News : \'From Rebelling to Regretting:\' Imam shares his Egyptian uprising story at VSHS

Imam Hassan Selim shared his story of rebelling then regretting in Egypt at VSHS last week.

Introduced to Vinton-Shellsburg High School students as “someone who was part of history that isn't even in your textbooks yet,” Imam Hassan Selim told those students that what happened after he joined the “Arab Spring” movement to overthrow the government of Egypt caused him the kind of regret that made him wonder, “Maybe I should have just gone home.”

Selim spoke to Kelly Steffen’s World Religion classes last week about his role in the uprising in Egypt. He told the students how the uprising began, what fueled the involvement of young people, and the specific event that motivated him to join.

‘Bread, Freedom and Social Justice’

The protestors who eventually inspired the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak chanted three words over and over, expressing the theme of their revolution, said Selim: “Bread, Freedom and Social Justice.”

Selim said that while many young people with advanced college degrees, including himself, were stuck in menial jobs paying around $50 per month, they could see that Mubarek was grooming his son, Gamal, to take his place.

It wasn’t right, said Salim, to for young people to be struggling to find jobs while the Mubarek family was extending its rule by limiting freedom and opportunities.

The second factor leading to the uprising in Egypt was the “spark” from across the border in Tunesia.

A street fruit vendor named Mohammed Bouazizi who was bullied daily by police in a little-known village named Sidi-Bouzid, until on Dec. 17, 2011, Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest the police oppression. He died a few weeks later, but his death sparked the protest in Tunesia that spread to other countries in the region.

“We thought that if it could happen in Tunesia, right across the border, it could happen here,” Selim told the VSHS students.

By the end of January 2011, Egyptian students were protesting in Cairo.

For Selim, the personal motivation came a few weeks earlier. Married to an American, Selim had gone to the Cairo airport to drive her home, but he was detained and questioned by police.

Knowing he had done nothing illegal, Selim said he told his interrogators what they wanted to hear so they would release him in time to meet his wife when she got off the plane.

“She speaks very little of the language and knows nobody there,” he said, sharing the worry he felt while held in that room in the airport.

So, Selim, who is now the Imam of the Islamic Center in Cedar Rapids, joined the revolution. He and many of his friends protested in and round Liberation Square. Selim played a Youtube video showing the “Battle of the Bridge,” where police and protestors confronted each other for hours until finally, the police ran out of tear gas and water for their water cannons and withdrew.

One of the reasons that so many young people participated in the revolt, Selim said, was that the government had made the “stupid” decision to cut off both internet and phone service, so the only way to communicate was to go to Liberation Square.

Mubarek left office in February of 2011, leaving the Egyptian military in charge.

Regret

But instead of bread, freedom and political justice, as the protestor had sought, the military leadership gave way to the Muslim Brotherhood, which in many ways was worse than Mubark’s government, said Selim.

Some of Selim’s friends died in the protests; he also has friends who are part of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Selim named his presentation: My Journey from Egypt to Amreeka (using the way Egyptians pronounce America): And from Rebelling to Regretting.”

After seeing how that the Muslim Brotherhood is governing Egypt, and how there are in some ways less freedoms than under Mubarek, Selim said, “Maybe I just should have gone home. Maybe some of my friends would still be alive.”

Yet, said Selim, he still has faith in the future of Egypt, although he said it will take more protests.

Selim and his wife live in the Cedar Rapids area, where he serves the Imam. While he has no immediate plans to return to Egypt in the immediate future, Selim says he does hope to go back one day.

Mrs. Steffen met Selim when she took her class on a field trip to the Islamic Center. The World Religions class at VSHS includes trips to centers representing a variety of religions.

“He is part of history that is not even in the textbooks yet,” said Steffen, adding that soon those stories would be part of history.

It’s a rare privilege, Steffen told her class, to hear from someone who was personally involved in such an event.

“It would be like meeting one of the American colonists,” she told the class.

Selim urged the students to watch the documentary "The Square," on Neftlix

The Battle for the Bridge video appears below:

[VIDEO]