Egypt: Resurgent Salafism and Cautious MB-Coptic Feelers

This is obviously both an exciting and a very delicate time in Egypt, and secularists and Islamists alike are staking out their positions prior to the fall elections. Egypt's new interim constitutional declaration retains the existing ban on political parties based on religion, sect, or ethnicity, but the Muslim Brotherhood expects to create a political party that will pass the test, and compete in the elections. The Brotherhood has also announced its intention to create a satellite channel and a newspaper. The less centrally organized, but even more conservative, Salafi movement has also been very active, and their growing influence has alarmed secular Muslims, Christians, and the mystical Sufi orders. A brief roundup of links, since there's been too much going on to comment individually.

The Brotherhood has been reaching out to the Coptic Church, apparently to appear mainstream. Brotherhood General Guide Muhammad Badie has asked for a meeting with Coptic Pope Shenouda III, whom he telephoned after one of the Pope's frequent medical visits to the United States. Shenouda downplayed the request.The Brotherhood also wants to meet with the Coptic Youth Movement.

Meanwhile, Salafi movement demonstrators clashed with villagers over closing liquor stores and coffeehouses. and also demanded the "freeing" of Camillia Shehata, a Coptic priest's wife they believe tried to convert to Islam, and who they charge is being held against her will by the Church. On the day before the Salafi protest on the Shehata affair last Tuesday, a wild rumor spread among Christian and secular Muslim women claiming that the Salafis were going to kidnap unveiled women and hold them hostage until Shehata was freed. The Salafis issued a strong denial (link is in Arabic), and the ruling Military Council met with Pope Shenouda, to reassure the church.

The Wafd and other secular parties are talking about forming a secular alliance to compete with the Brotherhood and Salafi movements in the Parliamentary elections, while Salafis and Sufis are also clashing, with Salafis attacking Sufi shrines, and the council of Sufi Orders threatening a "war" against the Salafis if they continue to demolish shrines. The Sufi (Islamic mystical) orders venerate local saints and the sheikhs of their order, while the Salafis equate saint veneration with idolatry.

All of this ferment also coincides with efforts to organize the long-discussed Wasat or Center Party, led by younger Islamists disillusioned with the Muslim Brotherhood, even as the Brotherhood itself is reportedly riven by internal divisions. I've always thought that those who assumed the Muslim Brotherhood was going to be the obvious winner of the revolution were buying into Mubarak-era propaganda, since with real political pluralism, a wide spectrum of religious and secular movements are likely to take the field. The fact that the Brotherhood now seems to be just one religious movement among many may be bearing that out, though don't count them out since they still have the best organizational infrastructure.

Clearly, a number of religious/secular, fundamentalist/mystical, and Muslim/Christian fault lines are under stress.

I'll be back later with a lengthy historical post before disappearing for the weekend.

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Saint Patrick's Day Rerun: Ireland and Egypt

You know, with a name like Michael Collins Dunn, I have to appease the ghost of my Irish great-grandmother, at right, by noting Saint Patrick's Day. I'm told she often talked of the Little People, of whom the leprechauns are only a subset, and I don't want them pestering me. Way back in 2009 when this blog was young and spry, I did a lengthy post about the hazy but nonetheless real connections between Egypt and Ireland in the early Christian period, full of Egyptian monks buried in Ireland, Irish guides to pilgrimage in the Wadi Natrun, the curious artistic links (especially the nearly identical Coptic and Celtic wheel crosses), Egyptian glass in Ireland and British tin in Egypt, and Patrick's own apparent familiarity with Egyptian monks. That post is here, and I'd ask longtime readers to read it again, and those who haven't seen it before to do so now. Also note this later post on an Egyotian papyrus found in an Irish bog. Maybe my affinities with Egypt aren't just sentimental; perhaps they're genetic.

And again this year to you all, whether you're raising a Guiness or a Stella or something non-alcoholic, Misr umm al-Dunya and Éirinn go Brách.

