By Firas Al-Atraqchi
I had never imagined when I started to write an article about the cold-blooded violence targeting the Christians of Iraq that I would be mourning for their Coptic brethren in Egypt.
On Dec. 30, four Christian homes were attacked in Baghdad; an elderly couple were among the dead. The assaults came weeks after several members of the Christian minority were attacked in the northern Nineveh province, and two months after the heinous murder of dozens in the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad. At the time, the group — linked by most experts with little proof to Al-Qaeda — vowed to attack Copts in Egypt.
The threat was bizarre; the connection weak at best — why was a so-called Al-Qaeda group suddenly threatening Egypt’s Copts?
Iraq has become a bloodied chessboard for neighboring countries vying for influence and control of the once oil-rich country, and has seen its fair share of sectarian violence. In 2006, sectarian politics and ethnic influences from Iran and Saudi Arabia nearly produced a full-fledged civil war. The threat has not abated.
This criminal sectarian manipulation must not be allowed to rear its ugly head in Egypt.
I was told by my friends and colleagues that it could never happen in Egypt. But I have seen it happen in Lebanon, Iraq, Sudan, Algeria and Yemen.
While the security of all Egyptians ultimately falls on the shoulders of the government — and I believe that security forces were grossly incompetent in preventing the tragedy still unfolding in Alexandria — the role of outside forces should not be so quickly dismissed.
Egyptians must be steadfast in condemning this barbaric violence, whether it is home-grown or imported. They must resist and repudiate any act that threatens even remotely their national unity.
They must channel their anger through the mainstream media as well as social media. A few minutes after the first reports emerged about the Alexandrian butchery, hundreds of Twitter and Facebook users were already expressing their revulsion, often in language that cannot be repeated here.
Jihan Ibrahim, an Egyptian activist, says that the Church attack is “yet another example of how the state fails to protect its people”.
“I don’t understand how this was not preventable. No matter who is behind it, why is the state spending so much on security when a church can easily be bombed like this?”
She faults the media for falling into the snare of immediately accusing foreign elements for the attack even before forensic investigations have produced any leads.
“Egyptians should be outraged not at each other, and should not emphasize the “us” versus “them” or “Muslim” versus “Copts” mentality,” Ibrahim said.
On Saturday, President Hosni Mubarak addressed the country vowing to “cut off the head of the snake” of the “wicked terrorists [who] targeted the nation, Copts and Muslims”.
Many say that the attack on The Saints Church is an attack on Muslims as well.
Nasry Esmat, a journalist and avid Twitter user, used social media to encourage Muslims to attend church prayers because he wants his “Christian brothers to understand that there are millions of Muslim Egyptians who feel angry because of what happened on the first day of 2011”.
Esmat says that Egyptians must speak out and send a clear message to “the terrorists” that Egypt is proud of its Christian heritage.
“If terrorists want to attack a church they should know that they will take my life as a Muslim alongside any Christian brother … we will celebrate together or die together,” he said.
The religious clerics in Egypt, regardless of faith and denomination, must issue edicts and fatwas that these acts are not Jihad. This is not Islam. It is not Heaven but rather the fiery grip of the demons which nurture the barbarity and evil in their hearts that awaits the perpetrators.
It was heartening to see influential cleric Yussuf Al Qaradawi unequivocally condemn the attacks and clearly state that they were not sanctioned or condoned by Islam.
It was also encouraging that hundreds demonstrated in Shubra against sectarianism on Saturday night.
My birth country Lebanon became a hell on earth when sectarian war tore it apart and drove hundreds of thousands to emigrate. The blackened shadow of sectarian conflict continues to loom over Lebanon as it does over Iraq, the country of my ancestors.
A united Egypt can ensure this does not happen here, too.
Firas Al-Atraqchi is an associate professor of practice at the Journalism and Mass Communication department at the American University in Cairo. He has covered the Middle East for 17 years and was a senior editor at Al Jazeera English.
