Religion threaten downtown Cairo bars

[islamirama]

Religion, decrepitude threaten downtown Cairo bars

By PAUL SCHEMM and SEBASTIAN ABBOT, Associated Press Writers
Paul Schemm And Sebastian Abbot, Associated Press Writers

CAIRO, Egypt – Armed with a bottle of Egyptian brandy and a bowl of steaming chickpeas, Hatem Fouad keeps watch each night over a historic slice of Cairo that is in danger of dying: the bars that once flourished amid the sweeping boulevards and graceful roundabouts of the city's European-style downtown.

The former police officer is part of a cadre of older Egyptian men who frequent drinking holes and belly-dancing cabarets chronicled by Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz in the 1940s and popular with Cairo's artists and intellectuals until the late 1970s.

Many of these establishments have fallen into disrepair and disrepute as Egyptians grow more observant of Islam with its prohibition on alcohol, and the country's elite migrates away from the traffic-choked streets of the now crumbling downtown.

"They were part of an Egypt that doesn't exist anymore," said Alaa el-Aswani, who immortalized the remnants of the downtown bar scene in his best-selling 2002 novel "The Yacoubian Building." He was talking about the heyday of the bar and nightclub era — when anyone from King Farouk, Egypt's last monarch, to the British playwright-composer Noel Coward, might show up in a Cairo club.
"This Egypt was very liberal, very tolerant," he said. "You had the bars, you had the synagogues, you had the churches, you had the mosques. Everyone was absolutely allowed to practice religion, to go and drink or whatever."

Cairo at the time was filled not just with Egyptians, but with Greeks, Italians and other Europeans who frequented the bars and restaurants sprinkled among the downtown's ornate belle epoque buildings. Mahfouz's novels describe the wealthy patronizing these establishments and the denizens of Cairo's medieval back alleys sometimes venturing into the brightly lighted downtown for a drink.

The 1952 ouster of Farouk and the nationalization of businesses chased away many of the Europeans. Then, in the 1980s, millions of Egyptians returned from working in the oil fields of Saudi Arabia with both money and the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islam.

They formed a new Egyptian middle class that had little interest in spending the night drinking Egypt's Stella beer and Bolonachi brandy in places like Bar Massoud, a hole in the wall on a busy street in the downtown Bulaq neighborhood.

"There used to be seven bars in this area. Now there are only two. It's because everything is forbidden now," said Magdy Michel, who owns Bar Massoud and, like most of Cairo's bar operators, is Christian.

As middle- and lower-class Egyptians increasingly turned toward Islam, the elite migrated to trendy bars in wealthier Cairo neighborhoods.

"The rich people and the high-ranking people in the regime, when they drink they don't go to the downtown bars, so they don't need these bars," said author el-Aswani.

He added that to assuage Islamic fundamentalists, the Egyptian government has made it difficult for bars to get or renew liquor licenses. Downtown bar owners also say they face pressure from police officers demanding bribes and threatening to arrest customers.

"We get harassed by the lower-ranking police officers," said Michel at Bar Massoud. "Corruption is everywhere."

Ex-policeman Fouad said he had to talk to "some friends" to avoid trouble with the law at his favorite watering hole, the Gemayka — pronounced like the Caribbean island. "The police don't bother us here," he declared.

Many downtown bars like Bar Massoud and the Gemayka have a speakeasy feel, with men drinking and trading jokes behind windowless, nondescript facades meant to avoid scrutiny from the street outside.

The barmen work hard to make sure their customers keep coming. They scurry about offering complimentary fava and lupin beans, cucumbers and occasionally yogurt to coat the stomach. Vendors wander in throughout the night hawking newspapers, peanuts and even full meals.

In some bars, the entertainment is firmly traditional, featuring recordings by legendary Arab diva Umm Kalthoum whose music transfixed the Middle East for four decades until her death in 1975. The mournful nostalgia of her hour-long ballads fits well with a scene that feels as though it's living on borrowed time.

In most bars, though, satellite television has made its inroads, and the customers watch bad Hollywood action movies with Arabic subtitles.

It's a far cry from the 1940s, when downtown Cairo's greatest attraction was cabarets where the Middle East's best belly dancers shimmied their hips. Now the top dancers are often from Brazil or Russia and tend to appear at the city's five-star hotels, hastening the decline of the old venues downtown.

