Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
There is absolutely no doubt that the attack on a church in Alexandra that killed 21--including this beautiful young woman--was an attack, specifically, on Christians and part of a pattern of recent, barbarous attacks on Christians in the Middle East.
Martin Peretz suggests that there has been no protest against this by Muslims:
Yes, of course. The majority of Muslims are against terror killings of Christians. Maybe even a big majority. But the fact is there is little evidence and, in fact, almost no evidence of revulsion at what has become the distinctive imprint of Islam in the modern world. Alright, I'll note the most important caveat: it is not Islam but Islamists and Islamism that are at fault in this ongoing outrage.
But still! Wouldn't you think there'd be a protest or two somewhere in the arc of Muslim faith that stretches from Indonesia to Morocco and southwards to the deepest reaches of Africa? OK, maybe it takes courage in those lands to stand up and say, "No, this is not the Islam I was taught and in which I believe."
There has, in fact, been protest, and quite a bit of it:
Meanwhile, a few thousand demonstrators gathered in the area of Mar Morcos, where the bombed church and the Mari Girgis hospital are located, chanting “Muslims and Christians will not be disunited”, protestors told Ahram Online that they are residents of the area, and do not belong to any specific group or organization.
Torkeya Abdelsalam, one of the demonstrators and a Muslim, said she lives near the Saints church and has witnessed the explosion. AbdelSalam said, “this is not Islam,” and that she was taking part in the protest to demonstrate this.
The call for protest has been widespread in Egypt:
Different political groups called for a demonstration today at 7 PM in Shubra in front Dawaran shubra square, under the slogan “one nation one country one worry” to condemn attacks on Saints church.
Parties and groups who answered the call and declared that they will be participating include Karama Party, El-Amal Islamic Party, the recently formed leftist group Hashd, The National Association for Change, the Justice and Freedom group, The Revolutionary Socialists and the 6th of April movement.
The condemnation of the bombing has been universal among heads of state in the Islamic world, and in fact, even the most extreme of Islamists have expressed their revulsion:
Palestinian factions and society have condemned as one the act of terrorism in Alexandria which killed 21 members of the congregation of Saints Church.
Hamas lambasted the bombing as a barbarian act targeting innocent people. Aziz Duweik, speaker of the Palestinian legislative council, called the bombing "a criminal and sinful act."
"I condemn this criminal and sinful act in the strongest terms and without any reservation."
He called the perpetrators and their abettors and supporters "enemies of Egypt, enemies of Islam and enemies of humanity."
Another Palestinian Islamist leader, Muhammed Jamal Natshe, said Islam would never justify "such barbarian acts."
"This is a murderous act that is totally unacceptable. It is rejected religiously, morally and humanly," said Natshe, an Islamist lawmaker in the Hebron rejoin.
Natshe, who spent many years in Israeli jails for peacefully resisting the occupation, said whoever committed this "sinful act" does not represent Islam in any way.
You might say--and I would surely agree--that these comments are grotesquely hypocritical, given that they come from Hamas, but it is just factually wrong to say there is no evidence of revulsion in the Islamic world. Why does it matter? Because it's too easy to adhere to this narrative--all of Islam's the problem, somehow--in place of asking the serious questions that need to be asked about this bombing.
The question that needs to be asked above all is which group exactly was behind it? The next question is what does this mean about what's happening in Egypt? Because some group clearly is trying to start a sectarian war, and may well succeed--an unimaginable catastrophe for Egypt and for the region. It's pretty damned important to know which group. It matters a lot whether this was the work of al Qaeda or the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The implications would be very different.
The answer "Don't get bogged down in the details, all Muslims are the problem--they're either doing this or they support it somehow" is not remotely useful to formulating any kind of policy response (and also not true). It does not clarify the picture in some salutary, common-sense way--it just throws ink on the very details that most need to be understood, and understood quickly.
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Comments :
Nov '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
You will get no argument from me. I say, find out which group is responsible — then hunt them down like animals and kill them all.
Aug '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
I remember touring Ben Ezra a couple years ago. My guide explained that there may only be 60-70 Jews left in Egypt and most were widows or old spinsters. That struck me as a denial of heritage,a history forgotten and a future lost.
As this society is forced into it's Islamist isolation, the kinds of propaganda that will go unanswered will destroy the Egypt that once stood at the intersection of human commerce,culture, and stunt it's chance for evolution.
After the Jews are gone, the Christians and Copts chased away, then they will turn on themselves and eat their young.
If the library hadn't been burned, they would have found a reason by now to burn it.
It's called barbarism isn't it ?
