Past Events in Ukraine: Kiev
How Moslems Treat the Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Life Under
Islam
WILL EASTERN ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS IN THE U.S. STAY SILENT ???
AUSTRALIA (ANS) - OCT 26/05- Massive Muslim riots,
Islamist web threats, and the stabbing of a Coptic nun have forced Egyptian
authorities to place an armed guard around St George (St Girgis) Coptic Orthodox
Church in Muharram Bik, Alexandria on the Egyptian Mediterranean coast. The
sudden eruption of aggression against the Church demonstrates the extremely
fragile nature of religious harmony in Egypt where Muslim hostility and contempt
towards the Christian minority simmers just below the surface and very little
provocation is required to make the volcano blow. In this case, the provocation
consisted of totally unsubstantiated reports that a theatrical production
performed in St George Coptic Orthodox Church had defamed Islam.
As the Egyptian weekly 'Al-Ahram' explains, "...the sectarian tension in
Alexandria began in much the same way previous Muslim-Christian disputes had:
with the publication of a tabloid story. This time, the newspaper in question --
Al-Midan -- published an article about a church play that defamed Islam."
(Link 1)
According to Al-Ahram, "Waleed Orabi, the journalist who wrote the Al-Midan
story, said he had obtained a CD of the performance from a source inside the
Alexandria church where the play took place. He refused to provide any other
details on the matter." Orabi goes on to describe Muharram Bek, where the
protests took place, as "a hotbed of Islamism".
INCITEMENT
On Friday 14 October, the day after the article was published, a group of
Muslims allegedly from Cairo entered the neighbouring mosque with copies of the
article and incited the worshippers to protest. Al-Ahram describes what
happened: "An angry crowd of about 100 people promptly marched towards the
neighbouring church. As word spread around, the crowd got bigger, with some
3,000 people eventually taking part. Some were there to support the
demonstrators' demands, while others were just curious about the goings on.
Local police were quickly deployed in the hundreds; and by three in the morning,
had dispersed the angry demonstrators."
Adnkronos International (AKI) reports that the protesters shouted slogans such
as, "Oh Islam, we will defend you with our body and soul!", and
"Christians and Jews, the army of Mohammed will return". Jihad groups
linked to al-Qaeda posted video footage of the protest on their websites along
with exhortations to follow this example and attack Christians. (Link 2)
On 18 October, the Islamist group "mujahadeen of Egypt", which claimed
responsibility for the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings, posted a notice on the Internet
inciting Muslims to take action against Christians in revenge for the alleged
offence against Mohammed.
AKI reports, the mujadadeen described their posting on the Internet as, "an
urgent message to the followers of the cross living in Egypt". The message
made specific reference to the "crusaders' church", which it deemed
guilty of staging a theatre performance offending the Prophet Muhammed.
According to AKI, the "mujahadeen of Egypt" decided to destroy the
church, but found the security too tight to perpetrate an attack. As the
militants explain in their Internet statement: "After hearing this news, we
had decided without hesitation to destroy that church. The mujahadeen prepared
themselves but found what they were expecting. The ... police, secret services
and internal security forces had surrounded the area of Muharram Bik, protecting
the church. If those responsible for the offence do not admit their guilt, then
every Christian holding a sermon in the incriminated church will become a target
of the mujahadeen." (Link 3)
NUN STABBED
On 19 October, the day after the incitement from "mujahadeen of
Egypt", a Muslim student in his early 20s entered St George Church as a
prayer service was finishing. He shouted "Allah akbar" (God is great)
and stabbed a novitiate nun in the chest with a knife. The nun, aged in her
mid-40s, required surgery for her wounds. One other worshipper, Ali al-Jani, was
wounded as he intervened to protect the nun. Father Augustinous, head of St
George Church was not present during the attack. However, it was reported to him
by eye witnesses that after stabbing the nun, the attacker knelt and prayed
"as if he was thanking God for finishing a task". (Link 4)
MASSIVE DEMONSTRATION AND MOUNTING ANGER
Following Friday prayers on 21 October, after the ultimatum demanding an apology
from Coptic Pope Shenouda III had expired, more than 5,000 angry Muslims
demonstrated outside the front of St George Church. They brandished sticks and
threw rocks. Around 90 people were injured as police fired tear gas and fought
to disperse the angry crowd. Twenty police officers were amongst those injured.
Two protesters and two policemen died in the violence – one protester being
trampled to death. Nine cars and seven Christian-owned businesses were torched
and a gold store was looted. (Link 5)
Seven churches in Alexandria were attacked by a violent mob of Muslim youths
that Friday evening. Reports are coming from Alexandria that tell of significant
damage to church property, including broken gates, doors, windows, and
furniture. Pews were reportedly burned and Bibles were thrown into the street to
be trampled by angry crowds. Families, especially pastoral families who live in
the churches, have been traumatised. Many from the congregations were too afraid
to meet on Sunday.
