By Heba Afify
CAIRO: Facebook groups calling for Egyptians of all faiths to attend Christmas mass on Jan. 6 are receiving massive support by the public as well as by religious figures.
Numerous Facebook groups were created in reaction to the Alexandria church bombing that occurred during a New Year’s Eve mass. So far, over 2000 members –Muslims and Christians – confirmed their attendance.
“We have to unite so that there comes a day where justice prevails in the face of terrorism and extremism, that’s why I’m asking Egyptians of all faiths to attend Christmas mass in solidarity with Christians for what happened on January 1,” states the description of one group.
Mina Samir, a project coordinator in a multinational company, created one of the groups titled “We won’t be scared, we will all pray in the church on 6th of January, Muslims and Christians.”
Samir told Daily News Egypt that he created the group to denounce the church bombing and to send a message that Egypt’s Christians and Muslims are united.
Samir said that even though he was heartbroken over the events, he was sure that Egyptian Muslims are not involved in the attack and do not condone it.
“I know that whoever planned this attack wanted to create a rift between Egyptians so I wanted to send a message that I am saddened by the event, but my Muslim brothers and sisters are also saddened by it,” said Samir.
Karim Tantawy, the creator of another Facebook groups, said that the initiative aims at showing Christians that terrorism does not only affect them, but affects all Egyptians.
“We want them to feel that we are not just shouting empty slogans of solidarity, we will actually attend mass with them and if anything happens it will harm us all together,” said Tantawy.
Mahmoud Ashour, former deputy of Al-Azhar and member of the Islamic research center, supports the initiative and said that it will tighten the relationships that already exist between Muslims and Christians in Egypt.
“I am calling on all Muslims to guard the churches so that what happened doesn’t happen again,” said Ashour.
Mohamed Habib, the Muslim Brotherhood deputy leader, also supports the initiative and sees it as “an illustration of support and unity among Egyptians as one entity.”
Peter El-Naggar, a lawyer, said that the initiative will show that the church bombing is a terrorist attack and not an attack by Muslims against Christians.
Many Egyptians are reacting to the church attack through Facebook by putting pictures of the cross and crescent as profile pictures and by creating groups calling for a state of public mourning in Egypt. –Additional reporting by Yasminah Elsayed
