Short introduction

I am a Muslim by faith, Arab by language, Canadian by birth, and Egyptian by ancestry (also by living and being educated in Egypt from the age of two to twenty four). I got my PhD from the USA, I worked in Singapore, and now I am back to Egypt!

You can read my "official" CV as well as more informal writings about my views below.

Islam

Any person either explicitly or implicitly has a religion. The explicit case is for example when someone says "I am a Muslim". The implicit case is when the person denies the existence of God or of a religion. In that implicit case the person belongs to the viewpoint of "no-religion" which is in itself a way of interpreting life that drives the person to act in certain ways in different situations, i.e. it is that person's "religion". Hence, I categorize secularism, atheism, polytheism, ... as religions. Each person has enough intellect to compare and choose among the religions the one which he or she feels is the correct one.

I believe that Islam is a complete way of life. God (in arabic: ALLAH) revealed different books to various prophets (peace be upon them all) through the history of humanity. Prophethood is sealed by Prophet Muhamed (peace be upon him).

Islam is a religion for all humanity, all the time, and all the places. Unlike other man-altered religions that unite their followers through ancestry, national origin, ethnicity,... Islam unites them through one book: the Quran.

The Quran is preserved in its original language (Arabic) that is understood and used daily by millions of people.

Arabic

Arabic is honored by being the language of the Quran. That fact is the main reason for the temporal and spatial stability as well as versatility of the language. Over centuries Arabic has been used all over the world as the language for practicing the acts of worship in Islam. Hence, when it comes to the amount of scholarly writings about a language through the history of humanity, Arabic is perhaps the most well studied language worldwide.

Canada

When it comes to land area, Canada is the second largest country in the world. God bestowed this land with many marvels that meet the eyes of its visitors. The only way to appreciate its beauty is actually to experience it for yourself by visiting it.

Montreal is my birth place. It is a great metropolitan area where you can easily speak English, French, Arabic, and a plethora of other languages in just one day! I explicitly listed the two official languages as well as Arabic because these are the ones I know and speak. However, I definitely heard more than that there!

Egypt

Egypt is the land of history without doubt. In less than an hour in Cairo, you can drive by buildings than span from the 3rd millennium BC up to the modern era. If you want to understand that history and its influence on Egyptians, it takes much longer than that hour. An extended tour of Egypt is feasible only if you spend a few months there. Only then you can start to realize the ties of current Egyptians to their ancient ancestors, to the Helenic period, the Roman period, the Coptic period, and to the Islamic period.

As a child, I lived in Maadi the beautiful sub-urban town near Cairo. With the great mushrooming of Cairo, Maadi became part of greater Cairo in recent years. This is a somewhat sad fact for most people who knew Maadi in the old days and who see how the big city is transforming it now.

I attended school in Maadi and then entered the Faculty of Engineering in Cairo University where I got a BSc in Electronics and Electrical Communications in 1995. I got my MSc from the same department in 1997.

USA

I reached the USA in 1997 to study for my PhD at the Electrical Engineering Department of Stanford University. This is one of the greatest places of education in our time with very few competitors near its level.

My view on the USA since I reached it has been that:

• the land is beautiful and rich with resources,
• some of the people are extremely nice and it is easy to make friends, but
• the government is getting into an imperial era where it is exercising a great amount of injustice towards other countries.

Obviously, that view became even stronger in recent years. I truly hope that the wise people there reverse this trend soon. I left the USA in June 2003 once I finished my PhD.

Singapore

From June 2003 to June 2005 I was in Egypt teaching at Cairo University. Then, from June 2005 to June 2006 I was teaching at the School of Computer Engineering of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Eventually, I will write more about this tiny island that became an economic giant.

Back to the land of history

Once more I am in Egypt. Struggling through the chaotic city of Cairo. Cairo is called Al-Qahiratu in Arabic which means "The Vanquisher". It crushes most of the people who live in it these days. May ALLAH help us.