Atheists & Agnostics

...when I lived in Egypt. Especially this part: You see people doing terrible things in the name of religion...

This was an Egyptian/Muslim woman I liked and trusted, enough that she knew I was an atheist. Once I asked if she thought non-believers could be as moral etc. as believers.

She replied "Absolutely." And told me she had quite a few ex-Muslim, non-believer friends. Then she went off on how angry she was about Islamic fundamentalists, who were doing terrible things in the name of her religion.

It was exactly the same blind spot we see in a lot of liberal Xian believers, which was interesting. "They aren't Real Muslims" etc.

This woman certainly wasn't backwards or ignorant. She had a Master's Degree and spoke several languages. Like many educated Egyptians, she moonlighted as a tour guide. Which is how I met her.

But she was also a very devout Muslim. Always wore the head-covering and uber-modest clothing. She even did the extra week of fasting after the end of Ramadan, which I'm told guarantees the believer extra merit in Paradise.

Of course, I had my own blind spot. Just couldn't understand how such a smart, educated woman could buy into one of the most regressive belief systems on Earth. Especially for women.

Example: one day we were walking around Alexandria looking at ancient tombs and stuff. A guy yelled something at her in Arabic and didn't seem too friendly. She yelled back and didn't seem very friendly herself.

I was curious and asked what the guy wanted. She said, "He asked if you were my husband." I guess that would have been a problem because she was obviously Egyptian/Muslim and I was Generic Foreign White Infidel Person. We both got a good laugh out of that, anyway. The two of us were about as likely to get romantically involved as Ron Paul and Hillary Clinton.