Egypt on the line of fire
Ismail Imadudeen
October 10, 2011
Yesterday night was a bloody time in Cairo. More than twenty Egyptians got killed and more than three hundred injured in some ethnic clashes between some outraged Christian protestors and military personnel right in front of the state TV.
Those incidents did not come out of the blue; there have been many demands from the Christians of Egypt that were never taken seriously by the authorities for tens of years.
One of the most striking demands is the need for a fair law to ease the building of Christian facilities in Egypt. Christian worship buildings have been subject to a strange law that demanded – at a time – the president himself to grant the building permission! That funny law was eased to give the governors the authority to grant such permission.
Well, from time to another some Christian facilities get under siege either by some thousands of people – of course extremist Muslims – or the government local authorities, or both, for violating that idiotic law!
Just a few days ago a problem occurred in Aswan – 800 km south of Cairo – concerning a Christian facility where the governor there was 'so stiff' and 'so determined' to apply the law. Of course things developed fast and the demonstrations were shifted somehow to Cairo right in the front of the state TV. Unfortunately the military police did not tolerate such peaceful demonstrations and dealt with them so harshly. Videos on the internet revealed brutal beating of one of the Christian demonstrators on the street by some soldiers, a scene that hurt and shocked many in Egypt, including my self.
It seems that the Christians in particular did not like those pictures and decided to demonstrate again peacefully to show their dissatisfaction with the way the authorities are dealing with the Christian problems. However, incidents developed so fast that some demonstrators went aggressive and attacked the military personnel causing the death and injury of many of them along with other civilians (mostly Christians.)
The Egyptian Church condemned what happened and expressed its shock and claimed that some intruders may have caused the deaths. The government, on the other hand, formed a fact finding committee but did not exhibit any concrete or conclusive step towards the ending of the Christian problems.
In essence, both Muslims and Christians enjoyed excellent relations for hundreds of years, but, however, some isolated incidents occurred here or there specifically during the ex president's time when dangerous and fatal ethnic clashes took place in the Upper of Egypt region. Christians indeed were the main victims of those incidents.
I have to mention that there are extreme and racist ideas that found their way into a sector in the Egyptian society; those ideas have come mainly from the mountains of Afghanistan and from hard-line Saudi clergymen. Those ideas see minorities in the Islamic societies as 'negligible' and must be isolated and not given full rights as Muslims. People who embrace such ideas are ready to do anything to protect religion – in their opinion – including the burning of churches and even carrying arms if necessary.
Of course as time went by extreme voices started to appear in the Christian side as well, who are ready to carry arms too putting Egypt on the line of fire or on the brinks of a holy war.
I have to emphasize the fact that in the Islamic teachings there are no evidences at all either from Qur'an – the Muslims holy book - or Prophet Mohamed's Sunnah (the Prophet's teachings) that support the idea of limiting the freedom of non-Muslims to build worship facilities. So, I can say with full confidence that that idiotic law applied in Egypt is baseless, useless and troublesome and must be abolished as fast as possible before things go out of control.
Religiously speaking, and ironically at the same time, there are many demands in the Islamic religion that are clearly and undoubtedly stated in Qur'an or Sunnah but the Egyptian government never follows such as the production and trade of liquor. So why when it comes to the Christian facilities the authorities here seem to be 'so concerned' and 'very religious?' I guess this can be called ´hypocricy.´
Finally, I express my fullest condolences to the families of the martyrs who passed away yesterday and pray for peace for my country.
Those incidents did not come out of the blue; there have been many demands from the Christians of Egypt that were never taken seriously by the authorities for tens of years.
One of the most striking demands is the need for a fair law to ease the building of Christian facilities in Egypt. Christian worship buildings have been subject to a strange law that demanded – at a time – the president himself to grant the building permission! That funny law was eased to give the governors the authority to grant such permission.
Well, from time to another some Christian facilities get under siege either by some thousands of people – of course extremist Muslims – or the government local authorities, or both, for violating that idiotic law!
Just a few days ago a problem occurred in Aswan – 800 km south of Cairo – concerning a Christian facility where the governor there was 'so stiff' and 'so determined' to apply the law. Of course things developed fast and the demonstrations were shifted somehow to Cairo right in the front of the state TV. Unfortunately the military police did not tolerate such peaceful demonstrations and dealt with them so harshly. Videos on the internet revealed brutal beating of one of the Christian demonstrators on the street by some soldiers, a scene that hurt and shocked many in Egypt, including my self.
It seems that the Christians in particular did not like those pictures and decided to demonstrate again peacefully to show their dissatisfaction with the way the authorities are dealing with the Christian problems. However, incidents developed so fast that some demonstrators went aggressive and attacked the military personnel causing the death and injury of many of them along with other civilians (mostly Christians.)
The Egyptian Church condemned what happened and expressed its shock and claimed that some intruders may have caused the deaths. The government, on the other hand, formed a fact finding committee but did not exhibit any concrete or conclusive step towards the ending of the Christian problems.
In essence, both Muslims and Christians enjoyed excellent relations for hundreds of years, but, however, some isolated incidents occurred here or there specifically during the ex president's time when dangerous and fatal ethnic clashes took place in the Upper of Egypt region. Christians indeed were the main victims of those incidents.
I have to mention that there are extreme and racist ideas that found their way into a sector in the Egyptian society; those ideas have come mainly from the mountains of Afghanistan and from hard-line Saudi clergymen. Those ideas see minorities in the Islamic societies as 'negligible' and must be isolated and not given full rights as Muslims. People who embrace such ideas are ready to do anything to protect religion – in their opinion – including the burning of churches and even carrying arms if necessary.
Of course as time went by extreme voices started to appear in the Christian side as well, who are ready to carry arms too putting Egypt on the line of fire or on the brinks of a holy war.
I have to emphasize the fact that in the Islamic teachings there are no evidences at all either from Qur'an – the Muslims holy book - or Prophet Mohamed's Sunnah (the Prophet's teachings) that support the idea of limiting the freedom of non-Muslims to build worship facilities. So, I can say with full confidence that that idiotic law applied in Egypt is baseless, useless and troublesome and must be abolished as fast as possible before things go out of control.
Religiously speaking, and ironically at the same time, there are many demands in the Islamic religion that are clearly and undoubtedly stated in Qur'an or Sunnah but the Egyptian government never follows such as the production and trade of liquor. So why when it comes to the Christian facilities the authorities here seem to be 'so concerned' and 'very religious?' I guess this can be called ´hypocricy.´
Finally, I express my fullest condolences to the families of the martyrs who passed away yesterday and pray for peace for my country.
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