CAIRO — A deadly suicide bomb attack outside a Christian church in Alexandria on New Year’s Eve has forced the government and religious leaders here to acknowledge that Egypt is increasingly plagued by a sectarian divide that could undermine the stability that has been a hallmark of President Hosni Mubarak’s nearly three decades in power.Read the rest here.
As Egypt’s Christians headed to church under heavy security Thursday night to observe Coptic Christmas Eve, the nation was struggling to come to terms with a blast that killed at least 21 people, highlighted a long list of public grievances with the government and prompted concerns that national cohesion was being threatened by the spread of religious extremism among Muslims and Christians.
“I have heard this a lot, that this type of incident might be the first in a series, turning Egypt into another Iraq — that is the fear now,” said Ibrahim Negm, the chief spokesman for Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, the nation’s highest religious official. “There is a paradigm shift here that says we have to do something about the sectarian issue.”
"...religious extremism among Muslims and Christians."
Can they not shelve their politically correct blinders for even a minute? Where is the Christian religious extremism in Egypt or anywhere in the Islamic world? When was the last time (or anytime) that a Christian set off a bomb in a mosque? This is not just idiocy. It is insulting idiocy.
3 comments:
John,
I have been asked to explain the status of our relationship with the non-Chalcedonean Churches. Could you provide a brief summary?
A Coptic archimandrite in my hometown was interviewed by local news about the bombing and was asked what the response should be. He clasped his hands together and said, "We must have unity." It broke my heart, because I believe he was referring to union between the Chalcedonean and non-Chalcedonean Churches. The American news anchor obviously was out of his element and asked no follow-up.
Unfortunately, much of America's military intervention in the Islamic world has been laid at Christianity's feet. It's clearly not an example of Christian extremism, but it's not hard to see why Moslems in the Middle East and Afghanistan understand it that way.
Of course, that doesn't excuse the NY Times perpetuating an obviously backwards understanding of the situation, in solidarity with the Moslem extremists.
I believe I read that scholars and theologians in the 90's determined that the differences between Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Churches were simply due to issues in translation. In short, they were saying the same thing but didn't understand each other.
Shamefully, there has been no official reunion. In these days we can't really afford that.
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