Meet Steven Aiello, the inspiring young co-editor of 5F

A brief introduction of the person who will be the principal author for the initial few months of the 5F blog: Steven Aiello.

I grew up in Brooklyn, NY, in a fairly homogenous Jewish community within a heterogeneous neighborhood. My exposure to other religions was fairly limited until 9/11. After 9/11 attacks, there were a few involving Jewish and Muslim youth. As a result, my dad and some partners at the NYPD and an organization called COPO (Council of Pakistan Organization) started a Jewish-Muslim basketball league. My job was to recruit friends to come play ball. My dad got the less envious task of convincing my friends' parents to let them come play with us.

After graduating high school I spent a gap year abroad in the Middle East. From that point on I became interested in the political situation in the Middle East, and as a religious student, I became especially interested in the status of religions. Upon graduating from NYU (where I studied Economics and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies) I came back to the Middle East. Coming from a religious and democratic upbringing, I am especially interested in the interplay between religion and politics in the Middle East and the level of religious freedom. I am especially excited to learn more about the religious freedom situation in Egypt as part of the 5F project, and I look forward to the interaction and participation of our readers.

I have my own personal experiences involving religion and Egypt. Last summer I spent about 9 days traveling around Cairo and the Sinai. It was an incredible experience. Everyone was very friendly and as it was Ramadan, I would walk down the street as the sun set and get invited by store owners to share their Iftar dinners with them. I also visited the main Knis (synagogue) in Cairo, praying there on two weekday mornings. The Egyptian police stationed there to protect the knis got to know me, but they were uncertain over whether there were prayer services on Shabbat (the Sabbath).

I ended up spending Shabbat in Cairo, purchasing food beforehand; on Shabbat observant Jews don’t use money or make purchases. I had two very memorable experiences on Shabbat. First, on Friday afternoon as I walked back to my hostel room, I stopped in a store to get a gift for my brother. After bargaining with the owner and getting a ‘Ramadan discount’, I was once again invited to share an Iftar dinner. I explained that I was Jewish and had to pray first but that I would come back. I don’t know whether he expected to see me again, but I did return about 30 minutes later. Although they had finished eating, he called over some of his cousins and nephews, who brought more bread and salad for me. Some of the younger cousins spoke fairly fluent English, and they were incredibly hospitable. It was my first Shabbat Iftar dinner, and I think it’s likely that I was their first Jewish Iftar guest.

The second memorable thing occurred when I went to the Knis on Saturday morning to pray. There I was surprised to see an old woman sitting at the desk. Apparently she was one of the few Jews still living in Cairo and she came to the Synagogue occasionally. Unfortunately for me she was also there to make sure that everyone coming into the synagogue had paid the entrance fee. I did my best to explain that I couldn’t pay because it was the Sabbath, but she wouldn’t hear it. Eventually she refused to talk to me, and insisted that the Muslim police officers deal with me. They understood me, and they tried to explain it to her, but she was still upset, walking off to complain on her cell phone. The guards let me finish praying and then as I left one of them came up to shake my hand and tell me that I was a ‘good man’.

The irony of having someone from another faith respect me for my religious commitment while a fellow member of my own faith only got upset about it was not lost on me.

Both these experiences showed me that there is more than meets the eye in the socio-religious scene in Egypt. Most importantly, they showed me that there is a lot of respect held by the average Egyptian. Improvements can and should be made to protect religious freedom on the governmental and societal levels, but the basis for such reforms - a population of people who generally respect ‘others’ religious convictions, certainly exist. It is this that we at the 5F initiative hope to build upon.