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It’s 6 p.m. in Cairo’s Garbage City slum, and hundreds of people have gathered outside St. Sama’an Cathedral for the evening service. The crowd, which has been building for hours, is waiting patiently for Father Sama’an Ibrahim, the famous Coptic priest and founder of the church. It’s Thursday, which as everyone in Garbage City knows, is exorcism night.
The majority of the people gathered in this packed courtyard are not actually Christian. They’re Muslims who have come in the hopes that Father Sama’an can expel their demons. Groups of women in hijabs huddle together in silence, and every 30 minutes or so, a minibus arrives bearing more pilgrims. As darkness approaches, you can feel the anticipation in the air. One woman lets out a bloodcurdling scream, and two of her friends rush over to quiet her down.
Hamid, an old Muslim man who is uncomfortable giving his surname, sits on a bench, his crutches propped up next to him. “I am here because my body feels like someone is shaking me,” he says. “I want to meet Father Sama’an.” Hamid, like many here, didn’t come by himself. Two young Coptic women from Cairo found him on the side of the road and decided to help him get here. “There are bad spirits that live inside others,” says Vivian, 17, one of the women. She believes Father Sama’an’s abilities “come from God.”
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Carved into the rock face of Mokattam Mountain, St. Sama’an Cathedral itself is more like a stadium, with seats that rise up into the sky to form an echoing amphitheater. As the crowd makes its way inside, Arabic hymns start to filter out through the large central entrance tunnel. At around 7 p.m., Father Sama’an, an old, bespectacled man with a flowing gray beard starts making his way across the courtyard to a Mercedes that has pulled up directly in front of the tunnel. This will be is his ride to the altar. The crowd makes a path for him and waves.
“His spirit is very powerful,” my translator whispers to me.
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"With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things." William Wordsworth
And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.
John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address
Lincoln's economic advisor Henry C. Carey explained the universal issue in his 1851 Harmony of Interests:
"Two systems are before the world.... One looks to pauperism, ignorance, depopulation, and barbarism; the other to increasing wealth, comfort, intelligence, combination of action, and civilization. One looks towards universal war; the other towards universal peace. One is the English system; the other ... the American system, for ... elevating while equalizing the condition of man throughout the world."
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein
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