Egypt moves to ban alcohol, belly dancing

[darkinsky]

Wow banning alcohol and belly dancing is going to achieve so much. Not.

sir laws are made to govern their society,

remember prohibition law of the 20?

 

[Mahmoud_EGY]

any one agrees to this can he tell me will that bring a better society ?
this will only make alcohol like drugs banned but in every house i believe in telling people what is right and what is wrong and let them choose what they want
this has nothing to do with islam this is a political act or else how could they convince simple people that they are defending islam they say any one who oppose us want alcohol and dancing
anyway we are gaining more power and they are losing power every day and we are in the right direction it is just a matter of time

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

Egypt can't.
Belly dancing is old part of their traditions and alcohol is consumed by tourists and they desperately need tourists so how can they do that

 

[SQ8]

Ban Alcohol.. but please leave belly dancing alone!!

I can never forget the memories of watching the belly dance on a Nile cruise..

 

[Armstrong]

Ban Alcohol.. but please leave belly dancing alone!!

I can never forget the memories of watching the belly dance on a Nile cruise..

*Taking Notes on behalf of Mrs.Oscar*

 

[Farhad Hassan]

Alcohol is an intoxicant. Which makes it same as other drugs for me at least. Something which is liked by a large number of people around the world doesn't make it good. So banning that isn't bad imho.

However, inclination of people towards religion in modern world is beyond comprehension. Why go 1400 years back leaving behind everything we have learned in this time? Why not look at all the things that humanity has learned in these years as well and just keep the best of everything?

But it all comes down to what Armstrong said. We can have our own opinions but if Egyptian majority decides something. Its their choice and we must respect it.

 

[darkinsky]

Alcohol is an intoxicant. Which makes it same as other drugs for me at least. Something which is liked by a large number of people around the world doesn't make it good. So banning that isn't bad imho.

However, inclination of people towards religion in modern world is beyond comprehension. Why go 1400 years back leaving behind everything we have learned in this time? Why not look at all the things that humanity has learned in these years as well and just keep the best of everything?

But it all comes down to what Armstrong said. We can have our own opinions but if Egyptian majority decides something. Its their choice and we must respect it.

if you learn how to read and write do you forget ABCD, humanity learnt the basics 1400 yrs ago or even before that

 

[AUz]

If true, Islamists are RETARDED! What the fcuk will you achieve by such stupid bans? Once banned, Alcoholism will go underground and corrupt the whole society...

Also, Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood must take actions to consolidate economy, and give Egyptians a better life. This is sick!

Bloody idiots! Islamic Parties got the chance to prove something..and they are utterly WASTING their bloody time on USELESS things!

VERY DISAPPOINTED.

 

[Farhad Hassan]

if you learn how to read and write do you forget ABCD, humanity learnt the basics 1400 yrs ago or even before that

Humanity didn't learn to live without religion. That is what we must learn now. Because religion 2000 years ago was something which actually made the humans better. Now a days it just makes them worse as far as I have observed.

 

[darkinsky]

Humanity didn't learn to live without religion. That is what we must learn now. Because religion 2000 years ago was something which actually made the humans better. Now a days it just makes them worse as far as I have observed.

lol, how can religion make someone better before, and worse today, you know its not religion fault, if you say it made them better before

sorry but your logic is really flawed

 

[Azadkashmir]

Muslim brotherhood is nothing but a illusion lolz they still take their orders from USA it just a ploy to have power convince dum masses to accept. economy will go further down hill while muslim yankie brotherhood eat the pie, whiles messes have to pay the debt.

 

[Farhad Hassan]

lol, how can religion make someone better before, and worse today, you know its not religion fault, if you say it made them better before

sorry but your logic is really flawed

At that time humans were not as civilized as they are today. Even the best of civilizations like Romans were barbarians when compared to the humans of today. The justice system as well as the authority of state wasn't this strong and logical. Religions gave them better ideas. Based on justice and logic (according to those times). Why did it take Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) years to fully ban alcohol? Because he wanted to remove something bad but he wanted do it naturally and slowly all the while making Muslims of the time learn so they could accept it. And humans have been learning since then as well. So we need to change accordingly. In their own ways all the major religions tried to make their world a better place. However, there is a flaw which most of the major religions share. The belief in the finality of their scriptures. That there is nothing better than what their religion say because there is. Here is an excerpt from a book I was reading recently:

The Tale of the Scientific Alchemists and Religious Newtonians

About three hundred years ago, when alchemists were still vainly trying to turn lead into gold, Sir Isaac Newton discovered some fundamental equations that accurately describe the physical world. In our tale, let's give Newton's discoveries to people who regard them religiously. We'll call these people "religious Newtonians." The religious Newtonians are religious because they follow the revelational method of knowing truth. They're Newtonians because they accept Newton's theories. And let's give Alchemy to people who regard it scientifically. We'll call these people "scientific Alchemists." The scientific Alchemists are scientific because they follow the scientific way of knowing truth; they are Alchemists because they accept the theories of Alchemy.

