My parents left their home country, Egypt, and came to America in the early 1970's. They did not leave because they wanted to. They were very well off and had absolutely no economic reason to leave. Egypt was a beautiful, free, and modern place where people of all religions lived together in harmony. But in the late 60's early 70's, there was a big Islamic movement (we are Catholic by the way). My family was feeling less and less comfortable there because the Islam religion started to take over politics and the government. Yes, this was fine for the Islamic people, but not everyone in Egypt was Muslim. So basically, my parents were forced to leave. They came to the USA with almost nothing in their pockets (they couldn't get the money out of the country) because they knew that religion was not driving America and that they would be free from any kind of religious persecution.
Now, Egypt has a loud speaker on every building which amplifies Islamic prayers 5 times a day. The Islamic president has been in power for 22 years because noone can or will run against him. The majority of non-Muslim Egyptians have left the country. There are mosques everywhere. They don't sell any type of alcohol in the stores and you will not find pork anywhere. Even when I went to TGI Fridays in Cairo, they had 4 pages of non-alcoholic mixed drinks! There was no alcohol or pork on the menu at all. I could go on and on.
When I returned home from my trip, I thanked my parents for having left there and raising my brother and I as Americans. I felt a loss of freedom in Egypt that stems from religion. It's not really something I can explain. But I was basically forced to hear the prayers, forced to turn off the music in the car when the prayers were going on, looked down upon because my head was not covered, was given a hard time by police because my head was not covered, had to walk on the street because the sidwalks were filled with men on their knees praying, had to watch what I said about the faith, had to buy a can of beer from a small market where they had a stash in the back and had to wrap it up in a paper bag before they brought it out, heard the stories from family members who had been turned down for jobs because they were not Muslim, etc.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want to hear Christian prayers from loud speakers everyday. I don't want Americans judging each other because of religion. I don't want public school children to be forced to recite Christian prayer. I don't want to see mosques, temples, etc. being torn down to put up Christian places of worship. I don't want to see a president stay in power past what the law states because the majority of non-Christians have left the country and noone is willing to run against the Christian president. I want to eat and drink what I want, when I want. Finally, I don't want any religion forced out of this country.
I know this sounds far fetched, but it can happen. The wheels have already started to turn in this direction. It has happened in other countries. Just because this is America, doesn't mean that we are immune from such things.
There exist Christian extremists and terrorists too...
There I am done...
and I'm sure you feel the same way.