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Egyptian Protest Against Sectarianism Friday

Given the sectarian clashes in Egypt in recent days, the protesters, including the "We Are All Khalid Said" group that helped start it all, are organizing an effort to get Christians and Muslims to hang Egyptian flags on Friday between churches and mosques. (Link is in Arabic.) This follows an earlier display (left) when after an attack on a church in Alexandria, local Egyptians of both faiths stretched a flag between the church and the mosque across the street to show solidarity between the two faith communities.

Obviously not every church is across from a mosque (though you might be surprised how many are, presumably due to past one-upmanship), but it seems an encouraging idea, and a healthy one.

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Sectarian Clashes Also Increase in Cairo

Today has been confrontational in Cairo, Besides the harassment and confrontations confronting the International Women's Day marchers in Tahrir, sectarian confrontations persist following the recent burning of a church south of Cairo. At least one Copt has been killed in fighting between "thugs" and Christian zabbalin or garbage collectors in the Muqattam area, though some twitter reports are suggesting the thugs also clashed with the military. While the church burning that provoked the violence was allegedly sparked by a feud between two families, one Christian and one Muslim, there have long been allegations that sectarian clashes have been fueled by State Security. The reappearance of the baltagiyya street thugs in recent days, following the storming of State Security offices, may be a sign that the security forces are fighting back in their old, worst way. They used to blame attacks on Copts on the Islamists, but now they may merely be trying to provoke anarchy in order to make people yearn for the old regime's version of order.

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More Good News: Egyptian Protesters Transcend Sectarianism

If you are believing the panicked reports from Israeli and neocon American commentators that the Egyptian revolt is being taken over by Islamists, consider: After the horrific bombing of the Coptic church in Alexandria on New Year's, many Muslim Egyptians turned out on Eastern Christmas (January 7) to form cordons around Coptic churches in many parts of the country. On both Fridays of the present demonstrations, Coptic Egyptians (some in clerical vestments) returned the favor. After the huge Friday prayer in Tahrir Square, the Copts held their Holy Mysteries (Mass) yesterday in the square as well. (Cairo's main "celebrity" ceremonial mosque, ‘Umar Makram, is on the square, but the nearest churches are a couple of blocks away). Again, each faith is helping protect the other.

In my earlier post on the Revolution of 1919, which I still think resembles this one more than anything else in modern Egyptian history, the revolutionaries flew the flag above, with both crescent and cross, which later became an emblem of the Wafd Party. The two communities protecting each other both suggests this is not an Islamic Revolution, and that Egyptians are united. (So far as I have seen, however, Coptic Pope Shenouda has continued to defend the regime.)

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Early Indications: a Conciliatory Christmas in Egypt

Given the tensions that have built over the past week, Egypt entered Eastern Christmas last night with high nervousness, but there were wonderful signs of interfaith unity as well: Muslims planning to attend Midnight Mass or surround the churches as a human shield against attacks; statements of national unity from al-Azhar and most other religious bodies, and the like.

The early indications are positive. At Pope Shenouda's Midnight service at the Patriarchal Cathedral in Cairo (left), twelve government ministers were in attendance, as were Gamal Mubarak and his brother ‘Alaa, the French and US Ambassadors, and Muslim dignitaries. All seems to have gone smoothly, though with heavy security presence.

Egyptian Muslims seem really incensed about the Alexandria bombings, and so far they seem to be displaying a refreshing and welcome support of their Christian countrymen. If there were troubles in the provinces we may not hear of them right away, but in Cairo at least, despite strict security (and the cancellation by the churches of most Christmas celebrations other than liturgical ones out of mourning for the dead), things seem to have gone off well for the midnight celebrations.

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A Nervous Christmas Eve

Tonight is Orthodox Christmas Eve under the Julian calendar, and in the wake of the Alexandria bombing and subsequent demonstrations, Egyptian Copts are naturally nervous. Though there has been a fairly impressive display of Muslim support for Copts coming from al-Azhar and other religious institutions, and many Muslims are expected to hold vigils outside churches during Christmas celebrations, the recent bombing, combined with last year's Christmas attack in Nag Hammadi, fuels apprehension. Security is high and police are expected to be present around churches.

