This photo of the "sleeping salafi" from the opening session of Egypt's
new Parliament burned like wildfire through the Twitter feeds and
Facebook pages of my Arab, Egyptian and Middle East watcher friends. The
overwhelming tone of the comments was high snark, as liberals fell over
themselves snickering at the dozing beards. The image played to every
prejudice which has greeted this new wave of salafi Islamists.
There's just one problem. The iconic figure in the lower right corner of the photo wasn't sleeping. He's blind.
Dr. Wageeh el-Sheemy is a university professor and new parliamentarian from the Salafi al-Nour Party. As the We Are All Khaled Said page explained yesterday, el-Sheemy is "the
first blind person
to become member of the Egyptian parliament thanks to the #Jan25
Revolution. In fact, he is the first ever disabled member of the
Egyptian parliament." That's really impressive, and a great story. Congratulations to Dr. El-Sheemy -- and to the Nour Party for putting
him forward as a successful candidate.
It should also be a lesson to all. For all the
legitimate concerns about where the newly empowered salafi trend will
take Egypt -- and there are many -- it is far too easy for people to leap to unwarranted conclusions
about them. In the coming days, it will be useful for all Egyptians,
and those watching Egypt, to take a breath before rushing to judgement.
We can't help you with that guy in the third row though...
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