Variance of Veneration: A View of Faith in the Iraqi Refugee Community
Jamila was busy translating as we sipped our coffees in the light of the Egyptian sun. We were conducting an interview with a family of women in a café in 6th of October City. Abir sat quietly as her two daughters, Amal and Ahlam, bickered back and forth between each other. We had asked the two daughters of the significance of the hijab. While Amal felt no pressure to wear the hijab, Ahlam explained that is for a woman’s protection and that she feels safe when following this law of Islam. The conversation transcended from one simply of the hijab into a broader argument on religion and the effects it has on their lives. Amal explained that she tended not to pray every single time when called, while Ahlam felt she could never miss the Imam’s call to prayer. Jamila finally reached her breaking point and ended the argument with an exasperated, “Enough!” The family laughed with each other and we moved the conversation onwards.

The argument between the sisters opens up an interesting conversation about religion for Iraqi refugees in Cairo. While the sisters found a common ground on basic beliefs, the degree of their religiosity varied vastly. This rings true for the larger Iraqi refugee population in Cairo; many share similar beliefs but at the same time have their own unique views about religion. The religious context of Cairo places them in both a familiar and confusing environment.

Cairo is a city with an already complex history of religious relations. Though tension between Coptic Christianity and Islam in Cairo seems to routinely find the headlines, this is hugely misleading about religion as whole for the city and its citizens. True, there is some religious tension in the city, but there exists a diversity of religious interactions within Cairo. While some have no reservations in associating with people from other faiths, others recede into their own religious communities and refuse to look towards peace. The majority religion in Cairo is Sunni Muslim, with about 15% of the remaining population considering themselves Christian. Because one of the tenets of Islam is acceptance and tolerance of other monotheistic religions, the issue of religious interaction is often handled well. However with the recent stresses of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, religion has been shoved into the foreground of many issues within the city. Religious associations forced underground by the Mubarak regime before have now resurfaced under the new Morsi government.

While some Iraqi refugees describe religion to be the absolute center of their lives, others have become distanced and feel as if their religion has forgotten them. Some only feel the need to dedicate themselves more to Islam, while others lean on different religions for support, displaying fleeting thoughts of renouncing their god altogether. What are the factors that can explain this religious variance in the Iraqi refugee community? Why do some refugees see religion as a source of peace and others see it as a personal turmoil? From our experiences in the field, I find that any shift in religiosity in Cairo highlights the role of religion in Iraqi refugees’ lives.

Religion in Iraq: Conflict and Resolution
Religious relations in Iraq have experienced a dramatic transformation over the past couple of decades. While the predominant religions in Iraq are Sunni Islam and Shia Islam, there is a smaller population of Christians. Most refugees recall that for the better part of the 20th century, religious relations were relatively stable. Women felt no pressure to wear a hijab and conflict between Sunni and Shia was virtually nonexistent. Religious pluralism was encouraged growing up, with some refugees even stating that they enjoyed going to Sunday mass with their Christian friends. “We would even put up a Christmas tree every year and receive presents,” Manal, one of our Iraqi research assistants in Cairo, explains. From the 1970s until the early 2000s, the refugees we interviewed could not recall a time when religion caused any major conflict. With the invasion of Iraq by the United States in 2003, everything changed. The Iraqis we met felt that it was not simply the unjustified invasion of their country that frustrated them; it was an issue of timing. One woman explained that the United States invaded at a time when they did not want them to and then withdrew from Iraq at a critically unstable point in the country’s history. In 2007 any remaining hope for peace was ended as that nation headed into a civil war between Sunni and Shia militias. Terrorist groups entered Iraq and began wreaking havoc on its citizens. Many Iraqis felt they could not stay in Iraq, either fleeing from personal experience or from sheer terror of their unknown future. Religion becomes an important factor in the Iraqi diaspora because these terrorists groups used Islam as an excuse for their threats, kidnappings and general violence.

