Let Them Eat Cake!!

No I'm not talking about the phrase allegedly uttered by Marie Antoinette when told the peasants can't even find bread to eat. I'm actually talking about the ignorant and arrogant Mr. Ali Odaysi, and his comments to the Washington Post (read article in title link).

The article itself lists a number of attacks on Coptic churches by Muslim neighbours, because the Copts are praying without permit. It's actually talking about the Udayssat incident which happened in October, and there'd been at least one other attack after that (Ezzbat Wassif).

Imagine, if you will all of you who live anywhere in the world where "human rights" aren't dirty words, imagine a Muslim community in your area. There's enough of them to warrant building a mosque so they won't have to travel to another town to pray. They do have the right to worship after all. Your mayor gives a statement to a newspaper reporter saying "There's no need!! There's a Buddhist temple down the road, why don't they pray there?!"

Well the papers would have a field day with "racist bigot", condemn this "anti-Islamic" sentiment. The PM or president would have to say "we love Muslims and we respect Islam". The mayor would have to apologise, or at least he would be asked to.

Here's what Mr Odayssi said:
"Anyway, a Christian is Christian. We Muslims worship in any mosque, why can't they worship in some other church? There's another church, an Anglican one not far away. Why can't they worship there?"

Is this man serious??? Was he trying to antagonise the Copts or is he really that ignorant??? Now I know that Anglicans and Orthodox aren't as different as Muslims and Buddhists are. It is true we are all Christians. But there are indeed differences in the ways we celebrate mass, there are differences, minor as they may be, in our denominations.

Until such time that the Anglican church and the Orthodox church sort this out, we are each entitled to worship in our churches. As a Coptic orthodox I have attended many Anglican and Catholic services both in Egypt and here in Australia. But that was my decision, I made that decision of my own free will. It's not for anyone, least of all a man like Odayssi who clearly has NO idea about my faith to make that call on my behalf or indeed on behalf of the whole Coptic community of Udayssat, to make that call for us.

It is my humble opinion that Mr Odaysi is playing dumb (not that this should be a long road for him to travel). He is probably taking a stab at provoking the Orthodox Copts to say "no we don't want to pray in the Anglican church. We want our church" To which the Anglicans would say "AAAAnd what's wrong with OUR church??". Maybe he could divide up the little Christian community.

I sincerely hope I am wrong. I hope this is just me being a bit paranoid. I hope he is just ignorant and doesn't really comprehend what he is saying. Because I hope nobody should have it in them to be so devious. But then again, when you are talking about the son of the man who burnt that very same church back in the 60's, who knows!!

مصر ليست وطنا نعيش به و لكنها وطن يعيش فينا

Egypt is not a home in which we live...
But rather, a home that lives within us.

That's what the title of the post means in English for those who can't read Arabic. They are also the words made immortal by our shepherd Pope Shenouda the third. As a matter of fact I used to think that it was the pope himself who said that, because I so often heard him saying it growing up in Shoubra. (Forgive me but I don't remember who originally uttered these words. I just remember it was a prominent Coptic personality)

That's how we feel about Egypt Mohammed. We, the Copts have a part of Egypt in our hearts no matter where we go. Whether we live in Egypt or abroad. Whether we are young or old, teachers, builders, mothers, children, doctors, engineers, labourers, you name it. It is undeniable and you can see it in a Copt's face.

It is true I've lived here in Australia for many years, and I love this great country too and feel loyalty and respect to my new home. But the love I have for my old home is always there.

I take offence to your implication we don't understand or that we're trying to smear our country's reputation. There's something that keeps coming up in Egyptian media about this too:
"why do we need to air our dirty laundry for the world to see"

And to that we say: "why have dirty laundry to begin with?"
"why don't we clean our laundry ourselves?"

The Copts of Egypt have endured 1400 years....1400 long painful years of subjugation, humiliation and oppression in the name of Islam. We have shown goodwill and loyalty only to be rewarded with thuggery and hatred. We faught the Crusaders alongside the Arabs, and we faught the British alongside the Muslims, we faught the Israelis away from Sinai alongside the Muslims. We always faught alongside our Muslim compatriots, believing promises of a happy independent home land where we can live together as equals. We never regretted fighting to protect our beautiful home...but

What did we get in return?? I'll tell you what we got:

* We lost our language (they cut our tongues off in fact if we dared speak Coptic)

* They burnt the Alexandria library

* They forced us to wear huge wooden crosses and forced our women to wear prostitutes dresses

* We weren't allowed to ride horses, we had to ride donkeys...Backwards sometimes, just so the Muslims could have a laugh

* We were told either convert, pay a tax or we kill you

(all the above was done before the Crusades, so you see even after all that we still gave Islam the benefit of the doubt)

* The Hamayoni decree: presidential approval required to build/mend a church

* El Zawya Elhamra attacks

* El Kosheh massacre

* Church of The Virgin Mary in el Menya was attacked because the Muslims were offended by the ringing of the bells

* A newly built in El Oboor city was attacked by the POLICE. They claimed the church didn't have a permit

* State security police raided a church service in St Mark's Church in al Tor Sinai. They kicked the worshippers out, desecrated the altar and stole the Holy Altar Vessels (usually made of gold or silver)

* Our Muslim neighbors attack us for daring to pray (Udayssat and Ezzbat Wassif) while their Saudi fellow Muslims are ensuring the nightclubs of AlHaram have a steady trade. But no, a church where people pray is more offensive to them

* Books of the nature of those listed in post "How Enlightening" that insult our faith. Not to mention the abuse we hear out of loudspeakers of mosques and the tapes they play in minibuses and taxis

* Our daughters are being taken away and forced to convert

* The army...our country's army attacked one of our charitable organisations...a center for disabled children!!!