One exception is the Shahrazad, a belly dance club under 30-foot-high ceilings, with velvet curtains and large Arabian Nights-style murals that were recently renovated by Egypt's largest alcoholic beverage company — part of an effort to restore downtown establishments to their former glory. The company also produced a map of downtown bars and cabarets in an attempt attract young Egyptians and foreigners.

"If we can bring tourists and foreigners back to downtown, I think it is good for Egypt," said Philippe Saintigny, head of marketing at Al Ahram Beverages Co., which produces Stella beer — a brand founded in 1897 and now produced under the guidance of Holland's Heineken brewery.

One downtown bar, Hurriya, has managed through the years to attract both Egyptians and foreigners, especially students from The American University in Cairo.

Saintigny pointed to Hurriya — Arabic for "freedom" — as proof that "trendy people" can be lured downtown. He said his company was motivated by the need to develop its business in a country where the more liberal outlook of the past often is forgotten.

"We know in this country that you have pressure against alcohol ... so we want to show that Stella is part of the heritage of this country also," he said.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/811802.html

Comments:

They think that drinking alcohol and dancing naked is being tolerant and liberal. And the ones who don't join this evil are fundamentalists. This is the salafi tide they want to turn back. It's about time the public woke up a little and stopped listening to these clowns in the country.

[themuffinman]

Religion, decrepitude threaten downtown Cairo bars

By PAUL SCHEMM and SEBASTIAN ABBOT, Associated Press Writers
Paul Schemm And Sebastian Abbot, Associated Press Writers

CAIRO, Egypt – Armed with a bottle of Egyptian brandy and a bowl of steaming chickpeas, Hatem Fouad keeps watch each night over a historic slice of Cairo that is in danger of dying: the bars that once flourished amid the sweeping boulevards and graceful roundabouts of the city's European-style downtown.

The former police officer is part of a cadre of older Egyptian men who frequent drinking holes and belly-dancing cabarets chronicled by Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz in the 1940s and popular with Cairo's artists and intellectuals until the late 1970s.

Many of these establishments have fallen into disrepair and disrepute as Egyptians grow more observant of Islam with its prohibition on alcohol, and the country's elite migrates away from the traffic-choked streets of the now crumbling downtown.

"They were part of an Egypt that doesn't exist anymore," said Alaa el-Aswani, who immortalized the remnants of the downtown bar scene in his best-selling 2002 novel "The Yacoubian Building." He was talking about the heyday of the bar and nightclub era — when anyone from King Farouk, Egypt's last monarch, to the British playwright-composer Noel Coward, might show up in a Cairo club.
"This Egypt was very liberal, very tolerant," he said. "You had the bars, you had the synagogues, you had the churches, you had the mosques. Everyone was absolutely allowed to practice religion, to go and drink or whatever."

Cairo at the time was filled not just with Egyptians, but with Greeks, Italians and other Europeans who frequented the bars and restaurants sprinkled among the downtown's ornate belle epoque buildings. Mahfouz's novels describe the wealthy patronizing these establishments and the denizens of Cairo's medieval back alleys sometimes venturing into the brightly lighted downtown for a drink.

The 1952 ouster of Farouk and the nationalization of businesses chased away many of the Europeans. Then, in the 1980s, millions of Egyptians returned from working in the oil fields of Saudi Arabia with both money and the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islam.

They formed a new Egyptian middle class that had little interest in spending the night drinking Egypt's Stella beer and Bolonachi brandy in places like Bar Massoud, a hole in the wall on a busy street in the downtown Bulaq neighborhood.

"There used to be seven bars in this area. Now there are only two. It's because everything is forbidden now," said Magdy Michel, who owns Bar Massoud and, like most of Cairo's bar operators, is Christian.

As middle- and lower-class Egyptians increasingly turned toward Islam, the elite migrated to trendy bars in wealthier Cairo neighborhoods.

"The rich people and the high-ranking people in the regime, when they drink they don't go to the downtown bars, so they don't need these bars," said author el-Aswani.

He added that to assuage Islamic fundamentalists, the Egyptian government has made it difficult for bars to get or renew liquor licenses. Downtown bar owners also say they face pressure from police officers demanding bribes and threatening to arrest customers.

"We get harassed by the lower-ranking police officers," said Michel at Bar Massoud. "Corruption is everywhere."

Ex-policeman Fouad said he had to talk to "some friends" to avoid trouble with the law at his favorite watering hole, the Gemayka — pronounced like the Caribbean island. "The police don't bother us here," he declared.