I'll have more to say soon. Meanwhile, there's an interesting analysis here.

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As Eastern Christmas Approaches, a Rerun

With Eastern Christmas only three days away and with Christian-Muslim tensions running high in Egypt, I thought it might be time to have a rerun from last year: the traditional Coptic stories of the Holy Family in Egypt. Christian tradition, and in some cases Muslim tradition has well, has taken the brief Biblical mention of the Flight into Egypt and spun a marvelous travelogue in which the Holy Family visit most of the country. At a difficult time in Egypt, it may be worth remembering these charming folktales once again.

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Video Inside the Church

A YouTube video from inside the church during the New Year's Eve bombing in Alexandria. The blast outside is heard and the worshippers begin to panic; someone, perhaps the priest or deacon in the picture, is telling them it's nothing.



Anger is still running high.

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Alexandria Blast Provokes Clashes

The New Year's Eve bombing in Alexandria of a Coptic Church, which officially left 24 dead and many more injured (though there are rumors of as many as 50 dead) at the Al-Qiddisin church, is the worst terrorist attack in Egypt in some time, as well as the worst outbreak of anti-Christian violence. It toll is heavier than last year's Christmas shooting in Nag Hammadi, which is still a sore point in itself. Though President Mubarak went on television to insist all Egyptians are in this together, there have been a number of reports of Coptic-Muslim clashes in Alexandria and Cairo bfollowing demonstrations by Copts and clashes with police.

You may recall that two months ago, after the terrible church bombing in Baghdad, the Islamic State of Iraq (an Al-Qa‘ida affiliate) threatened Egypt's Copts as well. Egyptians rallied in support at the time, but Christian-Muslim tensions have remained high. Not surprisingly, the Egyptian government is reflexively blaming Al-Qa‘ida for the Alexandria bombing (though old habits die hard and a few in Egypt are blaming Israel). Some Copts seem bothered that the knee-jerk blaming of foreign elements means the government is not serious enough about protecting Copts.

Admittedly, the technique — originally attributed to a car bombing but now to a suicide bomber — is reminiscent in either case of the Iraqi group's tactics in that country, but the Bishop of Alexandria has suggested that the shift in blame to a suicide bomber allows the government to blame a single individual now dead.

Certainly this is a horrible way to start the year, but it's also exacerbating tensions between sectarian groups at a sensitive time. If there is no credible evidence forthcoming of who is really responsible, things could get worse quickly.

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Bethlehem's Christmas: A Good Turnout

Bethlehem seems to have ha a good Latin Christmas, making up for the dip last year. Reportedly a 60% increase in pilgrims. Here is a roundup of some videos and reports from last Friday and Saturday:

A video of good turnout in Bethlehem:



A Palestine News Network report on Christmas Eve in Bethlehem:



A BBC report on the usual quarrels over who gets to repair the roof of the Church of the Nativity; it seems the Palestinian Authority is stepping in to get things done. The video doesn't embed so you need to follow the link.



An Al Jazeera report and article:




Another Al Jazeera English report on Palestinian tour agencies taking tourists to different sites:




Another piece on Syrian Christians in Jerusalem:

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For Western Christmas, a Taste of Eastern Christmas

For Western Christmas, having already done Fairuz singing familiar Western carols in English, I thought it might be worth sampling a bit of indigenous Christmas music from the lands where the faith began. This replaces the usual Weekend Historical Videos for this week. Most Roman Catholics and Protestants tend to be pretty ignorant of the Eastern Churches (even, among Catholics, of the Eastern Catholic churches in union with Rome). They may have a vague familiarity with the Orthodox tradition, but know little of the Maronite, Syriac Orthodox, Antiochian Orthdodox, Melkite, Coptic, Armenian, Chaldean or Assyrian traditions.

I think I told the story here once before of an Arab Christian who grew tired of being asked by Western hostesses, on learning he was a Christian, "Which missionary group converted your people?" He always answered, "Jesus Christ and the 12 Apostles." After all, it started there: the New Testament itself says Jesus was born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, and was crucified in Jerusalem; that his followers were first called "Christians" in Antioch, and so on. Yet to Western Christians, the Eastern branches of the faith are a mystery. Yet most historians agree that the oldest Christian liturgy still in use today is in the Church of the East (the Assyrian Church).

