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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/dec/06/swiss-minarets-christian-churches-egypt
Egypt's Glass House
(Guardian-UK) Joseph Mayton - Egypt's Grand Mufti, Ali Goma'a, should know better than attack a vote to ban minarets when in his own country, the construction of churches has been curtailed by the government for many years. As the saying goes, "those in glass houses..." One could argue that if Egypt held a referendum on the construction of church steeples in the country, a vast majority of Egyptians would approve a ban. The Arab world has long avoided looking inward at its own problems, blaming Europe, the U.S. and Israel instead. The governments, especially the one in Cairo, love this. People don't see the facts on the ground as they are too preoccupied by the wrongs and injustices dealt abroad. Calls for a boycott of Swiss banks - which haven't picked up much steam - show how lost the Arab world is at times. They can lash out at a decision made in a foreign country, but they have yet to stand up for the rights of their own people in their own country.