A message from an Egyptian you are representing - My email to Dr. Amr Hamzawy

Dear Dr. Hamzawy

I have watched your interview on Al-Nas TV channel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfBDnAVKkng) and I would like to give you my humble feedback.

1. I do understand and appreciate your attempts in changing the public mindset that was directed against liberals and liberalism in general by appearing on that specific channel to show your moderate ideology and beliefs.

2. I, personally, am having problems with your statement that pornography sites should be banned. Generally, I have a problem with banning. Throughout history, it is obvious that banning something only results in the growing of underground movements to fulfill the public desire.

3. The same goes for banning alcohol, taking the American experiment from 1920 to 1933 as an example to my previous statement.

4. Banning is always the "easy" solution, but sadly a short-termed one. Officials, and people generally, rarely choose the better long term solution which is education and awareness.

5. The country's role is not a guardianship role. One can argue that a father is his children's guardians, a husband is his wife/wives guardian, but everyone else is responsible for their own actions.

6. An intermediate solution that can be implemented while the long term solution is taking effect, would be giving households the choice of installing a minor-friendly internet service. That means having an ISP (or more) providing this service, and it is the choice of the household (arguable) guardian to subscribe to such service.

7. However, banning pornography will not assure nation-wide virtue. Parents and teachers still have to do their duties to spread awareness and to educate the children.

8. I also have a problem with your statement regarding Switzerland, where the Swiss never prevented Muslims (or any other religious affiliation) to preform their rituals. What they did was that they are trying to preserve their cities' architectural identity. Muslims can still build mosques, but they cannot build minarets.

Again, I do appreciate your appearance on that TV channel, but should have been more politically correct rather than trying to please the channel's audience.

I hope you take my remarks into consideration, if there was any thought of passing such legislations in the parliament.

Sincerely

Ramy Mamlouk
Heliopolis