Since the events of 9/11, the question has often been asked, “Where are the moderate Muslims who condemn Islamic extremism/terrorism?”
In the wake of a New Year’s Eve suicide bombing of the Church of the Two Saints in Alexandria, which left 23 Coptic Christians dead, tensions have been running even higher in Egypt between its Christian minority (9%) and Muslim majority (90%), although the Bishop of the Church downplays the sectarian tensions.
January 7th Coptic Christians celebrated their Christmas; and in a show of solidarity, a number of Muslims showed up to Christmas services to serve as “human shields”:
Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.
From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.
“We either live together, or we die together,” was the sloganeering genius of Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon whose cultural centre distributed flyers at churches in Cairo Thursday night, and who has been credited with first floating the “human shield” idea.
Among those shields were movie stars Adel Imam and Yousra, popular Muslim televangelist and preacher Amr Khaled, the two sons of President Hosni Mubarak, and thousands of citizens who have said they consider the attack one on Egypt as a whole.
“This is not about us and them,” said Dalia Mustafa, a student who attended mass at Virgin Mary Church on Maraashly Street. “We are one. This was an attack on Egypt as a whole, and I am standing with the Copts because the only way things will change in this country is if we come together.”
The article goes on to claim that millions of Egyptians apparently have updated their FB profiles to reflect an image of a cross within a crescent- the symbol of an “Egypt for All”. Banners depicting mosques and churches, crosses and crescents in unity have also gone up around Alexandria.
Last Tuesday, 6 more Christians were shot- 1 fatally- by a deputy policeman claiming, “There is no God, but God.”
Moral outrage over events that kill innocents should not be limited to those who lost fellow Americans, Human Beings, and Christians, but also those who claim to be peace loving moderates who overtly display the same outrage whenever a life is lost for a cause they profess to be in condemnation of…cb
Most Egyptian Muslims are poor.
They recognize the vital role Christian Copts play in their society.
The Copts are their garbage men.
Barred from any official education or job papers, the Copts live in homemade slums and collect all of the nation’s garbage everyday.
Before Swine Flu the Copts used to have pigs that would eat all edible garbage.
Then the Copts wuld sort the rest and recycle.
That was how they made ends meet.
But the Egyptian leadership used the Swine flu as an excuse (it can’t go from pig-to-human) to destroy all pigs in Egypt.
Now the Copts still sort the garbage, but with a lot more difficulty.
While the transition to working without pigs was worked out, the Egyptian poor got a taste of what life would be like without those Christian garbage men.
Not good.
So, I am not surprised that some Muslim Egyptians see the value of keeping a few Coptics alive.
And, unless they want to be the next garbage men for the Egyptian wealthy class, they had better act as protectors for the Coptics among them.
BTW, the very definition of the Islamic term, ”Dhimmi,” is ”protected ones.”
When a class of people submit to living under Islamic rule (while NOT converting into Islam) they must accept many debasing rules of life.
They must not live better than the lowliest Muslim.
They must not build any new non-Muslim places of worship.
Their testimony in a Sharia case is discounted.
They must pay the Jizya (Dhimmi Tax) for being allowed to live at all.
They must never break the terms of the Dhimmi rules.
If one or a few of them do, all bets are off.
Apparently some imams in Egypt convinced some Egyptian Muslims that the Coptics had broken their terms of agreement to stay Dhimmis.
That is why some Egyptians felt free to kill Copts.
Whether the Copts can debase themselves enough now to convince Egypt’s imams that they should NOT be targets is a whole other issue.
These imams are not exactly led by logic.
OT/ What do you think about this? OPERATION BLACK SWAN.Help send it viral. This affects everyone and their children.
http://www.eutimes.net/2011/01/operation-black-swan-killing-birds-fish-people/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7c29E0NqnU&feature=player_embedded
I was very moved by this profound act of Courage and Faith. I hope this is a new beginning, a shining light and hope for the world. The Coptic Christians in Egypt have had their fair share of oppression. God Bless those Courageous Muslims who acted as human shields….
Or there are Muslims who don’t want to see people murdered. Or your idea.
I can’t believe it–a seemingly, objective, non-anti-Muslim story, without that typical ultra-right-wing bias. Will wonders ever cease. And, even more surprising–there are a few sympathetic comments posted, though not many.
News Flash – There are no moderate muslims. As stated before, Islam is THE enemy of the Judeo/Christian world.
Yeah, I’m full of it, right?
Is CNN?
Jan 13th, CNN reported that the Egyptian GOVERNMENT (Muslims) shut off the area where Coptics are allowed to live.
Journalists were not allowed in either, to see the way the GOVERNMENT got rid of the Coptics out of their homes.
CNN reports that in 2009 the egyptian GOVERNMENT killed all the pigs used in the Coptic trash sorting and later, after a health crisis from trash all over the place, hired foreigners to be the country’s trash collectors.
