The music of Islam
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“God is great. I testify there is no god but God. . . . Make haste toward prayers.”
The prayer caller’s chant is heard five times a day; from birth to death it is the music of Islam, lingering in the air, reminding the faithful to prostrate themselves before God.
Morsi Abdel Fattah has sung these words for 20 years in a poor neighborhood of Cairo. He is easily spotted among other men; white beard and gray eyes, a pressed tunic, and a prayer cap as snowy as a swan. When he’s not at the mosque, he’s two doors down selling rice and macaroni from tin pots at the shop he and his brother run.
His is the voice the young here have grown up with, like a coaxing uncle in a large family, a voice that soothes the devout and reminds those who have fallen that they need to return.
“I am seeking divine reward,” he said. “Since I was young, I’ve heard the prophetic saying that the muezzin [prayer caller] would have his head above the others on Judgment Day.”
First day on the job for Egyptian first and only female marriage registrar
Amal Suleiman Afifi , Egypt’s first female marriage registrar performed her first wedding ceremony at a mosque in the Delta town of Zaqaziq, north of Cairo, over complaints by some conservative clerics.
Many conservative clerics believe Islamic law, or Sharia, prohibits a woman from becoming a registrar because it states the testimony of two women is equivalent to one man in court. Therefore they believe a marriage contract signed by a woman would be illegal. More liberal minded clerics believe a marriage registrar is an official who purely plays an administrative role for the state, and therefore her signature on the contract does not violate Shariah.
The Egyptian constitution doesn’t specifically bar women from becoming marriage registrars.
Afifi first approached the Egyptian government last year seeking approval to become a marriage registrar, but the Ministry of Justice turned her down. The ministry eventually approved her position in September, after Afifi took her case to a family court and was appointed over 10 other male applicants for the job because of her “distinguished legal qualifications.”
Alcohol banned at Grand Hyatt Cairo
The owner of Cairo’s luxury Grand Hyatt hotel flushed $300,000 down the toilet.
Abdel Aziz Ibrahim, a member of the Saudi royal family decided to get rid of 2,500 bottles of alcoholic beverages in stock by ordering their content drained into the sewers, without providing any notice to the American hotel chain managing the property, Hyatt International.
Fathi Nur, president of the Egyptian Hotel Association, is threatening to drop the hotel rating from five to two stars by July 2.
Drinking alcohol is considered contrary to Islam but it is not banned by Egyptian law. Hotel rules dictate that any hotel above two stars must serve alcohol. An owner is also not allowed to interfere in the running of affairs when there is a managing company.
Grand Hyatt spokeswoman Sally Khattab said the two parties were currently in talks to resolve the issue.
I welcome comments from someone who knows the consequences of flushing 2,500 bottles of alcoholic beverages into the Nile.