And many more heart wrenching and painful attacks on our churches, homes and businesses.

If we mistakenly gave the impression of weakness because we have been abiding by Jesus Christ's message of loving our enemy and turning the other cheek...we're sorry. We are not weak. We are the children of Jesus Christ and of beautiful Egypt. Jesus taught us to be humble, but never taught us to be weak. We'll never use arms or force, we'll never shed blood. But we won't take the abuse anymore. We'll shout it from the roof tops Mohammed, we'll keep telling our story. You can't possibly deny us that right as well.

What They're Saying About It

Al Arabiya.net is one of the more perverse, seedy tabloid type news sources in the Arab world. It's the internet companion to a satellite channel by the same name. Most of its content involves some deviant sexual relationship, reports of rape, domestic violence and extra marital relationships. Another favorite issue of theirs is Christianity and Islam. Then there's a lot of padding with political and sports news, in order to give the impression of a respected news source.

One of the site's features is the readers' comments on articles. If you can read Arabic and would like a good laugh I recommend you browse some comments (although some are in English, but they are very few). However, I must warn you, some comments may offend you if you value things like human rights, religious freedom and peaceful co existence. Just remember: the poor dears are only practicing what they are taught.

funnily enough, AlArabiya reported the attack on Ezzbat Wassif's Coptic community

And as usual, there's the many readers comments at the bottom of the page. In the interest of fairness, many readers actually had something intelligent and balanced to say. There are however those who are fine examples of utter ignorance, and advanced cases of "Oh-dear-I'm-so-stupid-I-dunno-how-I'm-still-functioning" syndrome.

Those latter dears seem to hold a couple of ideas so close to their hearts:
1) Islam is superior and so it follows they are superior to everyone else
2) The East is Muslim, the West is Christian/Jewish (or ZioChristian as some have so cleverly called it)
3) Western leaders are constantly preoccupied with causing conflict in the East. They (Western leaders) are the ones orchestrating religious strife in the area
4) All problems in the Islamic world have one cause: ZioChristian world
5) All problems in the Islamic world have one solution: Islam
6) Diaspora Copts MUST be Mossad or CIA agents paid to lie and say Copts are discriminated against.

Now that you know this, may I present some of the most outstanding comments, just to give you an idea on how the average Arab Muslim thinks:
* دين الأخلاق الحميدة
ان الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم لم يمنع أهل الكتاب من ممارسة شعائرهم الدينية قط فالاسلام دين التسامح ولم يكن الشغب وسيلة لإبداء الرأي بين المسلمين قط. لكن هذا التصرف ممكن ان يقوم به المسلم غيرة على دينه ودفاعاً عنه
by: مسلمة
The religion of good conduct: by a Muslim woman
The prophet never prevented people oft he book from observing their religious customs. Islam is the religion of forgiveness and never was violence a way for Muslims to express an opinion. However, such attacks may be acts of Muslims out of zeal for their faith and in defense of that faith.

Ah very good feedback sandwich there. Start with the positive then slip in the negative...wait where's the second positive? Maybe she doesn't do sandwiches, she's into feedback pizzas.

*اسماعيد عبواحد )
لازم وزير الداخليه و المخبرات الداخليه يعمل فى مثيرى الفتن دووول زى مكان بيتعمل زمان فى اى حد يكلم فى السياسه .... وغير كده اقباط المهجر الى ملهومش سيره الا انهم يدخلو فى شئوننا الداخليه يلموا نفسهم ودوول اول ناس تعمل فتن بيننا .. وياريت حسنى يسكت الحيوان رئسهم ده انشالله بالاغتيال عشان يبقى عبره Ismael Abdel Wahid:
The minister of interior and secret services must punish anyone who incites these events same as anyone with a political affiliation used to be punished. Also, diaspora Copts who have nothing to do but interfere in our issues should shut up. They are the first to incite religious hatred. I hope Hosni (the president) shuts up their leaders even if he has to have him assassinated..so he can make an example of him

why would we incite religious religious hatred against our own families?? oh sorry I forgot, the Mossad and CIA paying us to do it, blablabla, they just want problems in Egypt blablabla...got it.

هما صح فى كل الاحوال*
عبد الرحمن )
الحكومة عندنا فى مصر ممكن تدوس على رقبة المسلم علشان المسيحى يعيش وعلشان امريكا متقولش ان مصر بتعامل الاقباط بطريقة وحشة وتنقلب عليها فبتالى المسلم هنا حقة ضايع بجد ومش عرفين لغاية متى هنكون كدة They're always right anyway by Abdul Rahman
Our Egyptian governments easily steps on a Muslim's neck to please the Christians and so Americans don't think we mistreat Copts. As a result, a Muslim has no rights in Egypt and we don't know how long we'll have to suffer like this.

WOW!! Now HE is special...the poor man has completely left our realm.

