Saturday, April 29

Muslims in the light of dawn, or my personal road towards peace!

I have good news to convey - I found a marvelous initiative in Egypt that was born in the spirit of the Qur'an by a devoted Muslim who also had studied sciences in Europe, in particular chemistry and then medicine. It was in Austria in the 60's and 70's that Dr. IBRAHIM ABOULEISH "fell in love" with Europe during his University years. But despite his admiration, he gave up a stunning career in the "Western World" just to come back and pay attention to his home country that he felt was struggling with the pain of old concepts and as well showed signs of general retardation. Egypt, his native land, was struggling at that point to even provide adequate agricultural products in a healthy and environmental sane way (in the mid 70's) and "doomed" if continuing in the same old fashion by raping the earth and poisoning it by spraying pesticides with air planes all over the cotton fields - a major crop in Egypt.
So he took initiative and founded and created an oasis in the middle of the desert north of Cairo to prove his point. It was called SEKEM (this is just one link, Google yourself ... )
To make a long story short, because I can see your attention span already dwindling, Ibrahhim Abouleish managaded finaly to even convince the government to abandon the previously mandatory spraying of pesticides in most of Egypt on their cotton fields and other crops, find alternative protection for plants and supplement and enhance their growth with organic and Bio-Dynamic fertilizers instead of using hard core chemical components, delivered by companies who had only their own financial greed in sight.
Egypt today has probably a very healthy production of crops, unparalleled if compared to other nations, due to this very special person! And their production of cotton is over 90% without pesticides (organic), so is most of their other produce.
Why is Ibrahim special you might ask?
He is special, because he managed to to understand, and then bridge the world between the "East" and the "West". He did it with his own deeds of personal initiative and vision.

So my dear readers, I have no "hate" or "genetic obstacles" about Islam or the Qur'an - I just need to understand, need to envision where everybody is at. You and I, and keep the dialog open...
This last discovery of Sekem gives me great hope though. It is initiatives like this that make "the world breathe better"... in a good way!

There is an autobiography available by Ibrahim that is both fun to read and educational. The link to Amazon Books will be HERE!
Unfortunately it is a bit expensive (over $30) but it is worth the "investment".


This initiative of SEKEM gives me new hope that different cultures of East and West will find a path of coexistence, and in combined efforts will mend and overcome the obstacles of alienation present in our world today - no matter where we live.
Yes, I presently still have issues with the Qur'an (and the religious doctrine of it) - but I admire persons like Ibrahim Abouleish who are able to manage and transform its content directly into what behooves us in our present state of human consciousness and development.
Ibrahim actively built bridges - while I was just passively lamenting ...

(sorry, the links didn't work earlier because I forgot the """" 's - oh well, but they should be fine now!)

5 comments:

Granny said...

I do too and that's why I sent you the link to my friend.

Amr T said...

I indeed, approve. Excellent work!

Ghalia said...

Your blog is so rich, really good one.

Gary said...

What a great story Zee. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

This site is one of the best I have ever seen, wish I had one like this.
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