New York Times (NYT) reports, "In Alexandria, several shopkeepers and
pedestrians spoke of their waning patience for their Christian neighbors, and of
a sense that their tolerance has been taken for granted and abused." (Link
6)
Ahmed Ali Mahmoud, 25, a pharmacist whose shop is opposite St George's Coptic
Orthodox Church told the NYT , "People are very, very provoked. They are
boiling. Did we make plays that insult the Christians? They will pay the price
in terms of their security, comfort, and now no priest will be able to walk in
the streets."
NYT also spoke to a shoemaker who said his name was Muhammad Abdo. He said that
police first fired tear gas into the crowd, which only served to anger those in
the streets. They then went wild, turning over cars and setting them on fire,
smashing storefronts and looting a gold shop. " 'No one will stop until
they give a formal apology,' Mr. Abdo said, adding that he heard the play denied
a central tenet of the Islamic faith - that Muhammad was God's prophet."
THE PLAY
The play which Muslims allege defamed Islam is called, "I Was Blind but Now
I See". It was based on a 1990s movie called The Terrorist, which starred
Egyptian comedian Adel Imam. It is the story of a poor Coptic University student
who converts to Islam after a group of Muslim men offer him money to do so.
However, the young convert becomes disillusioned after the local sheikh exhorts
him to kill priests and destroy churches. Abused and maltreated by the sheikh
and his group, the young man eventually abandons Islam and returns to
Christianity. His apostasy enrages the Islamists who then seek to kill him. His
life, however, is ultimately saved by his faithful Muslim friend.
According to Coptic leaders, the play was a statement against extremism and
radicalism. However, Islamic voices are claiming that the play
"defamed" Islam. Osama Gado, of the Muslim Brotherhood claimed the
play "clearly harms the image of Islam". Tamer Harfush also lambasted
the play saying, "The play compares Islam and Christianity, Jesus and
Prophet Muhammad, presenting the first as a man who sacrificed his life and the
second as more preoccupied with earthly pleasures." (Link 7)
The most critical thing about this play is that it was performed once, TWO YEARS
AGO!
QUESTIONS
Apart from the standard questions: "Does this defame Islam?" (the
dictionary defines "defame" as: To damage the reputation, character,
or good name of by slander or libel), and "Why riot?", the most
obvious question is: Why now? Considering the play was performed once, TWO YEARS
AGO, why is this sectarian hatred, specifically anti-Copt hatred, being whipped
up now?
1) ELECTIONS
Legislative elections commence on 9 November. Already the trouble in Alexandria
has driven Maher Khella, the local Coptic candidate of the ruling National
Democratic Party (NDP), to withdraw from the parliamentary race "to defuse
tensions". Maher Khella was one of only two Copts amongst the 444
candidates fielded by the ruling NDP. (Link 7)
According to Al-Ahram, Al-Midan is not the only newspaper inflaming Islamic
sentiments. Al-Ahram reports, "Sameh Fawzi, the editor of Watani (My
Nation), a prominent Coptic newspaper, says that 'reading a number of tabloid
newspapers will clearly reveal how a sensitive topic like religion is often
manipulated to pit Muslims and Christians against each other.' Several
newspapers, for instance, have recently been running stories claiming that
churches are doing intensive missionary work among university students across
the country."
On Thursday 20 October, supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood marched in
Cairo in an effort to encourage Egyptians to vote for their Islamist candidates
in next month's parliamentary elections. As noted by Reuters, the Muslim
Brotherhood sidesteps its ban by fielding candidates as independents. As they
marched they chanted "Islam is the Solution" as well as other slogans
such as "We make the pledge and guard the dhimma...".(Link 8)
(Dhimmis are second-class citizens in historic, orthodox Islam, with limited
rights and no equality before the law. Dhimmitude (see http://www.dhimmitude.org/
) is based on Islamic theology and is an Islamic form of religious apartheid.
Historically, in the context of Islamic imperialism, it has permitted the
preservation of Jews and Christians for the purpose of exploitation. To receive
and maintain "protection"/right to life, dhimmis must live in
subjugation and submission, eternally grateful for and humbled by the
"protection" afforded them.)
These religious issues – "defamation" of Islam, Christian
evangelism, and dhimmis abusing Muslim tolerance and taking it for granted (NYT)
– will ensure that Islamic zeal and anger are running high. This should give
the Islamists a boost at the polls at the expense of Copts, other Christians,
and secularists. Many observers suspect that political Islamists, who can gain
political mileage from sectarian tensions, are behind the Alexandria riots.
2) COPTIC CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON
Al Ahram reports, "A US-government sponsored conference on Coptic
grievances in Egypt is scheduled for 16 November in Washington. Participants
will reportedly press for the Egyptian government to provide more freedoms for
Copts. They will also demand the amendment of a constitutional article that
considers Islam 'Egypt's official religion and main source of legislation'. The
meeting is seen as a means for Washington to exercise more pressure on the
Egyptian government, and for Copts to extract more concessions at home."