The mix of religious pluralism and conflict is all too familiar for Iraqi refugees living in modern day Cairo. Most Iraqis currently living in Egypt are Sunni Muslim. Zeena, an Iraqi refugee living in Nasr City, describes her community when the civil war was at its worst. “In our Shia community we felt like people were trying to force us to wear the hijab. I felt things became more dangerous for me as a woman. Before I felt I could visit my friend driving alone at 1:00 a.m., but once the war began I had to be back by 5:00 p.m. or it was dangerous.”  She as well as many others felt that during the civil war, the religious tensions between Sunni and Shia seeped into their daily lives. The often times unbearable fighting has motivated some towards acceptance, holding peace and coexistence close to their hearts as a reaction against religious conflict. Nearly all the Iraqis we met said that they valued or accepted religious pluralism. “For us, we do not consider Sunni and Shia factor in marriage. We only consider Islam,” Jamila states.

From Past Practice to Today’s Tradition
When asked to rate their current religiosity, many Iraqis stated that it was average, however their description of what was average varied. One Iraqi may see this as strictly following the Quran and praying five times a day, while others perceive this as disregarding the rules of Islam, indulging in alcohol and not attending Friday prayer. By listening to Iraqi refugees describe what changes they may have made in religious practice from Iraq to Egypt, we are able to see how their religiosity shaped their displacement experience. It becomes ineffective to only look at their religiosity in Egypt because it does not show the full picture; to disregard their religious shift is to miss a crucial factor that uncovers the motivations for how these refugees currently practice their religion in Cairo. Imad, Zeena and Manal all possessed about the same religiosity in Egypt, but the paths that led to this point show their differences. Imad feels he experienced virtually no change in religious practice from Iraq to Egypt, stating, “Oh it’s the same thing. I was praying in Iraq and I pray here. I was doing my religious habits in Iraq, I do it the same here. Nothing changed.” On the other hand, Zeena and her daughter, Manal, exhibit about the same religious habits as Imad yet explain that, “In Egypt we understand our religion better than Iraq.” Manal also adds, “I feel that Egypt is more spiritual for me than Iraq, personally, because I only have bad memories of Iraq.”

With respect to religion, there is no such thing as a typical Iraqi refugee. Viewing the commonalities between Iraqi refugees’ religious experience can allow us to group these individual experiences together. By looking at the shifts in religiosity from Iraq to Cairo, one can see that Iraqi refugees vary between believing their religion has abandoned them to believing it is through their religion that they have been able to survive.

Religious Centrality and Faith as Strength
Many Iraqi refugees in Cairo have placed religion at the center of their lives, from their form of practice to their strict devotion. Religious centrality relies on the idea that those who possess gratitude and high devotion still have faith in their religion. They feel Islam and Allah have followed them to Egypt and that the call for devotion is greater now more than ever. Many Iraqis explain that they have never felt abandoned by their faith and instead only feel a stronger devotion. A key idea that motivates religious centrality for Iraqi refugees is a notion that they are indebted to their religion because they are alive and relatively safe in Cairo. For some Iraqi refugees, Allah has watched over and guided them safely from Iraq to Cairo. In the case of one family, the fact that they even survived Iraq is living proof of their indebtedness to Allah and Islam. Both Abir, the mother, and Rana, her daughter, feel that though the family is placed in a terrible situation, their god has still been watching over them. The only struggle in religion they seem to exhibit is how to display their gratitude in accordance with the laws of Islam. “How do you make it alive? How do you bring something to life? There is a rule, and how do you act according to it?” Rana questions. She exhibits no struggle of belief, but rather a struggle of how to publically display her gratitude to her religion. The family feels that they were taken care of because Allah had fated them from the very beginning. “Yes of course [we find refuge in religion] because we had the strength to continue and to move on because of it, and that makes us believe that it is something that we had nothing to do with; it is just our destiny,” Abir declares. They believe that in the end, all the struggles and hardships they experienced were mapped out and made bearable by Allah, that he destined the family’s path and was gracious enough to show mercy to them.

