Thousands Of Egyptian Muslims Show Up As ?Human Shields? To Defend Coptic Christians From Terrorism
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on January 9th, 2011 10:28 am by HL
Thousands Of Egyptian Muslims Show Up As ?Human Shields? To Defend Coptic Christians From Terrorism
On New Year’s Day, a devastating terrorist bombing at a Coptic church in Egypt killed 21 people and injured 79 others. Although the identity of the culprits was not known, it was assumed that they were Muslim extremists, intent on targeting those they saw as heretics. Religious tensions immediately rose in the country, and angry Copts stormed streets, battled with police, and even vandalized a nearby mosque. The riots and heightened tensions between the Muslim and Coptic communities was likely what the terrorists wanted — to divide the Egyptian community and create sectarian strife between different religious groups.
Yet by Coptic Christmas Eve, which took place Thursday night in Egypt, things had changed completely. As Egyptian Copts attended mass at churches across the country, “thousands” of Muslims, including “the two sons of President Hosni Mubarak,” joined them, acting as “human shields” to protect from terrorist attacks by extremists. The Muslims organized under the slogan “We either live together, or we die together,” inspired by Mohamed El-Sawy, an Egyptian artist:
Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside. From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.
“We either live together, or we die together,” was the sloganeering genius of Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon whose cultural centre distributed flyers at churches in Cairo Thursday night, and who has been credited with first floating the “human shield” idea. Among those shields were movie stars Adel Imam and Yousra, popular preacher Amr Khaled, the two sons of President Hosni Mubarak, and thousands of citizens who have said they consider the attack one on Egypt as a whole. “This is not about us and them,” said Dalia Mustafa, a student who attended mass at Virgin Mary Church on Maraashly. “We are one. This was an attack on Egypt as a whole, and I am standing with the Copts because the only way things will change in this country is if we come together.”
Al Jazeera English covered the attacks and reported from the site of one of the solidarity events where Muslims and Christians stood side by side, protesting discrimination against Copts and calling for an end to violence. Watch it:
It is a frequent complaint among opinion makers in the United States that the global Muslim community does not condemn and prevent terrorism. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has even said that Islam needs a civil war similar to the one the United States fought in order to deal with its extremists. But the truth is that moderate and progressive Muslims all over the world are battling extremism. Here in the United States, one-third of al-Qaeda related terror plots have been broken up thanks to intelligence provided by Muslim Americans. It is up to the press to report these positive stories and not exaggerate the sway that extremists hold over the global Muslim community.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) was shot at a campaign event in Tuscon this morning, according to multiple news sources. There are conflicting reports as to whether Giffords has died. Giffords was reportedly shot in the head after a man approached the event and began firing, also hitting 18 other people, including three Giffords staffers:
Giffords was talking to a couple when the suspect ran up and fired indiscriminately from about four feet away, [Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media] said.
The suspect ran off and was tackled by a bystander. He was taken into custody. Witnesses described him as in his late teens or early 20s.
Giffords recently won re-election in a close race. She entered Congress in 2007 and sits on the House Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Committee on Science and Technology. Today, she was hosting a “Congress on Your Corner” event at a Safeway in northwest Tucson, intended to allow constituents to present their concerns directly to her.
There have yet to be any indications that the shooting was political. Giffords was, however, a controversial figure in her district for her support of health care reform, immigration reform, and other issues. At a town hall event in 2009, also at a Safeway grocery store, her staffers had to call police after an angry constituent left a gun behind:
“Yelling and screaming is counterproductive,” [Giffords] told the Sierra Vista Herald at a Congress on Your Corner event last week. There, one visitor dropped a gun at the meet n’ greet held in a Douglas Safeway, her staff says.
That has aides, who called police to the event, concerned for her safety. “We have never felt the need before to notify law enforcement when we hold these events,” said spokesman C.J. Karamargin.
When healthcare reform passed in March, Giffords was one of 10 Democrats who “report[ed] death threats, incidents of harassment or vandalism at their district offices.” The front door to her district office was shattered.
