every outburst of violence in Egypt is the work of “outside forces.” Those forces include the United States and Israel (obviously), Iran, Germany, and strangely, Qatar. Everything from last week’s soccer massacre to the revolution itself is blamed on foreigners who want to see Egypt torn into smithereens. Why, I don’t know, but this is what a lot of Egyptians are claiming.
Of course, the powers that be have a lot to do with this. They have mastered the Middle Eastern political art of diversion, which is basically blaming the U.S. and Israel for all of their misdeeds and failures. Luckily for the Egyptian Army, this tactic is proving effective—Egyptians tend to be pretty credulous, especially when it comes to politics. Start a rumor about America and its ‘sidekick’ Israel, and Egyptians will believe it. Skepticism isn’t a currency here.
Egyptians would also rather believe that someone else is responsible for the occasional eruptions of violence. This is partially due to the world’s history of interference in Middle Eastern affairs, and partially because the violence has shocked the Egyptian national conscience. Egyptians are bearing witness to crimes they never thought could happen on their soil. From last week’s soccer massacre to fighting between Muslims and Christians and just the whole darn revolution itself, it is psychologically more convenient to blame unseen foreign forces than for them to blame themselves. More and more, it seems as though very few Egyptians are willing to claim responsibility for the revolution and everything that has happened thereafter.
The latest in a long list of catastrophes involving foreigners this past week is the debacle of the “Cairo 19.”( http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/02/07/the_cairo_19) These are 19 American NGO workers being held in Egypt against their will on trumped up charges of spying for the US government. They are also being accused of using “illegally procured funds” to foment violence against the regime. In other words, of paying Egyptian “thugs” to commit the soccer massacre, to gang rape women in the Jan. 25th celebrations, etc. Now, I am no supporter of these democracy missionaries that work for NGO’s. For several reasons. But somehow, I find it hard to believe that the U.S. has an interest in promoting civil unrest in Egypt. Amicable relations with Egypt have long been a pillar of US foreign policy. Theoretically, this is what keeps Egypt from attacking Israel, and what grants the US easy access to the Suez Canal. That calculus has not changed. Rather, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) is deflecting the responsibility for its massive security failure at last week’s soccer match onto nefarious US machinations in Egypt. The soccer disaster, which resulted in the deaths of more than seventy people, dealt a major blow to SCAF, which Egyptians were accusing of negligence and conspiracy. Blaming the deaths on “unseen foreign forces,” then, was the army’s ‘brilliant’ way of taking itself out of the spotlight…as though there are no bad Egyptians, only bad foreigners. It is so obvious. Yet what kills me is how readily Egyptians believe these rumors—how readily they are willing to believe the same people who readily mow them down when they protest.
None of this surprises me. Even former President Hosni Mubarak used the US as a scapegoat whenever he wanted to divert negative attention away from himself. But what makes this blame game a little different and scary now is that people are taking politics into their own hands. Unlike during Mubarak’s tenure, when politics was the sole domain of the regime, people are now staging (sometimes violent) protests based on their newfound political zeal. This is both good and bad. Good that Egyptians have found the means and the will to shape the future. Bad when they take the law into their own hands and hurt innocent people based on conspiracy theories.
Admittedly, it is not helping that those “unseen foreign forces” are, in all actuality, not unseen. People like the “Cairo 19” are not invisible US agents of destruction. They are ordinary American expats living and working in Egypt. They have names and faces and Egyptian friends. And those three losers who flung Molotov cocktails at Egyptian security forces a couple of months ago… they were American students who came here to study Arabic. (http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-22/africa/world_africa_egypt-americans-arrested_1_tahrir-square-molotov-cocktails-cairo?_s=PM:AFRICA) They also had names, faces and Egyptian friends. Somebody needs to tell these pinheads this is not their fight, and that they are spoiling it for the rest of us. Like the Egyptians, they are taking politics into their own hands. And while we appreciate their “commitment to bringing about democracy,” they are doing more harm than good. Plus, they are blurring the distinction between the American government and American people—a distinction that I previously mentioned Egyptians have been good at making.
Though I highly doubt the “Cairo 19” are guilty of espionage and sabotage, maybe it’s time for them to think about closing up shop. For starters, the current political climate in Egypt isn’t exactly conducive to democracy promotion. Most Egyptians do not want democracy. They equate it with western-style moral decadence. The army sure as heck doesn’t want democracy. That would curtail its powers. So maybe we Americans should stop force feeding it to them. Besides, it doesn’t make us look good, especially since we’re not consistent about it. We are not, for example, imposing democracy on Syria. As the Egyptians have been asking all along, intu malku? Meaning, “what’s it to you (Americans) (whether or not we have democracy?).” I think this is a question worth asking.
Aside from Egyptian opinion vis-à-vis democracy, Americans should be thinking about something else. Democracy + Middle East = religious extremism. That is neither in the interest of the people nor of the United States. It is so simple. What’s not to get? Or do we just have to win every battle, physical and ideological?
If being American means believing that democracy can be imposed anywhere and everywhere, then I’m an AmeriCAN’T. We can’t implant democracy in parts of the world that have no history of secularism, human rights, and term limits. And we cannot keep meddling in other countries’ internal affairs. What we can do is provide the best example of democracy in our own country, hoping that others around the world will one day see the light. Until then, it might be better to let nature take its course.
**For the record, I have been wanting to make an Egyptian flag costume for a while now. Yet many Egyptians warned me that dancing in their flag would be taken as a sign of disrespect, however much I see it as a gesture of adoration.