Another contributing factor to religious centrality is the use of religion as a form of comfort. Iraqi refugees described feelings of peace whenever they practice Islam exceptionally closely. Somewhere through the prayer and practice, their minds are eased and worries fade. “Sometimes I fall onto my religion when I feel I am in bad times, and this makes me feel better,” Saif, an Iraqi refugee in Nasr City, describes. Saif has other activities that he uses to relieve stress, but there is something about devotion and prayer that lends itself particularly to comfort. Seeking refuge in Islam makes him feel better about his situation when he feels his life is escaping him. In the same vein, hopefulness can often be seen through the lens of Islam, again contributing to religious centrality.

Hope is one aspect that many Iraqi refugees feel is increasingly hard to find in Cairo. Yet, some Iraqis have found a way to look for hope in what seems like a bleak and doubtful future by going inwards to their religion. Some Iraqi refugees feel that religion is the only source from which they can derive hope. “I use the Quran most of the time for my health because my strong connection to God lets me see hope in a future,” states Husam, an Iraqi refugee living in Nasr City. Though his wife believes that there is no hope for resettlement, Husam is able to hold on to hope by using his strong religious connection. For some Iraqi refugees, a religious lens is one of the few ways that hope can be preserved so religion is again centerd and placed in a higher position in their lives.

The embodiment of religion as strength can be seen through the life of Ibtisam. “Even though there are beautiful mosques in Egypt, I feel more spiritual in Iraq,” she states. “Religion has been important throughout my entire life, because my parents taught me at a very young age.” Though she states that her religiosity may have been stronger in Iraq, her overall behaviours and actions show that she is still very religious in Egypt. Her motivation to move to Egypt gives a better picture of the resilience of her religious practice. Her sister was working in a women’s beauty salon in Iraq at a time when it was very taboo to do so. The owner was threatened repeatedly to close the store and get out of the country by the Jaish al Mahdi, an Iranian militia, however he refused. Ibtisam states that her sister was just a bystander, but in order to make a point to the owner, the militia kidnapped her for a day before the owner closed his store and they released her. After she was returned, the family immediately fled for Jordan and later to Egypt. In Egypt, Ibtisam feels, “I do not believe I would be alive today if it were not for my Quran. I pray when I am called to pray…I cannot do anything wrong.” The only struggle she feels with religion is trying to ingrain its importance into her children, but she believes they will follow her example when they grow older. In relation to religious use as comfort or hope, Ibtisam states, “We use it directly for hope. When my family reads the Quran, we have faith in our future and hope for resettlement.”

While she followed her religion regularly before and does the same today, it has taken on a new meaning in Egypt because she is able to seek refuge in Islam as a center of hope and comfort, guiding her family to resettlement in the future. It is the most important aspect of her life. She is able to fully embrace Islam because she feels she has not been abandoned by her faith and instead feels gratitude in her religion, using her faith as a direct source of comfort and hope.

Religious Abandonment and Faith as Turmoil
Other Iraqi refugees seem to have the opposite reaction to their religion. They question how their god could have possibly allowed these horrible atrocities to happen to them and feel that Allah has not been watching over them in their transition to Egypt. Because of this, they experience a lesser sense of devotion and grapple with the question of religion, searching for answers that they may never find. Many Iraqi refugees were forced to flee their country because of Islamic terrorist groups and sectarian violence that ensued during the civil war. Their reactions to these groups vary. “They are not Muslim, they cannot call themselves Muslim,” Manal states. Islam is always described as a religion of peace and acceptance, so many feel that these terrorists and militias who use Islam as an excuse for their actions are simply a different religion from what their faith preaches. Still, other Iraqis feel trapped into the same religion with extremists and feel as if Islam and their god have abandoned them. “I feel sometimes, only once, that there is no God, because if there is a God, why am I in such a situation? The unknown armed people who tried to kill me or kill my family also considered themselves Muslim. So sometimes when I remember these issues, I lose faith,” states Hassan.

