How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #7
Huge demonstrations held on Balfour Day in 1945 and again in 1947 spilled over into violent attacks on the Jews and now on any other group deemed "foreign." Jewish, European, and Coptic shops were looted, and synagogues and Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Coptic churches and schools vandalized. One synagogue was set on fire. (260-261)
Ahmed explains how Egypt (Cairo in particular) shifted from a multireligious, multicultural place to...well...what's described in the passage above. It has to do with Egypt taking up the cause of Palestine, at the instigation of the Muslim Brotherhood, and excluding any religious/ethnic group deemed to be outsiders to the global Arab community. It's a situation that deeply wounds Ahmed, who cherished her early memories of a plural society in Cairo.
Quote #8
And they had the feelings and beliefs about Egypt that they had, and the hopes for Egypt that they had. Not indifference toward the Palestinians and their sufferings, nor commitment to some "narrow Egyptian secular nationalism," but quite simply loyalty to their own community—over and above some fictive, politically created community that the politicians ordered them to be loyal to. (264)
Ahmed speaks of her parents and their position on Palestine—and Egypt's support of the Palestinian cause to the destruction of its multicultural, open society. Although Ahmed doesn't have a solid memory of their takes on the situation, she recalls their loyalties to neighbors and their way of life in Cairo—a devotion to community rather than political causes or identities. As citizens of Cairo, they could not have accepted a newfangled identity imposed on them from outside (or above).
Quote #9
They taught me so well, instilled in me so deeply their notion of what it was to be Egyptian, that I still mourn and am always still and all over again filled with an enormous sense of loss at the thought of the destruction of the multireligious Egyptian community that I knew. (265)
Ahmed recalls the change that came over Egypt after World War II and the Balfour Declaration. Global changes essentially put an end to the diverse community in her own homeland. It wouldn't be long before violence against Copts and Jews—longtime residents of Egypt—nearly decimates these minority communities. For Ahmed, who grew up with friends from diverse backgrounds and with pride in a home at the crossroads of cultures, it means the end of a precious and unique national identity.