اتلموا بقى يا أخوه*
مصرى )
انا باقول للاخوه المسيحيين اتلموا بقى بلاش قله ادب وخليكم ماشيين جنب الحيط ما احنا عندنا اصحاب مسيحيين زى الفل ومفيش اى تعصب بلاش استفزاز للمسلمين المسلميين مبيعملوش حاجه من فراغ اكيد حد استفزهم احنا اخوات واكتر من الاخوات بالادب وحسن المعاشره .... هتسخنوا... هيسخن المسلميين وانتوا فى الاخر اللى خسرانين مش كده ولا ايه ؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟ ياريت محدش يزعل ونفضل اخوات .... انا بحب اصحابى المسيحيين كتير قوى وهما كمان بيحبونى بالادب سلام Watch yourselves by an Egyptian

I say to the Christian brothers, behave and watch yourselves. Keep to yourselves and take a corner (??) We have many good Christian friends who aren't fundamentalists. Stop provoking Muslims, Muslims don't act out of nothing. If You get hotheaded, so will we but at the end, YOU'LL LOSE, don't you agree. I hope nobody gets upset and we remain brothers. I love my Christian friends and they love me...respectfully.

Now see Muslim woman, this guy knows how to do a feedback sandwich. Hang on I have to tremble a bit because his threatening comment scared me. Hurry Copts, bow your heads to your masters OR ELSE!!! but we're all brothers anyway.

* الله أكبر
الله أكبر والنصر للمسلمين باذن الله God is Great (allahu akbar)
Allahu Akbar and the Muslims will be victorious with His help.

He gets 3 points for effort. The guy must've exhausted his lonely brain cell to come up with this one.

لازم كل واحد يعرف قدره*
على من اسكندرية )
اكيد المشاكل بين المسلمين و المسيحيين زادت الايام الاخيرة فى مصر عشان المسيحيين فى مصر فاكرين انهم بقو ليهم قيمة فى مصر وفاكرين ان امريكا الطاغية ممكن تفرض على المسلمين قيودا عشان المسيحيين يعملو الى هما عاوزينه. نصيحة للمسيحيين ياريت تعرفو قيمتكو و قدركم فى مصر .. خليكو بعيد عن استفزاز المسلمين عشان ما تاخدوش على دماغكو كل مرة و سيبكو من امريكا عشان مش هتنفعكو ولا هتاخدو حقكو بيها. بلاش تحرقو نفسيكو بنفسيكو و خليكو حلوييين احسن ليكو
Everyone should know their worth by Ali from Alexandria

I'm certain problems between Muslims and Christians these days have increased, because Copts are starting to think they're actually worth something in this country. They think the all powerful America can force Muslims so they'll let Christians run rampant. word of advice to Christians: you should learn your worth and know your place in Egypt, leave the Americans out of this because they won't be able to help you or return your rights. You'll just be burning yourselves...better if you behave.

Ali mate; we know our worth and our place... We are COPTS which means EGYPTIANS. That land you stand upon was cultivated by our ancestors. The city in which you live contained the most grand of libraries in the history if humanity...Incidentally it was one of your ancestors who burnt it. No surprises then to hear what you have to say.

And so much more I won't bore you with. But you get the idea. Basically:

1) Its your fault we attacked you
2) It's America/Israel's fault we attacked you
3) Shut up or we'll attack you again, and that'll be your fault too.

Now again, I stress that there were many readers who posted sensible and intelligent comments, and I salute them. But the point is, the ones who just bark without thinking need to be heard too. That's the only way we can learn why they hate us so much...maybe there's a way to educate the ignorant or at least try to raise awareness.

Is Egypt Becoming A Lawless Society?

This is the second time this year (and we're only in February) that a mob of thugs attack a Coptic community. The reason is the same.
They suspected that the Copts are building a church without a permit


When has it become the duty of a civilian to "enforce" the law (and I mean enFORCE)???

Now I thought that in all civilised, soverign, democratic states, there are laws and there are law enforcement agencies to uphold and protect these laws. I also thought Egypt fell in that category.

I also know that those Muslims had the best intentions. They just wanted to point out to those misguided Copts that they're breaking the law. Except, God bless their hearts, they just don't know how to communicate without weilding some sort of weapon or setting something on fire.

Why is it so upsetting to Muslims that Christians want to pray in a church?

Muslims build mosques left right and centre. They even pray in the streets on Fridays or on feast days and to hell with traffic flow. What could possibly hurt the Muslims in that village if the Copts built a church? There are 1200 Copts in the village, don't you think they have a right to have a church so they can practice their religion IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY??

Another question is how could these thugs feel bold enough to litterally take the law into their own hands unless they feel sure the police will be on their side?

My final question (and I may have to say it in Arabic as well) is that even if these people thought they were just "protecting the law", why this particular matter? Why don't they go fight a war against the drugs that are numbing the minds of Egyptian youths? Go fight the corruption of government agencies that thrive on bribes. What about builders who skimp on building materials and lead to buildings that collapse atop their residents? WHat about fundamentalist groups who go about blowing up tourists and Egyptians alike?

يعنى خلاص... الناس ماشيه كويس و الاقتصاد قوى و مفيش جراءم ولا بطاله. مفيش غير الاقباط اللى بيخالفوا القانون؟ إشمعنى يعنى يا ناس ياللى بتقولوا الاسلام دين سماحه و مساواه؟

All the above are crimes that are paralyzing the country's economy not to mention costing lives. Apparently my Muslim compatriots see things differently. They think building a church is more horrendous than all those crimes.

