Islamists on AUC Campus, Audio Documentary...Coming Soon!

AUC policy banning religious and political based clubs, hidden religious groups on campus and whether the growing support for Islamists in Egypt will reflect on the liberal AUC.

" If the policy states that no religious or political then MAL and MUN and all these clubs should be banned from being done," Mohammed Yassin, a former Help Club member.

To know more about this attend the listening session, at AUC's New Cairo campus on Sunday, May 13 and Wednesday, May 16 at 10 a.m. each day in the BEC building, room 1060.

For this track and more go to http://bit.ly/yzWezB

Saad El Shater Speaks Up His Opinions



Saad El Shater
Captured by: Mariam Rizk

Saad El Shater, the son of Khairat El Shater (a prominent Muslim Brotherhood figure) was interviewed to know his opinions about various topics concerning the Muslim Brotherhood and AUC. This is a segment of the interview.

0.00 AUC students are supposed to be the leaders of the future so what happens outside the campus or outside the university should reflect inside or on campus because if you need a role in the future in the community you have to focus on the leaders of the future so it’s clear.

0.25 But the university says or claims that it is a liberal university, there is a policy that says no clubs should be formed on a religious or political basis, what do you think of this policy?
I disagree with the policy, I think they need to rethink of that policy because all the other universities, there are political clubs there, they have a lot of activities there and so on so they should reconsider that policy again here.

1.04 So you think that if there would be a club here for the Muslim Brotherhood it would a political oriented one not a religious oriented one?
Yes of course if there is a party here or a club representing the Muslim Brotherhood it should be based on a political background based on the part not on a religious basis.

 1.29 What about other Muslim brotherhood sons on campus, do you know some of them, do you meet often because you have like similar backgrounds, similar background of oppressive regime, as you were saying, and then of feeling of freedom afterwards so what do you think?
Actually there are no Muslim brotherhood sons here, even there is one or two members of the party here on campus and I rarely see them, my time and their time and there is nothing binding between us to meet like we don’t have regular meetings or so, so I rarely see them but they are my friends.

So there are some members of them Muslim brotherhood that are on campus
Yea there is one or two

Only one or two?
Yea

2.25 Aren’t they thinking of forming a group or aren’t they having already a group?
Actually their low number doesn’t let them do so, they cannot form a group of two so they don’t think of forming any group or anything

2.44 Ok so wasn’t there any other people who would believe in the Muslim Brotherhood but would have no opportunity to show that in the oppressive regime and then they had it now like these two might be the shown ones?

May be but it needs to take some time to think of it or I need some time to talk to them about it. It wasn’t clear the period ago.

3.16 Didn’t your father encourage you to try and form a group here?
Actually he’s so busy I rarely see him so he’s not interested in that detail of forming a group in the American University in Cairo but maybe there are some people who are responsible for universities in Egypt in the Muslim Brotherhood who are responsible for that part may be they are thinking of but none of them talked to me may be they think of it and they didn’t take an action towards it they only thought about it.

3.57 But there are Muslim Brotherhood basis in every university as you were saying that they got their popularity may be from the youth, wasn’t there any thoughts or didn’t they try to implement it?
Again there are no members here so they cannot build a base upon them so there are two members or one I don’t know the other who maybe graduated the last semester or something so they may be need but they don’t have the tools to start.

4.46 Do don’t you think there are other groups maybe clubs who would have the Muslim Brotherhood principals and mentality and they’re working on this basis but they are not saying we’re Muslim Brotherhood?
They say that help club is one of them but I actually I know most of its members and I partially know their vision and their activities and so on but I can’t clearly say that they are far away from being intoconnected or share a vision with the Muslim Brotherhood because Muslim Brotherhood is broader than this club or this club’s vision.

Audio Section, Coelho's "The Winner Stands Alone"

This is a section of an audio book of Paulo Coelho's "The Winner Stands Alone". Coelho is known for his books which mix between fiction and self-help in a dramatic sequence of events. This novel is a good read and consequently will be amusing to hear. It's when the author offers you amusement and thoughtfulnes at the same time.

Pages used: 34,35

"People are never satisfied. If they have a little, they want more. If they have a lot, they want still more. Once they have more, they wish they could be happy with little, but are incapable of making the slightest effort in that direction.

Is it just that they don’t understand how simple happiness is? What can she want, that girl in the jeans and white T-shirt who just came running past? What could be so urgent that it stopped her taking time to contemplate the lovely sunny day, the blue sea, the babies in their strollers, the palms fringing the beach?

“Don’t run, child! You’ll never escape the two most important presences in the life of any human being: God and death. God accompanies your every step and will be annoyed because he can see that you’re not paying attention to the miracle of life. Or indeed death. You just ran past a corpse and didn’t even notice.”

Igor has walked past the scene of the crime several times now. At one point, he realized that his comings and goings might arouse suspicion and so decided to remain a prudent two hundred yards from the scene, leaning on the balustrade that looked out over the beach.

He’s wearing dark glasses, but there’s nothing suspicious about that, not only because it’s a sunny day, but because in a celebrity town like Cannes, dark glasses are synonymous with status.