So "religious" or "scientific" indicates the way of knowing, the way of finding new knowledge. And "Newtonian" or "Alchemist" indicates the theories currently accepted as true. Our tale will illustrate that the method used to find and test beliefs may be more important than the initial beliefs themselves.

Our tale opens in the seventeenth century. The religious Newtonians believe in calculus and the basic laws of Newtonian physics. They worship Newton as a god and venerate his writings as divinely inspired and perfectly true. Following the ideas and theories in his writings, in "holy scriptures," the religious Newtonians are beginning to understand the natural world. New discoveries in mathematics, mechanics, astronomy, and navigation are being made almost daily. The beliefs of the religious Newtonians are substantially correct and many centuries of progress await them.

Our other group, the scientific Alchemists, follow not Newton but Aristotle, particularly his theory of the four basic elements: earth, water, fire, and air. According to Aristotle's ideas, it's possible to turn lead into gold. And that's what the scientific Alchemists are trying to do. Into their crucibles, flasks, mortars, and pots, they put eggs, toads, snakes, herbs, urine, entrails, lead, mercury, sulfur, and saltpeter. They grind, mix, filter, hammer, and heat them. They describe their experiments with bizarre symbols suchas toads, dragons, birds, stars, crowns, keys, and planets. The beliefs of the scientific Alchemists are wrong and their quest is doomed to failure.

Notice that we've given the religious Newtonians a lot of correct physical knowledge. We've given them an kind of head start in the race toward more and more truth about the physical world. But we've given them a poor way of knowing, a way that binds them to a "divine and unchanging" truth. In contrast, we've given the scientific Alchemists a serious handicap in the form of erroneous physical theories. But we've given them a better way of knowing, a way that allows revision and progress. Which will prove more important in the long run, the knowledge currently accepted as true, or the method of testing current knowledge and discovering more knowledge?

Let's return to our tale. As time passes, the scientific Alchemists slowly and independently discover some laws of nature that the religious Newtonians believe to be divine and unchangeable truth.

"You've found," say the religious Newtonians, "but a tiny portion of our divine Dogma. Surely, your mortal, imperfect minds will never uncover all of our complete and perfect truth. God gave us our revelation. It's far beyond what we fallible humans can find, alone and unaided. Why then do you not give up your slow, painful search for truth and embrace our Truth?"

"Never," reply the scientific Alchemists. "Truth is to be earned, to be understood. You are satisfied to follow blindly, without understanding. We are not. Even though some of our truths now match your faith, one day we may find other truths of which you are ignorant."

As the decades pass, the scientific Alchemists independently uncover, test, and accept more and more of the truths held by the religious Newtonians.

"For many decades now," say the religious Newtonians, "our sacred scriptures have held the full and complete truth. Ignoring these writings, you have been winning, bit by bit, through much labor and suffering, what was already fully given to the fathers of the fathers of our fathers. Our way to truth, the way of divine revelation, the way of our fathers, is ancient and sure. Why then do you not cease your needless searching and accept out divine revelation?"

"Never," reply the scientific Alchemists. "No book can hold the full and perfect truth. Our way of knowing is a never-ending process of observation, hypothesis, theory, and experiment. Even as knowledge is limitless, the search for knowledge must be unending. This is our way of knowing. One day our knowledge shall surpass yours."

By the end of the nineteenth century, the scientific Alchemists have independently found and verifiedall the beliefs of the religious Newtonians.

"For centuries now," say the religious Newtonians, "you have groped in the dark while we, following the divine knowledge given in our holy scriptures by our god, have lived in the light. Now, after much error and effort, you have finally reached the Truth. Will you not now admit the inspired nature of our religion and join us in our worship?"