I said it before and I'll say it again: The gates of hell shall not prevail against her

The Muslim Brotherhood in the Egyptian People’s Assembly

The above article (click on title to read), written by Magdy Khalil and initially published in Arabic on www.elaph.com late last year, provides an insight on the Muslim Brotherhood's agenda in Egypt. Upon reading it last year, after the election results indicated support for the Brotherhood is on the rise, I wanted to translate parts of it and discuss it here on the blog. Unfortunately it just sat on my "to do" list and got relegated to that-day-when-I'd-have-time-and-a-quiet-house to do so.

However, thanks to my good friend Peter(Egypeter) for bringing this English version published in Watany to my attention, I no longer have to worry about translating it! (Pete you're a champion)

You can read the full article from the link, but here are some important parts that warrant more attention, and my humble opinion on them. Please feel free to discuss and offer your views too. This is an extremely important aspect of Egyptian politics that would alter the future of all Egyptians dramatically...and perhaps also the future of the whole region.

A brief introduction
The Muslim Brotherhood have been around for many decades. After Sadat took over as president, he gave them considerable slack and allowed them to grow in number and influence. At that time (late 70's, early 80's) they were involved in many violent attacks on Christians in Egypt (al zawya al hamra for example). Ironically, Sadat was assassinated by members of the MB. Now in Mubarak's days it is not allowed to form a political party that is also a religious party in Egypt. So the Muslim brotherhood have been kept out of mainstream politics. To get around this, members of the Brotherhood have been nominating themselves in elections as independents. Not that they made it secret where their loyalties lie. The symbol for those members is the famous Quran with two swords

(Image from website: www.ikhwanonline.com feel free to visit it for yourself if you can read Arabic)

and their slogan is "Islam is the Solution" (although they never specify what the problem is)

The latest elections revealed that support for the MB would guarantee them considerable influence in the political arena, if the elections were permitted to take place unhindered by the ruling party of course.

So let's see what Mr Khalil has to say:
*"Talking to “Al Arabiya” channel, on 18 November 2005, the Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam Al Erian confirmed this fact when he said: “our goals and values remain the same, (unchanged) since 1928 and till the present time.”"

Given the violent acts they've already carried out against Copts, that statement by Mr Al Erian is unsettling to say the least. More unsettling is what they have demonstrated through theindependentdant" members over the past 5 years. Mr Khalil listed some of their demands in the Egyptparliamentment, which illustrate what their real agenda is for Egypt should they gain more power. I'll only list here those I found most disturbing, the rest you may have a look at in the original article.

1) Several members presented a request for information asking the government to remove the ban imposed on the newspaper Al-Shaab, which was known for its extremist attitude and support of terrorism, they also wanted the Egyptian Labor party to resume its activities (Asharq Al-Awsat, 1 Jan 2001).

Egyptians have been through many hundreds of years of occupation. I believe the average Egyptian person probably forgot what it is to be free, hindependentdant thought and form an opinion for themselves. Even after the revolution, there came the age of the Secret Police rounding people up in the middle of the night for merely daring to criticise or question. It honors me to say my own grandfather was one of those taken away for being an ctive member of an opposition party back then. Newspapers play an important role in forming and shaping public opinion everywhere in the world, but especially in countries like Egypt. Extremist newspapers can incite riots with one news item (The Alexandria riots of Oct 2005 were a result of a news item in a seedy newspaper)

2) A request for information questioning the Minister of Justice regarding the charges against Ragab Rizk el-Swirki – known as Egypt’s Shahriar – for having married more than 4 wives simultaneously, and marrying 21 women over the years. Swirki is the owner of a chain of well known Islamic stores “el-nour wa el-tawhid”, and the Muslim Brotherhood accused the government of framing him (Asharq Al-Awsat, 15 May 2001).


Islam permits a man 4 wives, but it also permits a man to keep as many women as he can "afford". You can imagine what letting Egyptian men keep as many wives as they can "afford" will do both to women's rights, and to the population explosion in a country where the resources are already over stretched.

3) They led a campaign against the US economic aid to Egypt, and presented a request for information to the USAID assistance, and substitute it with a number of agreements with Arab and Islamic funds (Asharq Al-Awsat, 15 May 2002).

AHA!! That's an interesting one! If you recall the International Coptic Conference held in Washington in November 2005, you may also recall the uproar of the Egyptian media over claims that disapora Copts are pressuring the US to stop the aid program. In all fairness, the conference participants never requested the aid program be terminated. They did however request the US oversee how the money is being spent, to prevent the use of this money from being used to fund terrorism against Copts and/or Western targets. Egyptian media accused diaspora Copts of working to deprive their fellow Egyptians (Copts and Muslims) from much needed aid money. Thus succeeding in turning a great majority of Muslims, and a considerable portion of the Coptic community to boot, against the diaspora Copts. We were accused of being Zionist agents!!

Yet here is the MB requesting the aid program terminated and there wasn't the slightest bit of objection to this demand in the media.


And here is the most disturbing request by far...

4) The Muslim Brotherhood deputies have opposed Egypt’s decision to abide by the UN Declaration of “The Rights of the Child” that forbids the selling and the exploitation of children and sanctions adoption (Asharq Al-Awsat, 27 May 2002).

What, I beg anyone to explain to me, is the benefit or purpose behind this outrageous request??? Do they intend Egypt be a route for the Darfur children to be transported to Saudi masters, so they can become camel trainers, slaves..or worse yet sex slaves for the vile Saudi elite??
Do they want to exploit our own Egyptian children??? How in God's name is this meant to inspire any faith in these people to run the country?

What do they want to do to our children???

