Externally, \u201cD.cappuccino\u201d looks like another normal caf\u00e9. But no it’s not! It’s Cairo’s first Islamic caf\u00e9.
Male and female customers are separated, the waiters wear beards, no songs are played, and smoking is prohibited.
It’s the first time in Egypt to have this type of caf\u00e9s, where there is a men’s partition, women’s partition, and a families’ partition; the caf\u00e9 shuts down at prayer times.
The founders say that the caf\u00e9\u2019s mission is to reflect society\u2019s decent moral values, and they want their customers to feel at ease.<\/p>\n
New Trend<\/strong> Reaction to the New Caf\u00e9<\/strong> Source: OnIslam<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Externally, \u201cD.cappuccino\u201d looks like another normal caf\u00e9. But no it’s not! It’s Cairo’s first Islamic caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c54-reports"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
The current political landscape of the Muslim majority Egypt is in favor for such endeavors to grow. Egypt after the revolution erupted in the 25th of January, 2011, witnessed a rise of Islamic trends.
After being oppressed and marginalized for long decades, the Islamists finally were able to do big social activities and found a number of political parties.
The first parliament of post-revolution Egypt was of an Islamist majority, the first president, President Mohammed Morsi, belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood; and the new constitution approved by referendum is guided by Islamic law.
The caf\u00e9\u2019s founders don’t want to label themselves as Salafis- radical Muslims-but rather present themselves as ‘conservative Muslims’.
When the Saudi Sheikh Muhammad Al-Arifi visited Cairo last month he went there, and he praised it on his twitter account and said “it’s very decent”.
D.cappuccino is described on its Facebook page as a “the official chilling out caf\u00e9”.\u00a0 It’s open from 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. Like the rest of the Egyptian caf\u00e9s, you can find there pizzas, sunshine cocktails, cheesecake, nicely decorated cupcakes, and more delicious food.
Its menu is as nice as the relaxing setting of more than 3,000 square feet establishment.<\/p>\n
The idea of having a new Islamic caf\u00e9 was widely mocked by a number of Egyptians on the social media. Some mockingly asked “Why would Islamists run a caf\u00e9? Why don’t they concentrate on mosques and charitable projects?”
And some were angry for labeling the caf\u00e9 “Islamist”; that the owners were using this label to sell.
These voices that are basically against the cafe have a fear of more rising and more domination of the Islamists.
Ironically, among the strongest criticism was from the Islamists themselves, those who seek a lifestyle molded on the Prophet\u2019s in his own time. \u201cIslam and caf\u00e9s are incompatible. Have you ever heard of caf\u00e9s during the early years of Islam?\u201d wondered Hany Isma\u00efl Mohamad, a member of the Al-Nour Salafi party.
On the other hand, most of the caf\u00e9\u2019s visitors like the place and find it “safe for girls” and “comfortable”.
Egypt is new to the gender segregation in caf\u00e9s, but not to the gender segregation concept as a whole. The Egyptian subway has always been having \u201cwomen only\u201d wagons for a long time.
There are “women only” beaches in Alexandria and the North Coast as well as “women only” pools in the sports clubs. Also, there are “women only” and “men only” gymnasiums.
Some caf\u00e9s in Egypt prohibit hijabis, other clubs and beaches prohibit niqabis. The Opera House imposes formal dressing code only. With analogous logic, what is wrong with running D.cappuccino?<\/p>\n