{"id":3225,"date":"2011-09-01T14:01:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T20:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3225"},"modified":"2011-09-01T14:07:59","modified_gmt":"2011-09-01T20:07:59","slug":"declaring-war-on-bikinis-and-pyramids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3225","title":{"rendered":"Declaring War on Bikinis and Pyramids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why is this not surprising news? With the “Arab Spring” fading into the long hot summer, the Islamic militants in Egypt are focusing on their favorite targets (besides Coptic Christians): women, eroticism, and Paganism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some slight changes will be made in public beaches, to make the situation better than it was before,” Ali Khafagy, youth director of Freedom and Justice [part of the Muslim Brotherhood] in Giza, told The Media Line. “Bathing suits and mixing on the beach are things that go against our tradition. It’s not just a matter of religion. When I go to the beach I don’t want to see nudity.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Right. “Slight changes.” There speaks the voice of incipient dictatorship.<\/p>\n

And then there is Egypt’s big money-maker: tourism. A lot more people come to see the ruins of Pagan Egypt than to see any mosque in Cairo, but do the radical beardies care about that?<\/p>\n

But bathing suits are not the only worry of Egypt\u2019s Islamists. Abd Al-Munim A-Shahhat, a spokesman for the Salafi group Dawa, has said that Egypt’s world-renowned pharaonic archeology \u2013 its pyramids, Sphinx and other monuments covered with un-Islamic imagery \u2013 should also be hidden from the public eye.<\/p>\n

“The pharaonic culture is a rotten culture,” A-Shahhat told the London-based Arabic daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat<\/em> on Wednesday, saying the faces of ancient statues “should be covered with wax, since they are religiously forbidden.” . . . .<\/p>\n

The Islamist challenges to the tourism industry in post-revolutionary Egypt have led to the establishment of the Coalition to Support Tourism, whose members also met with [Muslim Brotherhood official] Al-Katatny on Monday. The coalition, which includes a broad array of travel industry organizations and figures, argued that the real problem isn\u2019t modesty but the absence of any strategy on the part of Egypt’s new parties to protect the country’s faltering tourism industry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Would you book a cruise up the Nile right now? I doubt that many people are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why is this not surprising news? With the “Arab Spring” fading into the long hot summer, the Islamic militants in Egypt are focusing on their favorite targets (besides Coptic Christians): women, eroticism, and Paganism. Some slight changes will be made in public beaches, to make the situation better than it was before,” Ali Khafagy, youth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[116,15,158],"class_list":["post-3225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-egypt","tag-islam","tag-tourism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-Q1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2838,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2838","url_meta":{"origin":3225,"position":0},"title":"Online Egyptological Magazine","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Egyptological is a free online magazine devoted to ancient Egypt. It offers \"papers, articles, brief items, reviews and reports, all discussing the rich world of Ancient Egypt.\" One current article discusses how civil unrest in Egypt right now leads to (surprise!) more looting of archaeological sites.","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6775,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6775","url_meta":{"origin":3225,"position":1},"title":"Queen Nefertiti Goes Cuckoo","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\"It's kind of fascinating but it's kind of horrifying,\" I said to M. across the breakfast table when I saw an ad for \"the only cuckoo clock inspired by the Wonders of Ancient Egypt.\" \"'Queen Nefertiti's regal procession rotates,' it says,\" I added. \"Horrifying, completely horrifying,\" she replied. She detests\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"culture\"","block_context":{"text":"culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=culture"},"img":{"alt_text":"clock","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/clock-161x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5367,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5367","url_meta":{"origin":3225,"position":2},"title":"Akhenaten, Proto-Monotheist, Worked His People to Death","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Things were hard for the people who built an instant capital city for the Dear Leader. Researchers examining skeletons in the commoners' cemetery in Amarna have discovered that many of the city's children were malnourished and stunted. Adults show signs of backbreaking work, including high levels of injuries associated with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Egypt\"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=egypt"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3509,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3509","url_meta":{"origin":3225,"position":3},"title":"\u00c6gypt in Northern California: Isis Oasis","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In 1957, a young artist named Lora Vign\u00e9 and her husband moved from Southern California to San Francisco. \"It was 1957, the beginning of the Beatnik era, and we fitted the description,\" she writes in her memoir, The Goddess Bade Me Do It! No poser bohemian, she was already producing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Loreon2_sm-246x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1432,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1432","url_meta":{"origin":3225,"position":4},"title":"Who Was Hypatia?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"With the build-up among Pagan moviegoers for a North American release of Alelejandro Amenabar's Agora, here is a quick biography of the philosopher Hypatia herself and the religious conflicts that led to her murder by a Christian mob. (She was a bit older at her death than is Rachel Weisz.)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"On the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, a mob led by Peter the Lector brutally murdered Hypatia, one of the last great thinkers of ancient Alexandria. Mary Evans Picture Library \/ Alamy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.smithsonianmag.com\/images\/Hypatia-murdered-388.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3597,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3597","url_meta":{"origin":3225,"position":5},"title":"Ground Broken for Pagan Library","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Ground was broken on the 17th for construction of the New Alexandrian Library in Georgetown, Delaware. Its name references an ancient library in Alexandria, Egypt. It\u2014or they, as there were several collections\u2014was damaged in Roman wars, destroyed as part of a campaign against Pagan temples by a Christian bishop\u2014and according\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3225"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3231,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3225\/revisions\/3231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}