The beautiful women that are murdered, like the iconic Neda, are the giltcaged canaries warning all of us of the misogyny of this cult.
And you feel this is just a faction that can be defeated. Where else has this been accomplished ? Lebanon ? Jordan ?
Jun '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
The major problem with Islam is that it has no central or overarching authority. So the morons blowing up churches cannot be excommunicated, which would show the world that Islam disapproves of sociopaths and psychotics. Given the independence of the mosques to which you add Saudi financing and you get this sort of brutality for no other reason than there is money to pay for it. Nothing will happen to exorcise this sort of thing until the House of Saud is overthrown and the present Iranian leadership is liquidated. And by liquidated I mean killed and their Swiss bank accounts seized for the mullahs and princes are robbing their countries into abject poverty while exporting their citizens' discontent in the form of an Islamic revolution. But what does the US do instead? Why it allows itself and certain influential persons and institutions to be bribed with Saudi oil money. What this non-policy does is it leaves innocents to hope against hope that the Saudi deficits and the ever growing population of profligate princes will bankrupt Arabia before they kill too many more of us. Now there's a formula for success!
May '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
I wonder what would have resulted if the bombing occurred at a prominent synagogue. Would we see a similar rallying of Muslims around the Jewish causalities and against the perpetrators? Perhaps that would be a conclusive test.
Edited on Jan 2, 2011 at 9:16amNov '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
Claire, I hesitate to invoke the cabdriver tale, a mode of discourse on which James Lileks has recently heaped scorn. But my cabdriver in Chicago last month was a Christian who was actually born in Iraq. His parents left for other parts of the Middle East after his mother's family was massacred--in the early 1930s. Over time, they moved from one middle eastern country to another until they finally gave up on the Islamic world altogether and came to the US.
Anyway, my point is that I'd like to believe with you that there is a significant Islamic opposition to persecution of Christians. But at least one anecdotal report suggests that anti-Christian persecution is endemic over there and has been for living memory. Obviously you can go back further in the history books, to the Armenian genocide, and so on, but I don't see any evidence of a time or place of significant institutional Islamic tolerance for non-Muslims.
Jul '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
"It does not clarify the picture in some salutary, common-sense way--it just throws ink on the very details that most need to be understood, and understood quickly."
Oh, we've had 14 centuries to "understand" Islam. I think we've got it by now.
How about a little analogy: Let's suppose my neighbor and I both adhere to a cult based upon The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. My neighbor, being more zealous and energetic than I, makes a practice of mugging Jews and desecrating synagogues. But, according to our sacred text, his actions are righteous.
I may try to put a little daylight between my neighbor and I. I may worry about backlash against the cult. But I don't leave the cult. And I don't try to change it. I just quietly look forward to the day when the zealots among us have triumphed and we can all live in a Jew-free world.
Edited on Jan 2, 2011 at 9:50amMay '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
Claire, what is your main purpose in documenting notable instances of sound Muslim behavior (you must have said it before but I have since forgotten)? I presume you suspect a kind of stereotyping of Muslims as violent jihadists is going around. We all agree that Muslims are as capable of conducting themselves properly as anyone else. Some of us (such as myself) however invariably condemn the sacred texts of Islam as sanctioning much of the violence committed by Muslims. It's the texts and the literal adherence to them that concerns us.
May '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
Oct '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
In both Pakistan and Afghanistan I have had Christian friends martyred. While alive, in Afghanistan, my friend was careful not to let it be known that he was a Christian. He was found out and beaten to death by his Muslim neighbors. In Islamabad, my friend Eddie was attending the International church when some Muslim terrorists rolled a hand grenade directly under where his family were seated. Eddie lost one leg, his son had both legs shattered, and their daughter, Elizabeth, was killed.
My closest Pakistani friend, Babar, a Christian Pastor who openly held services in his house in the slum in Peshawar where he was allowed to live, was kidnapped. His body was found a week later, decapitated and dismembered, and full of bullet holes. What happened in Egypt is by no means uncommon and too seldom protested.
Oh, and after Eddie and his family were attacked, I provided his wheelchair for him, and then went on to Lahore to work with close Muslim friends to distribute several hundred wheelchairs to disabled Muslims, and even a few Christians.
Somehow, we have to navigate these dangerous waters if any good can come from that part of the world.
Jul '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
RAYCON:
Somehow, we have to navigate these dangerous waters if any good can come from that part of the world. · Jan 2 at 10:25am
I believe that's known as the triumph of hope over experience.
