Column: Caught in the middle

CAIRO — I don’t really know how to describe what it feels like to see your host country’s people burn your home nation’s flag.

The best word I can come up with is “stunning.”

In the last couple days, protests have broken out across the Middle East and in Cairo in particular, 10 minutes away from my dormitory.

It’s all people are talking about. 

American international students are caught in the middle. We’re not Egyptians, but we’ve come to love this country and its people.

Of course, we also love America.

We didn’t think we’d have to choose between the two.

It started with one man who produced a film depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a degrading way.

I’ve seen the film, and it is offensive. This film was distributed to the Arab media
outlets, which aired it on state television.

But now it’s so much more complicated than a film.

First of all, let me clear up a few things. The riots, to our knowledge, had nothing to do with the anniversary of Sept. 11, at least in Egypt. Sept. 11 simply isn’t a recognized day outside the United States.

The fact that the riots started on Sept. 11 was something noticed after the fact.

Second, the U.S. press is dramatizing how things are here. Classes and work are continuing. The rest of the country is functioning normally as of now, aside from Tahrir.

There is a million-man march planned for today, so we’ll see if that comes to pass.

Every day, we get email after email from the U.S. Embassy, the state department and American University. Parents and friends back home have been sending frantic emails.

For the record, all of the students here are safe and sound.

But the true story isn’t about a film. It’s about a clash of two cultures, American and Egyptian, that have never really taken the time to figure the other out.

Our classes are ongoing, but the curriculum has stopped in many of them. Instead, we debate the situation.

Egyptian protestors have essentially three demands. They want America to ban the film and arrest the man behind it, and they want Egypt to revoke citizenship of the U.S. ambassador and of those Egyptians who may have helped fund or make the film.

Most Egyptians don’t understand why America can do none of these things.

In my journalism class, I found myself trying to explain free speech to them.

“Why can this man say these hateful things?” they asked me. “Why doesn’t America stop him?”

The thing is, Egyptians have never lived in a country where speech is free.

The entire concept is not on their radar, at least not to the same extent it is on ours.

Most think free speech has limits.

On the other hand, Americans don’t understand why this film is so offensive.

They don’t understand that while Americans view the riots as an unjustified attack on what we deem free speech, Egyptians view our free speech as an attack on their religious freedoms.

It is a messy situation.

Messy and muddy, and right now the rumors are flying so fast it is hard to know what’s true, even in the Western press.

There is a lot of speculation.

Some say the Muslim Brotherhood is behind it in an attempt to garner unity from a country that has yet to fully accept their new president.

Others say America is using the death of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens as means to become involved again in the region we just left war torn.

What I think we have to be really careful about is not to jump to conclusions and stereotypes.

The Muslims here are angry about the film, but many are even more angry about the protests.

Violent actions cause the culture to slip back into the stereotype of the Muslim terrorist.

I asked the Egyptians in my class not to do the same thing to us, judging us by one man who made a movie.

You can’t judge a nation by its outliers.

I know it looks bad. But let’s wait it out.

More of the Egyptians are against the violence in the protests than are for it.

But the ones who are against it don’t get the attention.

­— hannsmit@indiana.edu