Page 20 - Issue 39

ELITE Vol.1, Issue 39, January 2022
Vol.1, Issue 39, January

On the other hand, they believed that on top of the
negative aspects we adopted was the spread of new
ideologies in society, such as secularism and the
negative view of religion; And as result of the lack

of awareness and poor development, we are swept
away by everything that the West publishes and we
believe it. This negative view of religion has begun
to outspread, as well as the idea of comparing and
contrasting lifestyles, which results in
dissatisfaction with that of our own. We also find
the idea of blind imitation, which causes the
adoption of ideas that do not resemble, nor suit our Has our society witnessed the passing on of any
culture; a few gave the example of the dressing positive aspects from the West, or have we only
style that does not fit our eastern identity. received negative ones into our lives?
Do you think that the Western lifestyle has Everyone agrees that it has transmitted both good
passed to our society different phenomena such and bad ideas, and that it’s on us to filter those and
as homosexuality and the complexity of its consider thoroughly all thoughts that are exported
marriage arrangements? And if so, is there a to us in order to properly distinguish between
solution to end it? what may benefits us and what doesn’t represent

Opinions were severely divided in this regard: us in any way.
some of the students believe that the phenomenon In your opinion, what have we gained from the
of homosexuality is not a new phenomenon in West that does not suit us on the political level,
society, specifically with regard to liberal ideas,
freedom and democracy?
The students agreed upon the fact the ideas of
freedom, liberalism and democracy already exist
in our eastern domain and we did not need the
West to issue these ideas to us, even if the extent
or level of application of these ideas differed from
but rather an old one that goes all the way back to the
days of our prophet Ibrahim, but what’s new about it one society to another depending on its culture
nowadays is the emerging idea of the world becoming a and identity; But this doesn’t contradict the fact
smaller place, that easily transmits such phenomenon and that these ideas have been persistent for ages in
normalizes it through the existing technological means Egypt. However, we can indeed still assess their
and the Internet. political experiences and learn from them what
On the contrary, other interviewees regard the can benefit us.
phenomenon of homosexuality as a new and rather
intrusive one to our society, alongside the issue of their
marriage, which did not exist before, but the Western
thought is the one that exported these ideas into our
eastern society.
As for confronting these ideas, the opinions were limited
to the necessity of resolutely confronting these intrusive
ideas, while raising awareness over the importance of
holding onto our beliefs and our identity, and rejecting
those incompatible thoughts.

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