Another contributing factor to religious doubt is the perceived lack of effort by the Islamic community in Cairo to reach out to the Iraqis. With Christian services such as St. Andrew’s and Caritas continually reaching out to the community, the Islamic services are simply not in place. Iraqi refugees then question why it is that their Islamic community cannot reach out to them like these Christian organizations have. “Where are the Islamic associations? If I’m Muslim, why do they not help me?” Abu Bakr asks. Religious abandonment for Iraqi refugees is therefore shaped through negative association with Islamic terrorists groups who forced them into Cairo and through a lack of connection with the Islamic community in Cairo. Abandonment is also furthered with the notion that their god allowed their displacement to happen.

A notable case of religion in turmoil can be seen through the life of Kathem. He described himself as regularly religious before the events that forced him to Cairo. This man was troubled and rarely responded with more than a few words, staring off into the distance. When we asked if he had prayed or read the Quran while in Iraq, he simply stated, “Always.” When asked to list the significant moments in his life, Kathem replied with “entering the champion’s league for bodybuilding, my kidnapping, and the feeling of being free for the first time when I had escaped my kidnappers and my legs and arms were not tied.” Going through his kidnapping, Kathem never changed his tone of voice or position. His kidnapping lasted for fourteen days and he was constantly tied up. His kidnappers were violent and would often physically harm him in an attempt to extort money from his family. It is clear that those two weeks reshaped the way he viewed his religion. After his escape, his family moved to Cairo, however they discovered that Kathem was never going to return to the mental status he had before his kidnapping. The severity of the violence he experienced fundamentally changed the way he interacted with others around him and his family could no longer handle him. They ended up pushing him towards his cousin and completely cutting off their ties with him.

Now, his faith has completely changed. “I am very interested in the Holy Bible. I have memorized the whole thing,” Kathem states. Expanding on his view of Christianity, he states that, “Christians are more peaceful and merciful than the Muslims. Christians are peaceful with others even outside their own country and to animals, but we the Muslims are not good people even with human beings.” Because of his experiences, Kathem associates Islam with his captors, and he has found an alternative in Christianity. It is clear his religion has drastically changed when looking at Kathem’s description of his shift in religiosity. He now feels the need seek comfort in another religion for what he lacks from Islam. His religion is a notable case of turmoil because his strong previous religiosity was shaken to its core, and the religious abandonment in his life has caused him to seek solace elsewhere.

The Mapping of the Middle Ground
If the refugees’ religiosity is viewed as a spectrum, the endpoints are clearly defined: religion as strength (gratitude to religion and the use of religion for comfort and hope); and religion as turmoil. What still needs to be established is a place for those Iraqi refugees who do not necessarily identify with either strength or turmoil. Abu Bakr keeps faith even as he feels disconnected from other followers. He sees his religion becoming more radical around him, “That’s not the Islam that I want.”

From a small argument between two sisters over the importance of a hijab, we were able to see a more complex web of religious variance in the Iraqi refugee community. From the description of the religious shift from Iraq to Egypt, we were able to see what role religion played in the Iraqi refugees’ displacement experiences. For some their religion was strength, using Islam for comfort and hope as well as feeling indebted to Allah for allowing them to live in Egypt. For others their religion was trauma, feeling abandoned by Islam because of sectarian violence by Islamic terrorist groups and from a perceived lack of support by the Islamic community in Cairo. Many Iraqi refugees found they did not belong firmly in either category. Religion in general for Iraqi refugees is a complex issue. Displaced into Cairo, religion has taken on an entirely different meaning for some while for others it plays the same exact role as before. While the role of religion in their lives may separate them, commonalities in their belief can unite them back together. For these Iraqi refugees displaced into Cairo, their perspectives vary, but all feel the effects of their religion in their lives in some way or another.