Mohumed El Sawy

I was taught by my father before he passed away that culture and arts and creativity and freedom of expression—all these factors are the real base for any human development.  It is the best thing that you can do in any society to develop the people. And I feel that every moment, or every minute, or every effort I do here is counting to my good for the final day, when I  go to God and get the judgment. I think that this will help me a lot, and I really believe that I’m doing it only to be good to society, to other people. It is not for me. I am 100 percent sure that I do not expect anything from this work except achievements in society and for other people. 

I don’t have any problem with Christians or Jewish people or whatever others believe. Any believer is close enough to me than someone who would say that there is no God, there is no Allah. I always say that all religions are one religion, but only different versions. I have been privileged to have this finer version (as I call it), Islam. It doesn’t mean that the others are totally different. Maybe there are small or slight differences, but there shouldn’t be any core difference because all of this comes from the same source, from Allah. So, there shouldn’t be a problem. 

And again, if I have to meet someone who would tell me from the beginning, “I’m not a believer,” it doesn’t mean that I will treat them differently. I know someone, a foreigner who lives in Egypt, who showed me this from the beginning when we met. 

I said “Allah” two or three times, so he said, “I’m not a believer." 

He then said, “I believe in good things and I want to be a good person, but I don’t think I need a God to do that.” I kept his friendship and I never thought of breaking it. Considering that this person was to me always fair, decent, and nice, it is not my business to interfere in other people’s beliefs.