Many downtown bars like Bar Massoud and the Gemayka have a speakeasy feel, with men drinking and trading jokes behind windowless, nondescript facades meant to avoid scrutiny from the street outside.

The barmen work hard to make sure their customers keep coming. They scurry about offering complimentary fava and lupin beans, cucumbers and occasionally yogurt to coat the stomach. Vendors wander in throughout the night hawking newspapers, peanuts and even full meals.

In some bars, the entertainment is firmly traditional, featuring recordings by legendary Arab diva Umm Kalthoum whose music transfixed the Middle East for four decades until her death in 1975. The mournful nostalgia of her hour-long ballads fits well with a scene that feels as though it's living on borrowed time.

In most bars, though, satellite television has made its inroads, and the customers watch bad Hollywood action movies with Arabic subtitles.

It's a far cry from the 1940s, when downtown Cairo's greatest attraction was cabarets where the Middle East's best belly dancers shimmied their hips. Now the top dancers are often from Brazil or Russia and tend to appear at the city's five-star hotels, hastening the decline of the old venues downtown.

One exception is the Shahrazad, a belly dance club under 30-foot-high ceilings, with velvet curtains and large Arabian Nights-style murals that were recently renovated by Egypt's largest alcoholic beverage company — part of an effort to restore downtown establishments to their former glory. The company also produced a map of downtown bars and cabarets in an attempt attract young Egyptians and foreigners.

"If we can bring tourists and foreigners back to downtown, I think it is good for Egypt," said Philippe Saintigny, head of marketing at Al Ahram Beverages Co., which produces Stella beer — a brand founded in 1897 and now produced under the guidance of Holland's Heineken brewery.

One downtown bar, Hurriya, has managed through the years to attract both Egyptians and foreigners, especially students from The American University in Cairo.

Saintigny pointed to Hurriya — Arabic for "freedom" — as proof that "trendy people" can be lured downtown. He said his company was motivated by the need to develop its business in a country where the more liberal outlook of the past often is forgotten.

"We know in this country that you have pressure against alcohol ... so we want to show that Stella is part of the heritage of this country also," he said.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/811802.html

Comments:

They think that drinking alcohol and dancing naked is being tolerant and liberal. And the ones who don't join this evil are fundamentalists. This is the salafi tide they want to turn back. It's about time the public woke up a little and stopped listening to these clowns in the country.

lol agreed.

[Wilma_Hum]

Religion, decrepitude threaten downtown Cairo bars

By PAUL SCHEMM and SEBASTIAN ABBOT, Associated Press Writers
Paul Schemm And Sebastian Abbot, Associated Press Writers

CAIRO, Egypt – Armed with a bottle of Egyptian brandy and a bowl of steaming chickpeas, Hatem Fouad keeps watch each night over a historic slice of Cairo that is in danger of dying: the bars that once flourished amid the sweeping boulevards and graceful roundabouts of the city's European-style downtown.

The former police officer is part of a cadre of older Egyptian men who frequent drinking holes and belly-dancing cabarets chronicled by Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz in the 1940s and popular with Cairo's artists and intellectuals until the late 1970s.

Many of these establishments have fallen into disrepair and disrepute as Egyptians grow more observant of Islam with its prohibition on alcohol, and the country's elite migrates away from the traffic-choked streets of the now crumbling downtown.

"They were part of an Egypt that doesn't exist anymore," said Alaa el-Aswani, who immortalized the remnants of the downtown bar scene in his best-selling 2002 novel "The Yacoubian Building." He was talking about the heyday of the bar and nightclub era — when anyone from King Farouk, Egypt's last monarch, to the British playwright-composer Noel Coward, might show up in a Cairo club.
"This Egypt was very liberal, very tolerant," he said. "You had the bars, you had the synagogues, you had the churches, you had the mosques. Everyone was absolutely allowed to practice religion, to go and drink or whatever."

Cairo at the time was filled not just with Egyptians, but with Greeks, Italians and other Europeans who frequented the bars and restaurants sprinkled among the downtown's ornate belle epoque buildings. Mahfouz's novels describe the wealthy patronizing these establishments and the denizens of Cairo's medieval back alleys sometimes venturing into the brightly lighted downtown for a drink.

The 1952 ouster of Farouk and the nationalization of businesses chased away many of the Europeans. Then, in the 1980s, millions of Egyptians returned from working in the oil fields of Saudi Arabia with both money and the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islam.