You can see from the above points, and those listed in the main article, that the day MB gain enough power would be a black day for all Egyptians.

Egypt, the cradle of civilisation...the land of the great Nile and the mighty pyramids...the history that still fascinates and captivates hundreds of thousands...the land that the Lord Jesus Christ came to for refuge as a small child...all that history, all that wonder and all that beauty would be suffocated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt would become just another Iran or Afghanistan.

Curse democracy if that's what it will bring to Egypt.

We were brought up to hate - and we do

The following is taken from the link:

It's a great article and tells a real story away from slogans about religion of peace and prophet of mercy. I highlighted the parts that stood out to me and illustrated perfectly the points the West needs to know about the Arab world.
***********************************************
The controversy regarding the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed completely misses the point. Of course, the cartoons are offensive to Muslims, but newspaper cartoons do not warrant the burning of buildings and the killing of innocent people. The cartoons did not cause the disease of hate that we are seeing in the Muslim world on our television screens at night - they are only a symptom of a far greater disease.

I was born and raised as a Muslim in Cairo, Egypt and in the Gaza Strip. In the 1950s, my father was sent by Egypt's President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, to head the Egyptian military intelligence in Gaza and the Sinai where he founded the Palestinian Fedayeen, or "armed resistance". They made cross-border attacks into Israel, killing 400 Israelis and wounding more than 900 others.

My father was killed as a result of the Fedayeen operations when I was eight years old. He was hailed by Nasser as a national hero and was considered a shaheed, or martyr. In his speech announcing the nationalisation of the Suez Canal, Nasser vowed that all of Egypt would take revenge for my father's death. My siblings and I were asked by Nasser: "Which one of you will avenge your father's death by killing Jews?" We looked at each other speechless, unable to answer.

In school in Gaza, I learned hate, vengeance and retaliation. Peace was never an option, as it was considered a sign of defeat and weakness. At school we sang songs with verses calling Jews "dogs" (in Arab culture, dogs are considered unclean).

Criticism and questioning were forbidden. When I did either of these, I was told: "Muslims cannot love the enemies of God, and those who do will get no mercy in hell." As a young woman, I visited a Christian friend in Cairo during Friday prayers, and we both heard the verbal attacks on Christians and Jews from the loudspeakers outside the mosque. They said: "May God destroy the infidels and the Jews, the enemies of God. We are not to befriend them or make treaties with them." We heard worshippers respond "Amen".

My friend looked scared; I was ashamed. That was when I first realised that something was very wrong in the way my religion was taught and practised. Sadly, the way I was raised was not unique. Hundreds of millions of other Muslims also have been raised with the same hatred of the West and Israel as a way to distract from the failings of their leaders. Things have not changed since I was a little girl in the 1950s.

Palestinian television extols terrorists, and textbooks still deny the existence of Israel. More than 300 Palestinians schools are named after shaheeds, including my father. Roads in both Egypt and Gaza still bear his name - as they do of other "martyrs". What sort of message does that send about the role of terrorists? That they are heroes. Leaders who signed peace treaties, such as President Anwar Sadat, have been assassinated. Today, the Islamo-fascist president of Iran uses nuclear dreams, Holocaust denials and threats to "wipe Israel off the map" as a way to maintain control of his divided country.

Indeed, with Denmark set to assume the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, the flames of the cartoon controversy have been fanned by Iran and Syria. This is critical since the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to refer Iran to the Security Council and demand sanctions. At the same time, Syria is under scrutiny for its actions in Lebanon. Both Iran and Syria cynically want to embarrass the Danes to achieve their dangerous goals.

But the rallies and riots come from a public ripe with rage. From my childhood in Gaza until today, blaming Israel and the West has been an industry in the Muslim world. Whenever peace seemed attainable, Palestinian leaders found groups who would do everything to sabotage it. They allowed their people to be used as the front line of Arab jihad. Dictators in countries surrounding the Palestinians were only too happy to exploit the Palestinians as a diversion from problems in their own backyards. The only voice outside of government control in these areas has been the mosques, and these places of worship have been filled with talk of jihad.

Is it any surprise that after decades of indoctrination in a culture of hate, that people actually do hate? Arab society has created a system of relying on fear of a common enemy. It's a system that has brought them much-needed unity, cohesion and compliance in a region ravaged by tribal feuds, instability, violence, and selfish corruption. So Arab leaders blame Jews and Christians rather than provide good schools, roads, hospitals, housing, jobs, or hope to their people.

For 30 years I lived inside this war zone of oppressive dictatorships and police states. Citizens competed to appease and glorify their dictators, but they looked the other way when Muslims tortured and terrorised other Muslims. I witnessed honour killings of girls, oppression of women, female genital mutilation, polygamy and its devastating effect on family relations. All of this is destroying the Muslim faith from within.

It's time for Arabs and Muslims to stand up for their families. We must stop allowing our leaders to use the West and Israel as an excuse to distract from their own failed leadership and their citizens' lack of freedoms. It's time to stop allowing Arab leaders to complain about cartoons while turning a blind eye to people who defame Islam by holding Korans in one hand while murdering innocent people with the other.

Muslims need jobs - not jihad. Apologies about cartoons will not solve the problems. What is needed is hope and not hate. Unless we recognise that the culture of hate is the true root of the riots surrounding this cartoon controversy, this violent overreaction will only be the start of a clash of civilisations that the world cannot bear.

• Nonie Darwish is a freelance writer and public speaker

How Enlightening!!