Now, the Coptics have no way to make a living in Egypt at all.
And, as of this week, no homes, either.
I hope they all leave their traditional homeland.
Remember Egypt was a Coptic country before and then until well after Islam invaded it.
@Nan G: For the most part, this is the same authoritarian Egyptian government that tortured and martyred Sayyid Qutb, the father of al Qaeda theology, imprisoning, torturing (Zawahiri among them), and killing countless other Islamists who oppose the government for, among other things, not being (puritanically) “Islamic enough”, as they understand Islam.
@Nan G:
Nan…does the Egyptian government require Coptic Christians to pay jizya to be “allowed to live at all”? Do your everyday Egyptian Muslims call them “Dhimmis”? Do no other nations have an underclass or minorities who are persecuted and treated less fairly?
@Nan G:
Some Jewish and Christian communities actually aided the Arabs in their conquests. Arthur Goldschmidt, A Concise History of the Middle East, pg 54:
@Wordsmith:
dhimmitude exists in all Islamic countries, Wordsmith.
In Pakistan even some people WE would call Muslims are called non-Muslims BY LAW and forced to pay a dhimmi tax as well as to never refer to themselves as Muslims!
The Buddhists in Thailand tried to cede four provinces to their Muslims in order to escape the Dhimmi tax (The King of Thailand’s extravagant lifestyle has left him personally enslaved to his Saudi lien holders.)
But the Muslims in the south do not consider contol of their part of Thailand to be enough.
They murder Buddhists at the rate of 4 or more a week…..teachers, food stand owners, workers on the rubber plantations, landowners.
After the murder Muslims take over the land, the business, the job, whatever they were after.
After all, no Dhimmi is allowed to live better than any Muslim.
In some other Muslim-ruled African countries Christians are raped andmurdered and enslaved.
The Christian churches are destroyed (sometimes with the worshipers inside.)
Under Sharia no non-Muslim religious places of worship can be built unless the Sharia leaders say so.
Just this past month:
Christian churches have been bombed in Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria and the Philippines. In Indonesia a mob of Muslims burned down two Christian churches. In Iran, dozens of Christians have been arrested.
Under Sharia, as we learned in Pakistan, a non-Muslim can be arrested and sentenced to DEATH for supposedly insulting Islam, Mohammad, Allah or even a Muslim.
The rules of evidence you and I think of are not a part of Sharia.
Think about DNA, for example.
In a rape case, we use DNA to find and punish the rapist.
Not in Sharia.
If an infidel is raped by Muslims, no amount of proof is sufficient.
Her word is less than that of a Muslim female (whose word is 1/4 of a man’s).
And DNA never enters the picture.
She is put to death for the crime of being a rape victim.
@Wordsmith:
In the Western world, if one group aids another to take over an area it does not remain the 2nd-class slaves to the conquerors that the Egyptian Copts did from the victory of the Muslim Arabs over the Byzantinians.
But the Copts sold themselves to their Muslim overlords and aided them.
So, to this day they are still 2nd class slaves, not allowed to go to the schools, not allowed to hold government jobs, not allowed to meet in groups, not allowed to add converts and so on.
Too little, too late.
@minuteman26: Brevity is the soul of wit. I remember with moist eyes my father speaking those words. I smile knowing that he still has such an influence on my life. I miss my Dad. (sigh)
@Nan G: If there was no Islam, I believe that much of the conflicts and violence we see going on would still be happening. I think Islam itself plays a part in the dysfunction; however, there are concrete, practical issues of conflict that are not directly related to the religion itself. National and cultural outrages and identity is a driving factor as is geopolitics. Hostility toward bad governance and oppressive, authoritarian regimes (aided by the U.S.) will turn people toward alternative answers and powers. There is no single, monolithic Islamic identity and practice. Spencerian conservatives, however, prefer to see Islam as defined by the Taliban, wahhabis, salafists, Khomeinites, and Qutbists.
Other recent news: Egypt Sentences Muslim to Death in Killings of Christians.
Interesting post: Messages of the Coptic Massacre in Alexandria
@Wordsmith:
Did you closely read the NYTimes story?
I noted that the sentence to death is contingent on a review by a Sharia council.
It also is much more likely to be upheld because one of the murdered victims was a MUSLIM.
Did you know there is no punishment under Sharia either for killing you own child OR for killing an ”infidel?”
@Nan G:
Yes, it’s a news item. Like the one linked at the end of my blogpost. I’m not pushing a black and white opinion, here.
Mata’s comment on Sharia
One of mine.
Incorporating Sharia into legal systems:
Sharia application in Egypt.
Islam: Governing Under Sharia:
@Nan G:
Sorry, my reference at #18
was incorrect.
It was NOT the NYTimes version.
It was a Reuters version.
Here’s a link.
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/Egypt_sentences_Muslim_to_death_for_Coptic_shooting.html?cid=29254014
And the quotes:
Secular?
I don’t think so.