Fatwa against statues triggers uproar in Egypt

AFP ^ | April 3 2006

[jpsb]

Interesting question, I won't pretend to know the answer but I can offer a little history. At the time of Egypt's’ conquests by Islam (800 AD ish). Egypt was Christan and Romanized. It took many hundred of years to wipe out the old culture (still pockets of civilized Christians in Egypt today) and instill Islamic culture. Say by 1200 AD the deed was done, however Islam was ruled 1200 ADish by the Ottoman Empire and by Islamic standards, the Ottomans were civilized. The Ottoman Empire came to an end in the 1918 and then British took over until quite recently. So perhaps for the first time we are seeing the real raw Muslim culture as practiced by the original true believers.