Over the past few weeks, we have all witnessed fervent objections by Muslims all over the world over the Mohammad Cartoons published in Denmark. There have been demonstrations, flag burnings, burning of churches, a priest was assassinated and of course boycotts of Danish products.

Throughout these events, we have heard from Muslim scholars everywhere that they are offended because Islam teaches respect for one's religion. They vehemently denied such "crime" would ever be committed against Christianity or Judaism in the Muslim world. A Muslim blog-friend told me "if that happened to Jesus, Muslims everywhere would get offended "before the Christians would"!!!

WOW! What great, heart warming sentiment. Well, in that spirit I'd like to present a sample of books on Christianity that are sold at Islamic Centre for Enlightenment in Cairo. So I hope the good people at Al Azhar get this and seeing that these books are extremely offensive and in fact blasphemous to Christians everywhere, I am certain they'll plead to the president to "order" the bookshop to remove them immediately. Because after all freedom of speech shouldn't apply to insulting religions

1):

That's just a picture of the centre for "enlightenment"

2):

Title: Why They Broke the Cross by Abu Islam Ahmad Abdalla

3):

Title: Christianity: from monotheism to Polytheism
Clearly a book on one of the most popular concepts in the Islamic world: that Christians are polytheist and as such infidels!

4):


Title: Pagan Beliefs (or Idol worship) in the Christian Faith by various authors. You gotta love the pictures on the book cover

5):


Title: A Nation Without a Cross by Islam Ahmad Abdalla

6):


Title: Become Muslims; Avoid Harm
A lovely catch phrase out of Islamic history. Mainly used as a kind of warning, convert to Islam or else! You can see the huge cross on the page indicating the warning is directed to Christians.

7):


Title: The Non-Existent God by Ahmad Deedat
Again, love the cover with the damaged Bible in the scales.

Respected Islamic scholars,
As a Christian, I consider these books blasphemous and offensive. In the past I thought, oh well, they're free to write what they like. After all, no matter what anyone says, Christianity is stronger than a bunch of books. I thought that you either agreed with them, or didn't object because you too believed they are free to write what they liked. It is a free country!

But now you have declared that you do not and will not tolerate any offence committed against any faith. It brought tears to my eyes...I was indeed moved by your heart felt words. I thought "they probably didn't know about the books. They probably forgot Sheikh El Sharawi's weekly TV program where he called our Bible a fake. They mustn't have heard of the CD's bus and taxi drivers put on that call us infidels!"

Well, here you go, esteemed scholars. The above is but a small sample. If you look around you, you'll no doubt find more. I am looking forward to hearing your condemnation of such anti-Christian sentiments, and your pleas to the president to do something about it. Remember; freedom of expression should never touch faith!

Blatant Discrimination

TEXT

If you visit the above link you will read a strange story. True, it is good news that for once, the victims of discrimination received their rights. But good Lord; is it a damning account of the government's discrimination or what?!

Although the verdict was handed down more than eight months ago, on May 31, 2005, civil authorities refused to implement the decision.

Why? and why weren't they penalised? Can you imagine if this happened in Australia or the US or Europe? A Muslim man converts to Christianity and falsefies his daughters birth certificates. A court rules the situation be corrected. The civil authorities refuse to.

You can imagine the torrent of "anti Islam" claims. Demonstrations would probably be arranged. Newspapers would demand justice be served in the interest of "national unity" and "tolerance".

Anyone who still claims that discrimination against Copts in Egypt is not sanctioned or at least ignored by the governemnt, is kidding themsleves. Shame on any Egyptian with a conscience if they don't in the very least acknowledge this fact.

D'artagnan's Comment

Hey D'artagnan
Sorry I have to respond in a separate post, but for some reason I can't access any of my old posts!!!

No matter. I just wanted to say a couple of things in response to your comment on my previous post.

It's no problem you posted your comment as "Anonymous", so no need for an apology :)

As for the spelling thing, there really is no reason for my spelling it this way. I wasn't offended that you asked, I was being a smart ass when I replied "why not?"...that's all. Sometimes I make sarcastic comments but I'm not trying to be rude.

Now I have a bit of a problem with something you said:
"...but it ALWAYS seems like the person who introduces him/herself with the statement"i'm a christian and ...." is setting an agenda which allows them to distinguish between us and them."

Let me tell you what I don't like about this statement by giving you some examples:
* ALL Muslims want to blow themselves up
* Irish people ALWAYS eat potatoes
* ALL Italians have fat bellies and huge mustaches
* Gay men ALWAYS wear leather pants
* ALL lesbians look like KD Lang

Do you get what I mean? Sorry if it seems I'm being a smart ass again. But It's too much of a generalisation to make, especially when you don't even know me.

I don't identify myself just as a Christian woman. Being Christian is just one aspect of "me"...To me being Christian is about aspiring to be a better person, about love and forgiveness, about strength of character, will power, and most of all about extending a helping hand to others.

Never has it been on my agenda to claim superior moral ground just because I'm a Christian. Never did I think it was OK to judge someone else just because I'm a Christian. In fact that goes against everything that is Christian to me.

If you can spare a moment, just go through my previous posts briefly (if you can, because I certainly can't at the moment), you will see that I only identify myself as a Christian here, because the main focus of my blog is to shed light on the abuse Christians suffer in Egypt. You will also see that in the post you commented on, I mentioned being Christian because I was responding to Alison's remarks where she raised this point. Otherwise, I don't tend to walk around saying "look at me...Christian coming through...I'm a Christian...Christian in the house!!" (damn it I can't help the smart ass thing...naughty girl) Actually none of my close friends are Christian, my best friends are an Athiest gay, a Hindu and an Agnostic.