They formed a new Egyptian middle class that had little interest in spending the night drinking Egypt's Stella beer and Bolonachi brandy in places like Bar Massoud, a hole in the wall on a busy street in the downtown Bulaq neighborhood.

"There used to be seven bars in this area. Now there are only two. It's because everything is forbidden now," said Magdy Michel, who owns Bar Massoud and, like most of Cairo's bar operators, is Christian.

As middle- and lower-class Egyptians increasingly turned toward Islam, the elite migrated to trendy bars in wealthier Cairo neighborhoods.

"The rich people and the high-ranking people in the regime, when they drink they don't go to the downtown bars, so they don't need these bars," said author el-Aswani.

He added that to assuage Islamic fundamentalists, the Egyptian government has made it difficult for bars to get or renew liquor licenses. Downtown bar owners also say they face pressure from police officers demanding bribes and threatening to arrest customers.

"We get harassed by the lower-ranking police officers," said Michel at Bar Massoud. "Corruption is everywhere."

Ex-policeman Fouad said he had to talk to "some friends" to avoid trouble with the law at his favorite watering hole, the Gemayka — pronounced like the Caribbean island. "The police don't bother us here," he declared.

Many downtown bars like Bar Massoud and the Gemayka have a speakeasy feel, with men drinking and trading jokes behind windowless, nondescript facades meant to avoid scrutiny from the street outside.

The barmen work hard to make sure their customers keep coming. They scurry about offering complimentary fava and lupin beans, cucumbers and occasionally yogurt to coat the stomach. Vendors wander in throughout the night hawking newspapers, peanuts and even full meals.

In some bars, the entertainment is firmly traditional, featuring recordings by legendary Arab diva Umm Kalthoum whose music transfixed the Middle East for four decades until her death in 1975. The mournful nostalgia of her hour-long ballads fits well with a scene that feels as though it's living on borrowed time.

In most bars, though, satellite television has made its inroads, and the customers watch bad Hollywood action movies with Arabic subtitles.

It's a far cry from the 1940s, when downtown Cairo's greatest attraction was cabarets where the Middle East's best belly dancers shimmied their hips. Now the top dancers are often from Brazil or Russia and tend to appear at the city's five-star hotels, hastening the decline of the old venues downtown.

One exception is the Shahrazad, a belly dance club under 30-foot-high ceilings, with velvet curtains and large Arabian Nights-style murals that were recently renovated by Egypt's largest alcoholic beverage company — part of an effort to restore downtown establishments to their former glory. The company also produced a map of downtown bars and cabarets in an attempt attract young Egyptians and foreigners.

"If we can bring tourists and foreigners back to downtown, I think it is good for Egypt," said Philippe Saintigny, head of marketing at Al Ahram Beverages Co., which produces Stella beer — a brand founded in 1897 and now produced under the guidance of Holland's Heineken brewery.

One downtown bar, Hurriya, has managed through the years to attract both Egyptians and foreigners, especially students from The American University in Cairo.

Saintigny pointed to Hurriya — Arabic for "freedom" — as proof that "trendy people" can be lured downtown. He said his company was motivated by the need to develop its business in a country where the more liberal outlook of the past often is forgotten.

"We know in this country that you have pressure against alcohol ... so we want to show that Stella is part of the heritage of this country also," he said.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/811802.html

Comments:

They think that drinking alcohol and dancing naked is being tolerant and liberal. And the ones who don't join this evil are fundamentalists. This is the salafi tide they want to turn back. It's about time the public woke up a little and stopped listening to these clowns in the country.

Dancing naked?

[islamirama]

Dancing naked?

Musilm's and other non-muslim's conservative societies definition of nakedness is different than west. To you a girl looking like she's from playboy is naked, to us anyone dressing like a slu*t (pretty much how western girls go partying) is naked.

[czgibson]

Greetings,

In some bars, the entertainment is firmly traditional, featuring recordings by legendary Arab diva Umm Kalthoum whose music transfixed the Middle East for four decades until her death in 1975. The mournful nostalgia of her hour-long ballads fits well with a scene that feels as though it's living on borrowed time.

Hour-long ballads? She sounds interesting - thanks for the tip.

Peace

[Wilma_Hum]

Musilm's and other non-muslim's conservative societies definition of nakedness is different than west. To you a girl looking like she's from playboy is naked, to us anyone dressing like a slu*t (pretty much how western girls go partying) is naked.