Oh, the television networks will broadcast a snippet of the Latin Patriarch's Christmas Eve service in Bethlehem, though the majority of Arab Christians will celebrate on the Eastern date in January.

So here are a variety of the varied Middle Eastern traditions, some recorded in the region and some in the diaspora. One or two are reruns from last year, but most are new.

A Coptic hymn to Mary. The Coptic language, now only a liturgical, tongue, is a descendant of Ancient Egyptian:



In the Antiochian Orthodox tradition, a Byzantine Christmas Hymn in Arabic:



A Chaldean Christmas hymn. The Chaldeans are the Eastern Catholic analogue of the Church of the East (Assyrians):



These two from the Lebanese Maronite tradition:





Syriac Orthodox: An entrance prcession for Christmas 2007/8 at a Syriac Orthodox Chruch in Aleppo: amid traditional sounding Eastern music there's also a singing of Silent Night in Syriac as the celebrants enter.



Church of the East (Assyrian):



For an Armenian Christmas I can't resist a repeat from last year, since it combines a Nativity scene with dancing Santas and mixes Eastern and Western music:



And to recall the ancient Armenian Church's more traditional music, this:



And with that, being a fat guy with a white beard, I have a busy evening ahead. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

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Christmas Eve in Bethlehem: a Better Year? And a Look at Last Year

Christmas Eve greetings; let's talk about Bethlehem and its problems today.

Bethlehem (Beth Lechem in Hebrew, "house of bread," and the cognate Bayt Lahm in Arabic, "house of meat," from a presumed Semitic root that meant something like "staple food": bread for an agricultural population, meat for a pastoral one) is a pretty town set in the Judean hills a dozen miles or so south of Jerusalem. It has some spectacular views out across the hills and desert towards the Dead Sea, and the "Little Town of Bethlehem" is a crowded city these days, where Muslims and Christians share the town; Muslims are in majority, but the Mayor is, under Palestinian Authority rules, always a Christian.

According to the Old Testament, Bethlehem was the home town of King David, and thus Messianic prophecies became associated with it. Tradition says that Jacob's wife Rachel is buried there, though there are conflicting traditions. But Bethlehem's real claim to fame is of course known to every Christmas caroler: the only two Gospels that describe Jesus' birth agree it was in Bethlehem, despite their many differences in details.

There are reports ahead of tonight's Big Night in Bethlehem that Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's efforts to increase tourism to the Palestinian Authority are making this a more optimistic year for the West Bank city, whose primary tourism season is, of course, Christmas. I hope they're right. It's been a rough period for Bethlehem, which is pretty much a one-industry town, or maybe two: pilgrimage and olive wood. If you're not interested in the olive wood manger scenes or crosses, the craftsmen can pull out olive wood crescents, stars of David, or even Menorahs, but religion and olive wood are about the whole economy.

Last year, and most recent years, have been more awkward. The Israeli separation barrier, the Wall, not only blocks the pilgrimage route between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, slowing down pilgrimages, but runs right down one side of the main street into town, or what used to be, due to the Separation Wall dividing Bethlehem from Israeli-controlled Rachel's Tomb runs right down what was formerly the road; the satellite view in Google Earth shows just how bizarre the wall is in this part of its course. I haven't personally been there since the wall was built, and from the video and other views I've seen, I think I'm glad.

And Rachel's Tomb is one of Bethlehem's Holy Places. Being Jewish, it is separated by a wall from the Christian ones.

I don't intend to get into all the arguments about the wall here; I do believe with Robert Frost that "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," but I also understand why the Israelis built it. On the other hand, its impact on Bethlehem has been pretty devastating.

A Time video from last year:



And an AlJazeera English video, also on last year's Christmas, on the way the separation fence and other tensions have hurt tourism:



A Palestinian video showing celebrations, demonstrations, confrontations, and parties at home:



Mahmud ‘Abbas at the Church of the Nativity last Christmas:



And on the subject of the wall, there's this video and song I also posted last year, using as background a song by Canadian Christian singer Garth Hewitt:



There'll be one more Christmas post before the weekend, so stay tuned.