Now for the PM. I don't have to justify how I practice my constitutional right to vote to anyone, but sice you asked nicely, I'll tell you how I justified my vote to myself anyway. I voted for him because at the time of the elections his party actually provided me with a clear platform...this was missing in the opposing party (for whom I voted on previous occasions). They just seemed disorganised and had no vision of what they wanted to do. The Liberals had policies, and were organised. I didn't feel I could trust Labor with my vote.

"Might I suggest ,that if you don't have "a christian conscience, but a human conscience" that you move beyond mention of your christian base? It just seems like a neat way to circumvent any personal examination of your actual stance in these moral issues."

Suggestion noted D'artagnan. But with all due respect, I resent the fact you judged how "circumvent" personal examination of my stance. My stance on moral issues is not in question here. I always try to express my thoughts as clearly as I can, and I never said "well that's what I think and you can't question me because I'm Christian!"

Finally I love your chosen blog name. Any reason you chose that one? :)

A Blast from the Danish (not too distant) Past

Interesting what you might find when you go back a little in time. I really didn’t want to spend too much time on this Muslims Vs Denmark issue. But while visiting the BBC website I read an article about it. On the right side of the page there was a list of related topics…one of them dated back to August 2005, a month before the infamous cartoons were published.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4159220.stm

Basically this radio presenter called for the extermination of fundamentalist and violent elements in the Muslim community in Europe, or to expel all Muslim immigrants out of Europe. The radio station had its licence suspended for 3 months as a result, the presenter was charged with breaking the anti-racism law.

Hmmmm, funny how Danish Muslims forgot about this incident while the whipped themselves into frenzy over the cartoon issue. You see it is clear from this report that Danish law enforcement didn’t hesitate to bring charges when it was necessary…when there was a real offence committed.

To anyone who thinks it is fair to use the cartoons to justify a terrorist attack against Denmark, why don’t you ask yourselves why this Danish radio presenter wasn’t excused for making those statements?? After all, when you read the threats made by Hizbul Tahrir, you see that those elements he referred to are posing a real threat to his country, his fellow Danes, possibly his family and himself too. Yet he was charged with breaking the law nonetheless.

Because you see (and listen up Arabs everywhere), in the free world we are all given our freedoms, and we are taught that we are responsible for our own actions and words. There is freedom but there is law and order.

And before anyone jumps down my throat and says “oh so you think Western/white/Christian societies are perfect, do ya?” No, they are not perfect. But there is more awareness here of one’s rights and responsibilities. There really is law and order. There’s always hope things will get better, because at the very least, you have the right to vote and elect someone who will represent you…and you don’t end up with a president or PM who wins with a 99.9% of votes! Hell, you even have the chance to be nominated yourself. You have the right to question your government, to think for yourself and discuss and debate what is important to your community. Trust me; I’ve lived in the Middle East for quite a while. Don’t take our freedoms here for granted.

To Muslims who burnt Danish flags, boycotted Danish products, even threatened them with death and destruction: How short is your memory that you forget how they welcomed you in their country and defended your rights even when some of you wished them harm. Now you want to deny them their rights in their own home?

A response to Comments re: This Danish Affair

This post is in response to the comment on my post "This Danish Affair", and specifically to address Alison's comments.

First of all, thank you for your comments, and please accept my response with an open mind. I do value your contribution and appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me.

Alison; I think your opinion is very much coloured by your experience in life…as are the majority of people’s opinions and views. That’s natural. I admit my opinion is deeply affected by my experience as a Coptic woman in Egypt, constantly aware of how I am judged in my own society, aware of the fact I am a 3rd grade citizen at best in my own home country.

You seem to blur the lines between the “sorry” campaign we had here in Australia to the Aboriginal community for the stolen generation (which my family and I signed because we believed in it), and this issue in Denmark.

The Danish newspaper didn’t kill or torture or oppress anyone by publishing those cartoons. They merely exercised their right to freedom of press, freedom of expression. I acknowledged the fact it was offensive to Muslims…I just find their reaction ridiculous.

Your comments on my post and in your own blog don’t cast Christianity in a very positive light. As a Christian, I find them hurtful. Yet I acknowledge that you have the freedom to your opinion and you should be able to express it. I have the freedom to be offended and to stop reading your words…or to contemplate them…but I don’t have the right to demand you apologise to me. That would be absurd.

"I don't blame all Christians for the stupidity of a man in Rome so why blame all Muslims on the sad fundamentalists?"
Who's the man in Rome? The pope?
I don't blame all Muslims for the actions of a fundamentalist. This issue has nothing to do with punishing Muslim people. It's about a group of people who for some reason believe it is their right to do something (insult and defame other people's faith as is the common practice in all predominantly Muslim countries) but nobody can do the same to them. In fact, when books were published, TV programs aired and articles written to insult the Christian faith in Egypt, we didn't even have the right to say we were offended, let alone have the chance to response, let alone demand an apology.

As for the war mongering in the old Testament, there are two things I have to say about that:

1 The wars in the Old Testament were for the purpose of acquiring the promise land or defence against communities around the Israelites who would have threatened their existence. There is no Jihad in Judaism or Christianity. And the wars were never intended to spread Judaism. In fact Judaism is an exclusive club if you will. There’s them and there’s the gentiles. Islam however condones war for the purpose of spreading Islamic ideology (among other things), and it condones it in Quran and Hadith and Sunna.

