Ashley Bennerson
11/16/2010
12:31 p.m.
In recent months, tensions between Muslims and Christians in Egypt have flared in several incidents, including the disappearance of Camilia Shehata Zakher, the wife of a Coptic bishop who allegedly converted to Islam and is being held by the Coptic Church and the capture of an alleged "arms ship" owned by the son of a Coptic Church official, which came to Egypt in August 2010 and was reportedly carrying a cargo of explosives from Israel. All of these caused rage against the Coptic minority in Egypt, which responded by having demonstrations and launching a legal and media battle in its own defense. The conflict began after Al-Qaeda's October 31, 2010 attack on the church in Baghdad, and its threats to harm Christians and churches in Egypt unless Camilia Shehata was released, which provoked the Muslim Egyptians to come to the defense of their Christian compatriots.
In an effort to calm the situation, in his Victory Day speech President Mubarak called to preserve national unity and refrain from harming it, he stated: "We are working to establish a modern civil state... which does not mix religion and politics, which underscores the principle of citizenship, in theory and in practice, and which maintains unity among its Muslim and Coptic sons." This is the outlaying problem that most countries are having, which is that church and state needs to remain separate. This is becoming an issue because some political figures are out to harm certain religious groups that go against what they belief or disagree with their message. This can be solved by not worrying about those who don’t agree but rather focus on the message that is trying to be spoken about.
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/4765.htm
2 comments:
Although I am not surprised that something like this is happening it would be more beneficial if people didn't use religious means to avenge something. Granted there is always collateral damage to any conflict but it doesn't seem that messing up a holiday would benefit any one sector of people.
This is moderately surprising to me. Since Coptic Christians would be considered a religious minority, I would think that the majority might be more of a source of tension. I dont know though, you can never judge.
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