"Never," respond the scientific Alchemists. "Your way of blind acceptance is not our way. We are pledged to follow the truth; you to follow your holy books and god. We are free to go wherever the truth leads; you are bound to a fixed, limited knowledge now hundreds of years old. One day we shall go beyond your knowledge."

So for centuries, the religious Newtonians have gone nowhere, they've stayed bound to their "holy and eternal" truth. But the scientific Alchemists have outgrown their initial "knowledge" and have acquired - earned - a truer,more accurate knowledge. One way of knowing has led nowhere, the other has discovered more and more knowledge.

In the early twentieth century, a thinker named Einstein claims the theories now accepted by both religious Newtonians and scientific Alchemists are not actually true, but only a near approximation of the truth. He proposes radically different theories, superior only in that they explain the orbit of the planet Mercury a bit better. The new theories demand, however, a drastic, new view of space and time.

"Blasphemy!" shout the religious Newtonians. "Heretical, perverse, mind-twisting ideas of aniconoclastic rebel. Surely our Holy Faith, the faith of our fathers,will prevail against such diseased drivel!"

"It seems to be the truth!" reply the scientific Alchemists. "We shall test it and, if true, we shall accept it. We are long accustomed to molding ourselves to the truth, not molding the truth to ourselves."

Twenty years later, the two camps welcome the theory of Quantum Mechanics in much the same manner. The religious Newtonians reject Quantum Mechanics as heretical nonsense; the scientific Alchemists test and then accept it. Using the Theory of Relativity and, more significantly, Quantum Mechanics, the scientific Alchemists begin to surpass the religious Newtonians in their understanding and control of the physical world. Using Quantum Mechanics they discover atomic energy, semiconductors, lasers, and computers. The religious Newtonians, bound as they are to a way of knowing that limits what they can know, refuse to accept or use the new discoveries. The world beyond their holy scriptures, the world of computers, lasers, nuclear energy, and space-time, is a world which they, as believers, can never enter.

Our tale attempts to dramatize that a way of knowing can be more important than initial beliefs. The scientific Alchemists were given a lot of erroneous beliefs based on Alchemy. But they were given the scientific way of knowing. Since their method of acquiring and testing knowledge was sound, they eventually corrected their initial misconceptions. The religious Newtonians, on the other hand, were given a lot of accurate physical knowledge based on Newtonian physics. But they were given a religious way of knowing. Since their method of acquiring and testing knowledge was faulty, eventually their beliefs became outmoded, a hindrance to finding more truth.

So even if scripture is eternal and inerrant truth (and this is debatable), the religious way of knowing hinders the search for more truth. And even if science's ideas are all wrong (this, too, is debatable), its way of knowing leads to more and more truth.

 

[Umair Nawaz]

This is a mistake. You can never ban corruption and sin. That just creates black markets and underground activity and then you have to use law enforcement resources to implement the law which is a losing battle and waste of resources.

when people drinks al cohol and rapes women or terrorize public u have to use same anyway.......

@topic

We can see from the wording of this news report that how much west is trying hard to eliminate islamic values from Muslim World and how much it gets frustrated when its not done so.

 

[Pakistanisage]

when people drinks al cohol and rapes women or terrorize public u have to use same anyway.......

@topic

We can see from the wording of this news report that how much west is trying hard to eliminate islamic values from Muslim World and how much it gets frustrated when its not done so.

My friend I am all for Islamic Values. I don't drink alcohol ( nor rape women for that matter, alhough I don't know how you made that connection) but I don't want to impose my values on other people. A Muslim who drinks Alcohol inspite of Allah swt saying don't do it will not listen to some mullah saying don't drink alcohol.

My belief is that if you want to promote Islamic values, you do that by educating people. Not ram the Islamic values down peoples throats. There is ban on Alcohol in Pakistan and yet it is freely available all over Pakistan. Bans are never successful because they don't educate people. All these bans accomplish is in creation of Black Markets and underground activities without regulation.

If you are a true believer of Islam then believe in the power of the message of Islam and save souls by speech and education rather than bullets and bombs. That is what the Taliban do, force Islam down peoples throats.

Islam says there is no Coercion in religion of Islam.

 

[Bang Galore]

Ban Alcohol.. but please leave belly dancing alone!!

I can never forget the memories of watching the belly dance on a Nile cruise..

Good for you that you did it before now. Every time i see or read about Egypt, makes me so glad I visited when I did. Whether or not I will ever do another visit, atleast I have memories(belly dancing & all ) that aren't going to be taken away by anyone.