2 The Christian faith is based on both Old and New Testaments. The purpose of the Old Testament for us is to explain why salvation was needed and provide an account of the prophecies that concerned this salvation. I challenge anyone to find me evidence that Jesus called for or condoned war, killing or humiliating another person in the Bible for any purpose at all.

Finally the “sins” for the church. These were sins committed by misguided men hundreds of years ago. And incidentally, Pope John Paul the 3rd DID apologise for them on behalf of the Catholic Church. Where are the apologies for the 100’s of thousands that were killed in the name of Islam? Where are their apologies for oppressing people in predominantly Muslim countries? Where’s our apology for our culture that they wiped out, our tongues that they cut off, and our children they killed…..etc???

Muslims live in Western countries including Denmark, enjoying all the rights and freedoms of those countries, protected by their laws and are able to not only practice their faith but to preach it to non Muslims. Did you know that even mentioning anything pertaining to the Christian faith to a Muslim in a Muslim country could land you in jail???

Again; please keep in mind that the Danish newspaper didn’t kill or torture anyone. And that the Danish government has to protect the freedoms and rights in their country…saying sorry because someone exercised their right is unacceptable.

This Danish Affair

A couple of months ago a Danish newspaper published 12 cartoons depicting Mohammad the prophet of Islam. One of them also depicted Jesus and Buddha as criminals in a line up along with Mohammad.


Naturally Muslims were outraged and offended. That was to be expected. After all, depiction of any prophet is prohibited in Islam. Fine so far.

Then the Muslim world just descended into hysteria...
threats were directed to the newspaper,
jihad declared against Denmark,
DEMANDS of apologies,
DEMANDS of punishment by the government to the newspaper,
boycotts,
recalling ambassadors..............
And the madness continues with the burning of the Danish flag in Lebanon.

Now that is just ridiculous to say the least. A tantrum much like that of any self centered 2 year old who genuinely believes the world revolves around them.

I just have a couple of questions:

1) Why does the whole of the Islamic world believe the rest of the world are "enemies of Islam"????????
Is it because they view the West as the enemy, and so they believe the West must look at them with animosity?

2) Given the last question, why do Muslims still flock to the West and live in the midst of "their enemy"????????

Could it be that they want to bring the "light" of Islam to the world?? Save the sinners perhaps?? or is it just that good old hunger to take over and annihilate the other that has prevailed in the Islamic culture since its birth over 1400 years ago?

3) Why do Muslims expect the rest of the world to live within their boundaries?? It's prohibited for Muslims to depict prophets...I'm sure the guys who drew the pictures weren't Muslims...so what's the big deal??

4) Over the years there's been countless attempts to defile the image and word of Jesus Christ and His church...eg: the "piss Christ", and the Davinci Code.
How many death threats has the Vatican issued? hmmmmmmmmmmm

5) If Muslims are so riled up because their prophet has been insulted, and if as they proclaim over and over, Islam is the religion of peace and tolerance and equality, why is it they haven't fought the Davinci Code as vigorously?? In fact, the movie based on the book will be shown at the opening of the Masqat Film Festival and it has been heavily advertised.

Why haven't they said "You know what; this may offend our Christian brothers and sisters here in the Arab world. And since we are peace loving, tolerant, open minded Muslims, who were instructed by our prophet to treat the Chritians well and protect them, we just couldn't let that happen"








Oh sorry, just composing myself again...I fell off my chair laughing at that last one. God, my imagination runs wild sometimes.

6) Finally, why did their delegation who is touring the Muslim world feel they needed to beef up the cartoons a bit and add two falsies? Is it because the original 12 weren't really that bad? Or is it because they're just dishonest people? Or is it because they don't think anyone will care???????

I'd like to conclude this by saying I pray to God every day that the Danes don't apologise. The Islamic invasion of my old world has seen the demise of all rights and freedoms (except your right to choose Islam, death or humiliation that is). Please don't let this Millennium witness the defeat of these rights and freedoms in Europe too.

Stolen...By Her Teacher

This is the account of Lydia Atef Atta’s kidnapping. Lydia was born 06/11/1978 and she was a student at AlAttar school in Shoubra, Cairo. She disappeared on 14/01/1996.

Her family started a frantic search for her and they found out that her teacher Ashraf Mohammed Ismael had kidnapped her. Then they were told that Al Azhar certified her conversion to Islam on 15/01/96, which is illegal seeing she is a minor. Four days later on 19/01/96 there was a letter issued by Abdel Monem Awadalla, who is a “Mathoun Shar’y” (a Muslim celebrant: certifying marriages and divorces), residing in Midan Alkholoosi in Shoubra (phone number at the time 685742 -). The letter states the following:


I, Abdel Monem Awadalla, Mathoun shar’y at Kholoosi, Shoubra, have certified a marriage contract between Mr Ashraf Mohammad Ismael and Miss Lydia Atef Atta at the Shoubra police station. This is according to the orders of the police station’s Ma’mour, police report number 6321 for 1996, witnessed by moqaddim Wael Ezzat.


Her family demanded that they see their daughter and eventually (miraculously) they were allowed a meeting. Once she saw her family she ran to them and held on to her parents crying and begging them to take her back home. At that, her “husband” started beating her…in full sight of the police surrounding them.