A good source to track any local development in Indonesia is through to the group blog http://laksamana.net.

Laksamana means admiral in Indonesian.

Islam is a religion without any hierarchy and its believers have the right to approach the religion in the way that he and she understands best. It acknowledges the direct relation between God and Man (and Woman) without the use of intermediary.

However right now we are seeing in practice that the one with the money and guns seems to hold the 'rights' to define Islam.

You see this pattern throughout the Middle East from the prosecution of the Shias in Saudi Arabia or the blowing out of Shias Mosques in Iraq. Where one Muslim faction denounces the other as 'not a true Islam'.

It is ironic that a religion that has a deep support for 'liberation theology' and concept of justice is being dominated by blind ambition and greed of some of its believers.

And the fact that silence majority (read: silenced) letting this happens is maddening. Your silence is not golden. To a lot of non-Muslims Islam is equal fear. The assertion that Islam is a "religion of peace" rings hollow when what people see is the image of heads being cut off or even Mosques being blown up while the word "Allahuakbar" is being shouted in the background.

Heck, even Islam right now is a danger to some Muslims. Being a Sunni or Shias, in some place can get you killed.

How fucked up is that.

Imagine that. Being a 'wrong' stripe of Muslim can get you killed by your fellow Muslims of different stripe.

It is questionable that Islam needs reform. But for sure, Muslims need reform, for Islam's sake and the rest of the world.

Nothing on this post is new. Many intellectuals in the Muslim worlds have espoused this view; and there are tons of intellectuals in the Muslim world. The idea is there, the realization is there. It's just not happening.

Update: It happened in London (they are reclaiming their religion)

Today is a great day in learning Egyptian culture and a cheap one as that. My "guide" and new friend, Jimmy, was graceful enough to meet me in Cinema Tahrir near my place (about 10 minutes walk) and showed me his neighbourhood. He is a fellow blogger that I meet for the first time today, yet he insisted on paying for everything.

His neighbourhood, Shoubara is a neighbourhood in northern part of Cairo. We took off at the Road El-Faraq metro stop, a ten minute subway ride from Dokki.

A street in Shoubara. Cairo's air is filled with fine dust from the desert today due to the windstorm last night. They look like a yellow fog.

This neighbourhood is distinct from other places I have seen in Cairo due to its relatively lack of traffic and parked cars  in narrow street and filled with buzzing and vibrant small independent shops. A walkable place in Cairo, that's something to cheer about.

I didn't understand what he was saying but isn't this such a great welcoming gesture?

A traditional market in Shoubara; You can find meat and fishes and vegetables but no Chicken. The country is cracking down on fresh chicken trade.

Donkey Cart. They remind me of Wisconsin :)

We explored the streets by foot and ate some street food which name escape me now. Yummy. People are noticably friendly here even in the friendly city like Cairo.

We hung out a bit in his buddy, George, that loves blaring loud hip hop music out of his computer. Imagine listening to Jay-Z's "Big Pimping" out of an apartment in Cairo; that's surreal. I love it. They went to Luxor and Answan last week on a school trips for a week and paid only 200 pounds for the whole thing and stayed in four star hotels. Lucky bastards. Their pictures make me crave going to the Upper Egypt even more. Both of them study English literature that apparently attended by 600 or more female and only 30 guys. Now that's Estrogen poisioning.

Vibrant fabrics in Shoubara.

Jimmy was kind enough to invite me to his house and introduced me to his mother. She cooked a killer dinner. I was stuffed and happy at the end of our fabulous dinner. Apparently he read about my string of bad luck here in Cairo and gave me a sure remedy, a stone scarab, a symbol of luck in ancient Egypt. Hey my water and Internet cable worked when I returned home. It works.

Notice the yummy Sheep grill and Tahina.

Egyptian has lunch at 3-4 and dinner at 9-10. That's crazy but it's a pattern that fits the night stalker nature of this society. People go out, late and stay even later.

I had my first Shisha in Egypt sitting down on the first class view of one busy narrow street and down it with the famous Egyptian mango juice that quickly become my favourite beverage here.

So today is a very very good day. Thanks a lot Jimmy for showing me a part of your city. I'm looking forward to the football match next week.

First things first, I met Jimmy on time at Cinema Tahrir earlier today. And no, no one get kidnapped; I am not a foreign spy either :) more on this later.

Water is back into the building and my Internet cable from is fixed.

My WiFi sputtered to life last night then died again. There is no water in the building today.

This reliability of infrastructure is one thing this country needs to work on.

I haven't seen a Cairo sunrise. I have been claiming the night since I arrived here and ignore the morning.

Hopefully soon.

For now Cairo is a lonely place. The language barrier simply prevents me to communicate with the natives on the street. The mounting workload made it worse.

No, I haven't seen the pyramid yet. I'll take a time off tomorrow afternoon to explore old cairo and some places not usually visited by foreigners. I will post pictures.

I miss my friends back in Chicago and the lake. Nothing surpass the ability to run for miles and miles with a stunning sunrise view of Lake Michigan and Bob Marley blaring through your ears. I haven't run here since I arrived. I will miss playing volleyball every Sunday on the beach. Egyptians are not sporty type. There are not enough parks in this city to stimulate outdoors activities.

Cairo: Too much cars, too little sports.

I have to find the other side of Cairo that is not obvious.

An old man sat down on the side of the street near Tahrir trying to open the cap of a bottled Fanta with his teeth. He struggled a couple of times to no avail.

I noticed him while walking home from a grocery run and crossed the street with my Swiss knife army ready and offered a hand to open his drink. He smiled gratefully accentuating the age line of his face and bursted out a hearty "thank you" when I gave his bottle back, opened. That made my day.

I am probably cursed. Aside from my well documented quest in finding any workable wifi connection in Cairo's cafe, I have encountered so many little irritating problems that pops up now and then in my three weeks here in Cairo.

For example, my Internet connection at home. I took me two days and two WiFi access point to get it working. It worked beautifully yesterday night and tada, this morning the fuckin' cable that connect my apartment to the office network below bailed out on me.

Crap.

Now I am resorted to working out of the cyber cafe nearby. At least this one has a good computer because they use it to play games. On the downside, I have no immediate access to my kitchen to make yummy Turkish coffee.