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Preparing for the Christmases

Now that we've celebrated Hannukah, Ra's al-Sana, and ‘Ashura, our ecumenical holiday season can start preparing for Christmases. As I've noted previously, whatever the many problems facing Middle Eastern Christians in too many countries today, they still have more Christmases than we in the West. Latin Catholics, Protestants, and some Eastern Catholics celebrate the Western Christmas on December 25, while the Orthodox and Oriental varieties of Christianity mark the Julian Christmas on January 7. Except for the Armenians who generally celebrate on the Epiphany on January 6, but the Armenian Churches of the Holy Land mark it under the old calendar on January 18. Our impoverished Western 12 days of Christmas seems rather limited.

As the Christmases approach I'll be posting new material and perhaps a rerun or two of classics in last year's Christmas-tagged posts, which kept appearing through all possible Christmases. To start with a perennial, the great Lebanese singer Fairuz (now in her 70s; clearly much younger in the clip) singing "Silent Night," but in Arabic of course:



And for those with more secular tastes, Jingle Bells in Arabic:



And one I don't think I've run before, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" in Arabic:



Don't worry, indigenous Middle Eastern Christmas music will be showing up as well.

And let us all, whatever holidays we celebrate, hope there will be no repetition of last year's Nag Hammadi killings on Coptic Christmas.

Oh, and the Weekend Historical Videos due up later today will have a seasonal theme, too.

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Egypt Round Two

Round two of the Egyptian elections is being denounced as much as round one, though there seems to have been less violence, perhaps because of the refusal of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Wafd, the two biggest opposition forces, to participate in the runoffs.

Al-Ahram is trying to play up the relatively few wins the opposition has achieved (Arabic), in order to defuse criticism, and there are reports that between one and three Muslim Brothers may have won in the runoffs despite the boycott, though whether they will take their seats is in question. The Brotherhood is charging that some candidates were under government pressure not to drop out.

We won't know the final numbers for a day or two, but it certainly seems likely that the opposition will have less than 10% of the Parliament. A party has to wein 5% to run a casndidate for the Presidency next year, and right now it seems doubtful that any party other than the NDP will qualify.

Also, even before the second round, it was obvious that Coptic candidates have been virtually shut out of this Parliament. The President is likely to name a few prominent Copts among the ten candidates he appoints to Parliament, but they aren't being elected in their own right.

Just as many independent observers claimed round one had 10% turnout rather than the officially announced 35%, some are saying yesterday's turnout was even worse, around 5%.

More as we learn more.

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New Coptic-Muslim Violence in Upper Egypt

There's been a new outbreak of Muslim-Christian violence in Upper Egypt, in Qena governorate, where several houses have been burned following tensions over an alleged romance between a Christian man and a Muslim woman. More here. These sporadic outbursts continue to be a problem, and coming at a time when tensions between Copts and Muslims have been unusually high, they will probably draw more international attention than usual. This may be an isolated incident and it sounds as if the security forces moved quickly to contain it, so I'll reserve analysis until we know more (if we ever do).

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New Wave of Attacks on Christians in Baghdad

Ten days after the killing of hostages at the Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad and only three days after an Iraqi archbishop in Britain urged Iraqi Christians to leave the country, and the day after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urged them to stay, there has been a new wave of attacks on Christians and Christian targets in Baghdad. As Juan Cole notes, the radical Islamists accuse Christians of collaborating wit the occupier, but in fact many Christians supported Saddam Hussein; they are really collateral damage within the sectarian conflict generally. As Cole alsonotes, the failure to form a new government is in part to blame for the declining security situation.

