A Night with Friends and Hippies

Ahmed came back from his trip to Egypt, safe and in high spirits. He was very happy and very proud of what has been achieved so far in Egypt. He also knows that the hard work starts now.

On the same day he returned from Egypt, he was the featured speaker at a public meeting held by the Socialist Alliance. Ahmed is the national president of FAMSY (Federation of Australian and Muslim Students). FAMSY sometimes works together with the Socialist Alliance on various social justice issues, mainly because the group has a good network of contacts.

This was my first time showing up to one of their meetings, and it wasn't really what I expected. I didn't think hippies were still around, but that's exactly what they were. They were so very stereotypically left that I felt very right wing.

Ahmed delivered an excellent telling of his experience in Tahrir Sqaure, unfortunately none of us had the presence of mind to record his speech. He was extremely proud and happy with what was achieved. He had the belief that to really change Egypt from a dictatorship to a truly free country meant that the people themselves had to change. This has been how he has worked against the regime, by working with people to improve themselves, and thus improving their own lot in life instead of waiting for Mubarak to say it is ok to change. He also stated that getting Mubarak out was only the beginning. This is what the revolutionists were asking for. Not just to have Mubarak removed, but to remove the entire corrupt regime he had built around him to maintain his control for so long.

He's been uploading the pictures he took in Tahrir Square over the last few days, I'll share a few of those soon too.

After Ahmed spoke we had to endure a speech from a Socialist Alliance and Lebanese Communist Party representatives, who had somehow found a way that socialism and communism were the driving force behind the revolutions, and that capitalism was the problem. What you'd expect from hippies. When question time came, each question was delivered with a mini-speech, and if the answer was not what the hippie expected, it was clear he didn't like it. Ahmed was the receiver of most of the questions, and his approach was more pragmatic than idealogical. While a problem was identified, he also had one or two ways to move forward.

When the meeting was over, we all caught up for a little bit. We hadn't seen much of each other over the previous few weeks, so it was a good catch up. The time for evening prayer had also arrived, so we prayed on the grass outside the State Library. When we were finished, a woman came up to us and asked us 'What do you say when you pray?'. We tried to answer her question as well as we could. We didn't mock her and get offended. When she was satisfied with the reply, she went back to her friends. One of her friends came back a few minutes later with ice creams for us.

It's small things like this that really show the attitude of Australians in general. It's not the image splashed all over the media of racists rednecks. They're curious about these 'new' people in their midst that they are largely ignorant of. People fear what they are ignorant of. It's up to us as Muslims to make them aware of us. Small interactions like this make a big difference in the end.