The things we can learn from others:

I find myself sitting here at my computer with a LOT to say, yet I dont know where to start. Everything that I can think of to write about seems so trivial... particularly in light of what is going on right now in Egypt. But maybe that is a starting point for me to use to talk today. When information started leaking into the US, people immediately began to think that there would be fuel added to the fire due to ongoing religious tension between Christians and Muslim, particularly between Coptic Christians and Muslims.

I have to admit, that this was one of the fears that I had, but I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised. During the middle of this uprising, I saw one of the coolest things I had ever seen.

This past Sunday, after the media was already pulled out of Egypt for fear that they would be targeted by the government as well as protesters, images were leaked to the mainstream public using spoofed IP addresses off of internationally registered sim cards in camera phones. This was the ONLY way these photos could spread globally, because the Egyptian government had already cut off all internet and news media that was not giving the Mubarak approved messages to the masses.

Regardless, on Sunday, photos were made global in which Muslims created a safe passage to the churches for the local Christians to have easier access to their house of worship on their holy day of the week. These Muslims lined the streets to keep governmental military from injuring the Christian worshippers, and to keep them from being victim to other violence as the protests grew out of control.

Immediately after these images were released, Someone sent me the above photo which pictures Egyptian men holding hands around a group of Muslims as they made their Salaah (their five daily prayers). For Muslims, praying in a public place which is growing increasingly hostile can be life threatening as they are required to perform a series of movements including standing with the eyes closed, bowing, kneeling and then kneeling with their faces touching the floor (which would leave them particularly vulnerable to attack from hostile people). During the many prayers that Muslims were doing during the day, Christians would encircle these people, hold hands and form a human barricade to protect the Muslims during their rituals.

How cool is that? Christians protecting Muslim during prayer, Muslims protecting Christians during prayer? seriously too cool!

How many times have I heard that the Muslim World could learn a lot from the Western world? How often have people told me that Muslims (and Arabs in general) have so much catching up to do if they want to be "less barbaric" and as "civilized" as the Western World?

In response to these recent photos that are circulating worldwide, I cant help but ask this in return: perhaps there is something HUGE here that we can learn from the people of Egypt. If the people of the Middle East are supposedly so uncivilized, why (in the middle of one of the largest uprisings of our time), are Christians going out of their way to protect and show their love for one another? Wouldn't it be amazing if American Christians, Muslims and Jews could get along like this???