This sectarian thing

By Salah Issa

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Following sectarian clashes in a village in Giza last week, authorities called a village meeting. Such meetings are a well-tested method. For years, Egyptian authorities have used village meetings to resolve cases of vendettas, or disputes over water and other amenities. But is this the best way to resolve sectarian frictions?

In village meetings, parties to the dispute at hand are brought together with government representatives and neutral parties. The incidents are recounted, blame is apportioned, and sometimes a guilty part has to make amends. Everyone pledges that this is the last time a dispute like that would happen, and then everyone goes home.

Some argue that this approach is great for rural or desert communities. Such communities are usually small, and village or tribal councils have traditionally handled such matters. Others disagree, saying that such an approach exacerbates sectarian frictions because it turns law enforcers into spectators. Since the whole thing is off-the-record, the guilty parties may be tempted to try their luck yet again. Village meetings are mostly about blame, not punishment, which is a problem.

Both opinions are worthy of consideration. We really don't know how effective village meetings are. So what we need to do is assess village meetings in a proper manner. We need to go to villages where such meetings were used to curtail sectarian frictions and see what happened next. We have law in this country. And this law is good for big cities as well as small towns. So unless village meetings prove to be a reliable cure, let's stick to the law.

This week's Soapbox speaker is editor-in-chief of the weekly Al-Qahira newspaper.