He’s surprised to see that it’s almost midday, and yet no one has realized that there’s a person lying dead on the main street of a city which, at this time of year, is the focus of the world’s attention.

A couple are approaching the bench now, visibly irritated. They start shouting at the sleeping beauty; they’re the girl’s parents, angry because she isn’t working. The man shakes her almost violently. Then the woman bends over, obscuring Igor’s field of vision.

Igor knows what will happen next.

The mother screams. The father takes his mobile phone from his pocket and moves away, clearly agitated. The mother is shaking her daughter’s unresponsive body. Passersby stop, and now he can remove his dark glasses and join them as one more curious onlooker.

The mother is crying, clinging to her daughter. A young man gently pushes her away and attempts mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but soon gives up; Olivia’s face already has a slight purple tinge to it.

“Someone call an ambulance!”

Several people dial the same number, all of them feeling useful, important, caring. He can already hear the sound of the siren in the distance. The mother’s screams are growing louder. A young woman tries to put a comforting arm around her, but the mother pushes her away. Someone attempts to sit the body up, and someone else tells them to lay her down again because it’s too late to do anything.

“It’s probably a drug overdose,” the person next to him says.

“Young people today are a lost cause.”

More of AUC Food Courts

AUC has two food courts, the one they call Americana and the Omda food court. Many students prefer the Omda food court because it's cheap and it offers cultural Egyptian food. Cats walking around in the food court is a serious problem that annoys many students. After all, AUC food courts are not just places where student eat but also places where they socialize and rest between classes.

Sounds of AUC Food Courts

These are natural sounds gathered from AUC food courts. Sounds of the people sitting in the open air having lunch, cats walking around, the sound of the counter and people ordering food.
These sounds were gathered by: Mariam Maher and Salma El Kerdany

The New Egypt, Where We Unite Despite Differences, This I Believe

I believe Egyptians should get along despite their differences because there are so many things that we can do together. I believe this because of my own experience.

When I went abroad for an exchange semester, I thought I would have a cultural shock from the people around me who are different in ideas, beliefs and even jokes. I also knew that some of them know nothing about my culture. But what I didn’t expect is to have a cultural shock from the Egyptians who travelled with me.

Four AUC students went with me for a semester abroad. Two of them became close friends to me. Surprisingly enough, one of these two had a totally different life and different belief than mine. He’s a Muslim and I’m a Christian. But that’s not the problem. I’ve been friends with Muslims since I knew what friendship meant. The problem was that he knew nothing about Christians. H e was actually underestimating and not fully accepting the difference in beliefs.

When we first arrived there, we were still getting to know each other. I remember a situation when I looked at the sky and I found it beautiful and I just shared what I felt. “God is an artist.” I said out loud and I found him yelling at me, “We can’t call God an artist, there is a certain speech that we should use while speaking about God.” 

I was shocked by his reaction. And after this situation, I knew we would have so many conflicts.

We had prolonged conversations. Some of these conversations were persuasive where we were about to fight and others were just informative where I talked to him about what I believed and he talked to me about what he believed.

We laughed together; we cried together, we were away from home together. Both of us missed our families, both of us missed our country and eventually, we were willing to unite for we knew we had similar circumstances.

After spending four months together, we are now close friends. He knows I worship God my way and I know he worships God his way. Even if we had a totally different religion, even if we don’t worship God at all, this shouldn’t keep us isolated and intolerant against each other.

Religion had formed a lot of our beliefs and life styles in Egypt. It is involved in every aspect of our lives to the extent that we no longer accept to see someone is different. Even though we’re all Egyptians, we are different. We believe in different things but at the same time we share a lot of things. We were raised together.  In Egypt, we should accept each other because there is a lot that we can do when we are united. Tahrir square didn’t know differences, we all had the same spirit, we all revolted against the same thing and we all felt the power of being united.

In the new Egypt, Muslims and Christians should know more about each other and accept each other, this I believe.

Listening Journal #1: Luis' Story, An Illegal Immigrant Story

Picture from World Vision Report

Luis' Story Produced by Paul Cuadros
Length of the feature: Roughly 4:50 min
Listen to the feature



The feature is a profile about Luis who is an illegal immigrant at the US. Because of his illegal status he might not be able to enter a university. The feature talks about Luis’ life, how he first came to the US and his dreams of joining the university.
It is an interesting feature because of the topic itself, the natural sound and the sound bites that the producer picked. Also the way the story was constructed and written puts some color into the story and makes you imagine the character.
The quality of the audio is very good. The natural sound is used wisely that it gives the feeling of being there but at the same time doesn’t compete with the narration or the sound bites.
The delivery of the announcer was clear and the pace, with which he talked, was suitable. It was not too fast, that you cannot understand what’s going on, nor too slow, that you feel bored.
But I think the overall feature was a little bit longer than necessary.
To make it better, I think that the timing of the feature should be provided because the listener needs to know what to expect. Also the website needs to be simplified that you don’t have to go different windows and tabs to download the feature or simply listen to it.