From: ayoub@globey.cs.wisc.edu (Nabil Ayoub)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.arabic
Subject: Re: Arab  U N I T Y
Date: 23 Nov 92 20:58:43 GMT
Organization: University of Wisconsin, Madison -- Computer Sciences Dept.

In article <By6CuH.CpA@newsflash.concordia.ca> ilyess@ECE.Concordia.CA (Ilyess Bdira) writes:
>
>Those Egyptians who identify with "Firaoun" rather than with being
>ARabs first of all don't know what they are saying, and second are nothing
>but westernized individuals who took from the western civilization nothing
>but its most ugly side (the worship of power).

Well to your disappointment, 90+% of Egyptians are proud of being Egyptian,
and are proud of their heritage throughout history (be it Pharonic, Coptic,
or Islamic). If you read UPI reports after that terrible earthquake, you
will be amazed how much people were relieved to know that Sphinx survived
the earthquake, saying "al-hamdullilah, Sphinx is safe"! You cannot 
understand (whether it is due to jealousy or not) what does our heritage
mean to us. Check out sci.archaeology and listen how all the World stops
short (with all its might, technology, and intellect) of  understanding
how the Great Pyramid of Giza was built. Some even suggested, it was built
by methods which supercedes our current understanding about the Pyramid (I
am not saying it is true, but this shows how advanced were the Egyptians).

Certainly, the Egyptian civilization, like any other, was not perfect.
For example idolatary is not something to be proud of, but every
civilization had bright spots that contributed to the advancement of
mankind. Most of Egyptians feel our forefathers contributed a lot to
architecture, science, medicine, astronomy, social structure, trade,
military science, agriculture, communications (language), and the list
goes on. This has nothing to do with the West at all.

[ stuff deleted ]

>The degree of civilization here is measured in terms of
>1)The status of the the general population (social, psychological,
>intellectual, and economical). Here, a negligible minority will not
>grant the whole population "civilized status'
>2)The effectivity of the use of all available resources (human and
>natural) for the advancement of the above mentioned status.

Some people suggested that the Great Pyramid was built by slavery. To 
their surprise, archaeological evidence proved this to be dead wrong.
They found writings by the builders who said they were "friends of 
the King". The Egyptian civilization was not on a minority level. It
was for all the people and eventually benefitted all the World. Please
log into your card cataloge system and search under "Egypt" and see 
what did the ancient Egyptians have done. Claiming Egyptian civilization
is as worthless as you said is outrageous. Egyptians have the right to
be proud of the achievments of their forefathers and no one can deny
that. Sure the Egyptian culture have changed over the centuries but
this does not make any era more civilized than the other. They are just
different. This is "apples and oranges".

Nabil

          .-------------------------------------------------------------.
         /  Nabil Ayoub                        ____/   __  /    ____/  /
        /  Engine Research Center             /       /   /    /      /
       /  Dept. of Mechanical Engineering    ___/    __  /    /      /
      /  University of Wisconsin-Madison    /       /   |    /      /
     /  Email:ayoub@erctitan.me.wisc.edu  _____/ __/   _|  _____/  /
    '-------------------------------------------------------------'
Newsgroups: soc.culture.arabic