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
I'm going to put this in the simplest terms possible. If I walk into a bar unarmed and all 20 people there are resolutely, philosophically bent on killing me, I'm doomed. If half of them--or even a third--are on my side or might be persuaded to be, I've got a fighting chance. What people seem determined to miss--but what is utterly obvious to anyone in the Islamic world--is that the conflict between Islam and the West is the sideshow. The primary conflict is a civil war within the Islamic world. The Islamists' primary goal is to seize control of the Islamic world. We have natural allies in the Islamic world, and it is simply suicidal for the West to discount them as inexistent or so trivial in numbers as to be unworth our alliance.
Jul '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
IThe Islamists' primary goal is to seize control of the Islamic world. We have natural allies in the Islamic world, and it is simply suicidal for the West to discount them as inexistent or so trivial in numbers as to be unworth our alliance. · Jan 2 at 10:48am
That's not their "primary"goal, it's an interim step. Their primary goal is world domination. They're plain as day about that.
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
Lucy, there's no doubt that persecution of non-Muslims is endemic in the Muslim world and has been for living memory. There's also no doubt that persecution of Jews is endemic in the Christian world and has been for living memory. But the question where and when and to what degree Jews are or have been persecuted in the Christian world makes all the difference--of life and death--for the Jews in question.
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
Kenneth That's not their "primary"goal, it's an interim step. Their primary goal is world domination. They're plain as day about that. · Jan 2 at 10:57am
Actually, Kenneth, we agree perfectly. But you're using primary as a synonym for "ultimate." I'm using it here as a synonym for "first."
Jul '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Kenneth That's not their "primary"goal, it's an interim step. Their primary goal is world domination. They're plain as day about that. · Jan 2 at 10:57am
Actually, Kenneth, we agree perfectly. But you're using primary as a synonym for "ultimate." I'm using it here as a synonym for "first." · Jan 2 at 11:05am
OK
Dec '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
Hamas isn't being hypocritical in condemning this atrocity, just practical. Hamas is already viewed as an enemy of Egypt and a source of inspiration -- if not actual arms and men -- for the terrorism in Sinai. They have to make noises like they oppose terror attacks in Egypt, to keep the Egyptians from pointing an accusatory finger at them.
Dec '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
It seems that in Muslim countries, there is a violent conflict between those who believe that non-Muslims (or Muslims of the wrong sect) can be tolerated within their ghettoes and those that believe that there is an active religious imperative to cleanse their countries of the religiously impure. Pakistan, for example, is riven with Muslim-on-Muslim terrorism that seeks to purge the country of Shi'ites, Sikhs and Ahmadis.
It also seems that political factions, whether religious, ethnic or secular, in the Muslim world are always ready to pounce at any opportunity to settle old scores or to impose dominance over rivals -- that is, it's not enough for a faction to stand up for its own rights, but it must also seek to put its rival faction under its thumb or into its grave. Truces between factions seem always to be only truces, and alliances or agreements or treaties only a matter of temporary convenience.
The only thing that seems to unify Muslim nations for any length of time is their common hatreds. For example (to paraphrase Tom Lehrer), the Iranians hate Iraqis and Iraqis hate Iranians, Arabs resent Turks, but everybody hates the Kurds,
Nov '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
Claire, this video is a very elegant summary of three critical weaknesses within Islam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib9rofXQl6w
Beautifully written and compelling.
What is your take on it?
Dec '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
Lady Kurobara: Claire, this video is a very elegant summary of three critical weaknesses within Islam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib9rofXQl6w
Beautifully written and compelling.
What is your take on it? · Jan 2 at 12:01pm
Thanks, Lady K, for posting that link.
Like the Qu'ran, the Torah is also a system of political organization and law, meant to describe the full operation of a just and pious society. Like the Qu'ran, the Torah declares itself to be a light unto the nations and a model to be emulated everywhere.
Unlike the Qu'ran, however, the Torah is meant to be offered as a gift to other peoples to adopt if and when they see fit, not as a system to be imposed on other peoples by force. Indeed, over the last 2,500 years or so, the Jewish people have attempted to create a system of laws, jurisprudence and customs to allow them to follow Torah in a world that is overwhelmingly non-Jewish.
Nov '10
Re: Yes, Muslims are Protesting the Alexandria Church Bombing
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Lucy, there's no doubt that persecution of non-Muslims is endemic in the Muslim world and has been for living memory.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that you seem to have implied that the Islamists, with the support of the Saudis, are taking over what might otherwise be a benign and tolerant worldview. I would love to believe it, but I don't see any evidence at all that this is true. If, as you suggest, Muslims are condemning this particular massacre, I think the condemnation is at best an anomaly in the history of Islam, and very possibly less than that, a manifestation of some political infighting or a cynical PR ploy.