Culture blending: one Egyptian's view

So a friend of mine here in Cairo invited me to go with him to a concert of sorts in Zamalek, a neighborhood on the west bank of the Nile. The band that was playing was very young, made up of boy-band heartthrob types doing sort of a pop rock/funk fusion with romantic Arabic lyrics. They were quite good actually. Their passion for their lyrics thoroughly succeeded in swooning their audience, which included more than a couple of excited female fans. Judging from the presence of some local news media, my friend expressed his belief that they are "up and coming" on the contemporary Egyptian music scene.

But other than a few catchy melodies I had a hard time drilling out of my head, I took away from the concert a very lively conversation I ended up having with a fairly young guy sitting next to me. Somehow detecting my Americanness (those Egyptians have a way), he asked me what I, as an American, thought of the band. I said I thought they were pretty good. And you?

"Honestly," he says, "these guys are not Egyptian to me." I ask why he says that.

"Look at how they dress, how they play... these guys are an American copy. This is not Egyptian culture. This is American culture done by Egyptian boys."

I asked him what he meant by Egyptian culture, like traditional Arabic music? He said, "Well, here we have our traditional Islamic culture. We have our Islamic way of life. This should be separate from American culture, in my opinion."

I asked him, "Okay, but what do you mean by Islamic culture? I thought Islam was a religion."

"Yes, it is a religion," he says, "but it has a culture that does not go with American culture."

I said, "Okay, but what's wrong with appreciating both cultures?" He said, "Nothing wrong, but they should be separate."

"Okay, fine. So then you don't like these guys, I guess?"

"No, not just not like. They make me sad. Very sad."

I said I was sorry to hear that. But I assured him, as an authority on American pop culture, that these guys still maintained a very Arab taste to their style. Needless to say, he seemed less than willing to accept my opinion. Oh well.

So what's the point here? Well, I definitely think this conversation hits on some of these "food-for-thought" questions I wrote in my first entry. Are Western values and Islamic values compatible or able to be harmonized? Well, now we know at least one proud Egyptian Muslim doesn't quite think so. But even more than that, it became clear to me from that conversation that there is this existing notion that somehow "Islamic culture" is--or should be--synonymous with Egyptian culture. If you are going to claim to be Egyptian, you need to uphold that "Islamic culture" or risk being ridiculed or considered unauthentic, at least by the older generation. But honestly, this guy I was talking to wasn't that old... I would say probably early to mid-30s. So is it possible that in a few years even people in their 20s will be talking the same way? Or will they always turn to America and the West for their cultural inspiration?

I guess we'll have to wait and see.