In 1928, Alexander Fleming, the Scottish scientist, was able to discover the first antibiotic from the mould, but nobody was able to discover treatment to the cultural mold on the heads of those who wondered about the religion of artist Jamil Ratrb. Such a strange question that should have been replaced by questioning how useful and patriot the man was. Religion should be questioned by God who will judge everyone, but we, the sinners, don t have such right to judge others.
When those fanatics vaccinate their children, they do not ask about the religion of Edward Jenner, the Christian scientist who invented the vaccine, and they do not mention the Jewish Jonas Solk, the inventor of the polio vaccine they give their children. When they lie down to change a valve in the heart they do not point out to the man who invented the first artificial valve for the heart who was not a Muslim. Moreover, they don t hesitate to visit hospitals in the West to receive treatment though they know that the doctors are mostly non-Muslims.
They enjoy all achievements of Christians from the laptop, television, lamp, car, computer and cameras…etc. Yet, when an Egyptian artist like Jamil Rateb dies, they don t hesitate to ask about his religion since they measure their art by their religion.
In short, those fanatics use all development of the West, but ask this question in order to know if it lawful to pray for mercy for the great artist. We have several embarrassing occasion of religion related accidents like the prevention of Naguib Mahfouz from reciving scholarship to France because of his non-Muslim name. Cairo University once canceled its invitation to the great writer Georgi Zidane to give lectures on the history of Islam as a specialist in that field when it remembered that he was Christian!
May God have mercy on the beautiful artist Jamil Rateb who had simple smile and love that made many people happy. Once he was asked to thank someone in an interview, he thanks a bus driver who stopped his bus to shake hands with him and a cleaning worker at Cairo Airport who offered him a free beverage and those didn t ask Rateb about his religion since they know his value as an artist. Those have realized that religion is for God and homeland is for all.
