The liberal movement currently has a really bad name on the street. Liberal is associated with secular, which is associated with infidel, foreign interference and unaccepted practices of a western lifestyle .
The Islamists are playing on this and causing us to react. No bikini and we’re screaming yes bikini. No alcohol and we’re screaming yes alcohol. We’ve fallen into the trap of being reactionary, defending things that are indefensible in this country.
Liberals are also associated with Tahrir, which has become the ultimate symbol of saying No. The MB and the Salafis had little to do with Tahrir and even tried to stop some of the protests there and divert away from them. While we see this as treason of the revolution, and self-serving in its ugliest forms, people see this as a call for stability, old regime style. So again the liberals are associated with saying No while the Islamists are associated with saying Yes.
We must stop saying No and start saying Yes.
Freedom is responsibility. Now that we have our freedom we are the ones responsible to take care of our society, we cannot just throw it on the shoulders of government. And it is a perfect time, before government start reestablishing itself, to make many of the government functions obsolete. If we offer health services, if we take care of the poor, offer education and sports centres, the government will have nothing to do and these aspects of it will die out.
The Islamists understand this and they have used it very well to their advantage. Now if we start doing this as well, Islamists will no longer be the only option available to some. We must give everyone a second option.
But charity and social work are not goals in and of themselves.
In a farm far away from any village lived an old woman who grew tomatoes. Friday of every week was market day and she would walk for six hours to go to the market at the nearest village in order to sell her tomatoes and buy the things that she needs. Now there are many farmers in the market who also sell tomatoes and their price is more or less known. Nevertheless she would give a higher price in order for the customer to start haggling. And it would take them five or ten minutes to reach the price that both parties know are fair, and the middle of the haggling they’d start random conversations when the tension gets high or to try to divert away from reaching a lower price.
Why did the woman do this? Why doesn’t she just say the price everyone knows? Why doesn’t she just write a sign and avoid all this haggling? Because humans crave human interaction, and when you live alone in a far away place, you miss other people and the wonders of a conversation, a smile and just the presence of a stranger.
Charity and social work should not be just dropped at the communities that need them, they should be a pretext to integrate our societies.
If you are going to go there, give out food and run away then you’re missing 90% of the point. Go visit people in their homes, know their names, know their address, get their mobile phone number, give them yours. Talk to them about life in general, understand them and love them.
And it will not stop there, because they also want to understand you, your thoughts, your ideals, your lifestyle. But they have no pretext to knock at your door, except maybe ask for charity which is a bit demeaning, and why would they when they have someone else showing up to their door. You have a pretext so use it.
Mixing with other groups in society not only helps you understand them, but helps them understand you and dispels a lot of the myths being propagated.
And in the end the most important thing is to show up, show up and show up. The MB posters are everywhere, they show up in places we’ve never even heard of. When people don’t know where to go to vote, they show up, on election day, they show up, when there is someone who needs something, they show up.
And we must show up too, when we show up we give people options, We force people to think for themselves because they have two people they trust who are telling them different things, and they will have to chose one for themselves. This will be liberalism at work, choice. And in order to give people a choice we must show up.
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