Some analysts believe that State Security Forces have orchestrated the
Alexandria protests in order to embarrass and discredit the Copts at home and
abroad before the Washington Conference so as to limit, or even cripple, its
effectiveness.
INCENDIARY SITUATION
Even though more than one hundred rioters have been detained for 15 days pending
investigations, Christians in Alexandria are afraid and are staying home
indoors.
Several facts indicate that this situation has potential to escalate and spread
like wildfire:
Please Also Access our Articles
Eastern Orthodox Church - HISTORIC RECORD & ISSUES
Columnist Comments On Apparent Muslim-Christian
(COPTIC) Conflict on CT Campus
By Jim Brown
April 26, 2005
(AgapePress) - A Coptic Christian professor at Manchester Community College in Connecticut alleges he lost his job after being harassed and threatened by two radical Muslim women on the faculty.
In his new column for FrontPageMagazine.com entitled, “Jihad at Manchester Community
College,” investigative journalist Lee Kaplan relates the story of MCC Professor Michael
Abdelmessih, who taught a course on Islamic fundamentalism and its association with terrorism. According to Kaplan, Muslim faculty members Fatma Antar and Dianne Hussein constantly interrupted Prof. Abdelmessih's class and claimed “jihad” does not mean attacking non-Muslims but rather, “protecting Islam.”
Kaplan says Antar went so far as to threaten Abdelmessih's family in Egypt, where Copts are brutally persecuted. "Basically they don't want anybody teaching Islam unless it's a Muslim,” the investigative journalist says, “and of course then they sanitize what the instruction is about."
MCC barred Abdelmessih from teaching his course after he was threatened by the two radical Muslim faculty members. But the real reason the professor lost his course, Kaplan contends, is largely because the college does not want any negative discussion of Islam to take place. He notes, "What happened was they took the class away from Michael, and they gave it to Colleen Keyes, who is a Muslim convert."
Also, the FrontPageMagazine.com writer says the two Muslim women talked the school's director of non-credit courses into changing the title of the Islamic fundamentalism course to include Christian and Jewish fundamentalism as well. The columnist asserts, "They obviously made threats, and they obviously frightened Ann Bonney from the administration at the school enough that she felt the need to station police at the door to the class and mention the two professors specifically as being a threat also to [Prof.
Abdelmessih]."
htp://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/262005f.asp
Jihad at Manchester Community College
Vatican returns saints' relics to Orthodox Church
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Nov 28/04 - Hundreds of Greek Orthodox faithful have welcomed the return of the remains of two saints 800 years after Crusaders snatched the relics from Constantinople in a gesture by the Vatican to mend ties between the churches.
Chanting hymns and waving incense, clerics carried the two glass cases into St. George's Cathedral in Istanbul, seat of the Orthodox Church, and placed the fragments of bones before the patriarch's throne, where the saints, fourth century leaders St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. John Chrysostom, once sat.
At a service earlier on Saturday in Rome, Pope John Paul renewed calls for unity between the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity that split in the Great Schism of 1054.
"We see in the transfer of these sacred relics a blessed chance to purify our wounded memories, to affirm our path toward reconciliation," the 84-year-old Polish Pontiff said.
Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians, stood beside the Pope in Rome before accompanying the relics to Istanbul.
"This gesture differentiates (the Roman Catholic Church) from the deed of their predecessors eight centuries ago, who accepted the spiritual and material treasures that had been taken from our city and our Church," the Turkish-born patriarch said in Istanbul.
Since his election in 1978, the Pope has made reconciliation with Orthodox Christians a priority of his reign.
During a visit to Athens in 2001, he asked God to forgive Roman Catholics for 1,000 years of sins against Orthodox Christians. He has also apologised to Muslims for the Crusades, which aimed to win the Holy Land back from them, and to Jews for centuries of anti-Semitism.
HEALING THE RIFT
"For centuries both sides never gave up hope. But the last serious attempt to unify the church was right after the fall of Constantinople (to the Ottoman Turks) in 1453," said
Richard Wittmann.
Most scholars agree the remains of Nazianzen and Chrysostom were taken in 1204 during the sack of Constantinople, now Istanbul. But the Vatican's chief spokesman said Nazianzen's relics were moved to Rome in the eighth century to protect them.
Harassing Orthodox Christians in Bethlehem ?
WHERE IS YOUR SECTION ON EASTERN ORTHODOX SERBIA ?
WHERE IS YOUR SECTION DEALING WITH PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS ?
We affirm the first Three Church Councils.
We are inclined to agree also with Church Councils 4 to 6, though we are still studying the details of those councils.
Our belief is that the historic record supports the conclusions that the Church Councils were both Biblically sound and exegetically correct.
We Greatly Question whether the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various Denominations subscribes to
the Church Councils, though it does almost everything "in the name of" those Church Councils.
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