Christianity reached Mesopotamia early, spreading from the early Christian center of Edessa (now Sanliurfa in eastern Turkey). The liturgy of the Iraqi Church of the East is believed to be the oldest Christian liturgical prayer still in use anywhere, dating from the third century AD. During the centuries when the two river valleys were under Persian rule and not part of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Church of the East (labeled "Nestorian" by Christians to the West; also called the Assyrian Church) became a major source of missions to India and as far afield as China. These ancient churches survived the coming of Islam, the Mongol invasions, and much else. The Assyrians had a difficult 20th century: facing Turkish hostility in World War I. Many did serve with the British Mandate in Iraq and were seen as collaborators; in1932 Iraq became independent, and in 1933 there was a wave of massacres of Assyrians.

Under the secularist Baath the Christians faced no more oppression than their fellow Iraqis; Tariq Aziz, one of Saddam's senior aides (and recently condemned to death) was raised a Chaldean Catholic. Christian Iraqis have been dwindling in numbers since the 1991 Gulf War, with the pace accelerating since the 2003 occupation. Other minority faiths, Yazidis and Mandaeans for example, have also been targeted.

Some reports indicate that those injured today include Muslims who were rushing to the aid of their Christian neighbors. That may be the only good news out of these recent events.

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Calling on Iraqi Christians to Leave Iraq?

A senior Syriac Orthodox Archbishop in Great Britain has called ln his fellow Iraqi Christians to leave the country, in the wake of the recent church massacre there. Al-Jazeera English has a report here:



It's obviously a regrettable development since so many Iraqi Christians have already departed; these ancient churches held on through the millennia, though the rise of Islam, changes of dynasties, wars and revolutions, but are slowly giving up and emigrating today. One wants to encourage them to stay, but human beings will choose the safety of their families (and the promise of the West) when facing danger. Robert Fisk in The Independent recently surveyed the exodus of Christians not just from Iraq but from Israel and the West Bank, Lebanon and Egypt.

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Egypt's Muslims Rally to Back Copts after Al-Qa‘ida Threat

It's been a rough year for Coptic-Muslim relations in Egypt, as noted previously. Not so long ago, some Islamists were even questioning whether Copts should be citizens. So what does it take to persuade members of the Muslim Brotherhood to pledge to defend the Copts?

If you know Egypt, you may well guess: some non-Egyptians are making threats. In this case it's the Al-Qa‘ida-linked "Islamic State of Iraq." The group claimed responsibility for the hostage taking during Sunday services at an Armenian Catholic church in Baghdad last Sunday; some 60 people died either at the hands of the hostage-takers or during the rescue. The Islamic State of Iraq announced that Iraqi Christians were legitimate targets who would be "exterminated" if al-Qa‘ida militants in Iraq were not released, and also demanded that Egyptian Copts would become a target if they did not release "the Muslim women held hostage in its churches" referring to the Camillia Shehata affair and a similar case, Wafaa Constantine. The church denies that the two women are being held for trying to convert to Islam.

In the wake of the Iraqi threat, Egyptian security forces reportedly stepped up security around churches, and warned that the controversial bishop Anba Bishoi, whose previous comments about Islam stirred protests., might become a target. The head of al-Azhar, members of the Brotherhood, and other senior Muslim officials quickly denounced the threat and pledged to defend Egyptian Christians.

While the threat did remind many of the claimed conversion cases, the fact that much of Egypt's Muslim leadership sprang to the defense of the Church was, as Pope Shenouda III noted in his weekly Wednesday sermon, a positive result of the threat.

And Egyptian Muslim institutions showed that they would support their own fellow citizens against foreign threats.

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A Couple of Links

A couple of quick links relating to Egypt:

• Brian Whitaker (whose personal blog is here) offers a piece in The Guardian about Egypt's rather problematical lack of reliable statistics. It addresses a problem most journalists and even academics rarely acknowledge: how little reliable data we often have.

• Whitaker, in passing, refers to an Egyptian site that seeks to track the taboo subject of sectarian violence in Egypt, particularly acute with the Coptic-Muslim tensions of recent months. and which of course is a taboo subject in the official media. The site is in Arabic (mostly, with an odd admixture of English in tables and such). It probably deserves caution until it's been read for a while, to make sure it's not just a Coptic propaganda site, but it does seem interesting. It could be a useful tracking device if handled right.
  

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