How do you know how westerns girls go partying?

Calling us western girls slu*t because we don’t conform to your standards seams a bit narrow minded.

[Wilma_Hum]

I don't believe he called anybody a s*** in his post.

He was giving you the relative definition of nakedness, when he said anyone that dresses like a s*** is naked.

When girls go partying, most will go to clubs wearing short skirts and revealing tops. That is exactly how prostitutes will dress, too.

So now I dress like a prostitute. Is everyone always this nice.

[Muezzin]

Now, now.

The topic isn't about degrees of nudity so much as it's about bars in Cairo.

[czgibson]

Greetings,

Bloody heck, learn to read.

You're in the wrong on this one, I'm afraid.

We should all try to be aware of the effect our words will have on others.

Peace

[Wilma_Hum]

Sorry, czGibson. But, nobody said she dressed like a prostitute. Nobody alluded to it. Nobody knows what she dresses like, so why the need for her to take it as an insult against her?

Her assuming an insult is entirely her own fault. Her saying "Is everyone this nice" is playing the victim for no reason, when it was obvious that no insult was meant.

Wilma_Hum, if you want an honest answer to your question, then if you wear short skirts and if you wear revealing tops, then I'd say yes, you do dress like a prostitute, because that is the uniform of most prostitutes. Go past any city's red-light district and this is what you'll see.

Since I just know you're going to get 'offended', keep in mind that if a person that wasn't a policeman, but was wearing the uniform of a policeman, was to ask me whether he dressed like a policeman, I'd point out the obvious by saying yes. This of course wouldn't mean that I'd think him to be a real policeman.

It seams to me that czgibson has seen the same implications I did.

[Muezzin]

And with that, we can return to the topic before we ruin everyone's day-or-two off work.

[Chuck]

We should all try to be aware of the effect our words will have on others.

Yes of course. But I hear freedom of speech and words doesn't hurt *cough* *cough*

[Omar_Mukhtar]

Historical to some means when they "gained independece" and started to speak in French and English.

[wth1257]

And with that, we can return to the topic before we ruin everyone's day-or-two off work.

I have 17 days left before next semester

day or two psshhhh!!!!!!!

Unfortunatly, I'm already bored

[جوري]

Greetings,


You're in the wrong on this one, I'm afraid.

We should all try to be aware of the effect our words will have on others.

Peace

Oh we should? I thought it was all about free speech?

best,

[LauraS]

Oh we should? I thought it was all about free speech?

best,

Freedom of speech does not just mean insulting other people. And this is a forum on the internet, people come on here to discuss "world affairs" surely it wouldn't be very effective if we just posted insults to each other? So when the moderators ask members to not use personal insults to debate things calmly are they impinging on our freedom of speech?

Also this thread was from four years ago, why carry on a debate when some of the members aren't even here to answer?

[جوري]

Freedom of speech does not just mean insulting other people. And this is a forum on the internet, people come on here to discuss "world affairs" surely it wouldn't be very effective if we just posted insults to each other? So when the moderators ask members to not use personal insults to debate things calmly are they impinging on our freedom of speech?

Also this thread was from four years ago, why carry on a debate when some of the members aren't even here to answer?

Not only is freedom of speech per western standards about insulting other people, it is also about libel and slander. World's affairs can be discussed in any number of ways.. even comic strips are a way of discussing politics.
Mods ask not to use personal insults simply because we adhere to Islamic standards not western ones. Thusly, what you construe as 'hurt feelings' is perfectly normal to someone else.. and lastly the thread is open and CZ is very much alive and well with us and can answer any ole time he wants.. I suspect he doesn't want to paint himself as a hypocrite with double standards.

best,

[GuestFellow]

Freedom of speech does not just mean insulting other people. And this is a forum on the internet, people come on here to discuss "world affairs" surely it wouldn't be very effective if we just posted insults to each other? So when the moderators ask members to not use personal insults to debate things calmly are they impinging on our freedom of speech?

Also this thread was from four years ago, why carry on a debate when some of the members aren't even here to answer?

I think freedom of speech permits people to be insulted. I have seen the mainstream media insult celebrities and politicians.

As for this forum, there are terms and conditions that members must agree to. So if you insult another member, you have breached the terms and conditions that you have originally agreed too.

In addition, this topic is too old. Can a moderator please close it.