Pages

Friday, May 24, 2013

Diversity, Arab style

Saudi Arabia's al-Yaum newspaper has a brief article about the Jewish quarter of Cairo, as a model of diversity and tolerance. The author marvels at the juxtaposition of synagogues and mosques there.

Well, the paper does admit:
While the Jewish Quarter is empty of its indigenous population, but you can still find the Star of David on the doors of houses there, in addition to some Jewish inscriptions that indicate the homeowners and date of construction... About 20,000 Jews lived in this famous neighborhood, until the revolution of July 1952...
it seems the Arab definition of "diversity" can include ethnic cleansing - as long as you leave up some architectural features from the people you forced out.