Kefaya's rainbow

Here's a piece of information I didn't know before. Kefaya's coordinator is a Christian, George Ishaq.

AbulEla Mady, main founder of the three-times rejected AlWasat (considered Islamic) party and member of the Kefaya movement, has a piece in this week's Dostour newspaper praising George as a respectable, patriotic, and political educator who leads the lines with courage, and explains why he was the best person to take this role. George took the initiative to communicate with the group, and to follow-up since the initial group's meetings in November 2003. Back then, everyone suggested George to to be the main coordinator of the group. No one was thinking of the religion of the people, but only of their patriotism and competency.

This explanation, coming from Mady who is an active Islamist that is working hard to found a party apparently represents the views of many like him. Josh Stacher from the Arabist group have written a very good study about AlWasat party (it can be found here). This study should be read by anyone who is making generalizations about Islamists.

Mady states his position, which he says reflects those he represents from the wasateyya vision of Islam, saying that it is based on a concept called mowatna (citizenship i believe). From a mature Islamic understanding, mowatna, among other things, is the basis for public work, and hence public leadership roles should be based on qualifications and patriotism, nothing else.

It seems that this mowatna concept is being adopted by Islamists who consider themselves moderate. I've heard Dr. Selim ElAwa talk before about mowatna, adopting it as the proper way of classifying the citizens. For those who don't know Selim ElAwa, he is the head (not sure of the title) of the World Union of Muslim Scholars (among other things that he is). This Union also has Dr. Yusuf AlQaradawy in a leading role.

This mowatna concept is one that needs to be studied carefully by those who advocate that Islamists are dangerous for non-Muslims, classifying them as dhimmis and making them pay gizzya, which are both nulled with the adoption of mowatna as the basis for viewing citizens.

Now, aside from the main point of this post, I think I fall in line with Kefaya --Egyptian Movement for Change-- in one thing atleast, and that's that I'd also like to see some real change, any change.