Aly Brisha

Those claiming to speak in the name of God want people to be like a colony of penguins: living in black and white, having wings but never taking flight. If God had wanted he would have made us all the same, but in his wisdom he made us unique. That right of being unique I have lived and practiced every single day of my life. I grew up as an Egyptian in the USA and then as a girl in a society of men. When I traveled to cover the war in Iraq, everyone looked at me as someone whose existence they would deny. Americans treated me with suspicion because I was Arabic, while Muslims never trusted me because I was Christian. Meanwhile, Christians never accepted me because I was married to a Muslim. Finally, when I was hunted down and shot at a Cairo mosque, I came to realize the mysterious, age-old protocol between the Vatican and the Ottoman Caliphate. This was the reason my blood had been shed.