Arab-West Report wishes you a blessed Christmas
December 24, 2012
Dear friends of Arab-West Report,
We would like to wish all our friends a blessed Christmas and new year! It is a season of greetings and well wishes, for Christians and Muslims. Western Christians celebrate on December 25 and 26. Coptic Orthodox celebrate Christmas on January 7. Millions of Muslims use the opportunity to wish their Christian friends a blessed Christmas as Christians wish their Muslim friends all the best for their holidays.
Please find below an example of a Christmas wish received from Muslim friend
Dr. Mohammed Sammak*:
Christmas is the birth of love ,
Of giving and sacrifice ..
In X’mas light of love shines,
Over the darkness of hate ..
Sacrifice over rules, selfishness.
Open hands, twist the hands of misery..
Bridges of conviviality, openly stretched between divided peoples and communities.
No wonder it is wonderful !!
Merry X’mas and happy new year
I would like to remind all of you that we DO need your support for our internship program. Our interns work with great enthusiasm and dedication, they want to learn and become ambassadors of peace. They are working without payment but there are nevertheless costs involved because interns come and go and need the support of an intern coordinator that they cannot finance. Your donation through our Dutch NGO Arab-West Foundation would be indeed most appreciated.
Christmas is, as Dr. Mohammed Sammak writes, a feast of love which is more than ever needed in a period of great uncertainty. There is indeed much fear among Christians in Egypt. Jayson Casper wrote about Christian insecurity following the referendum about the constitution that in its current form is much more Islamic than any previous Constitution in Egypt. Whether fear is justified or not depends on legislation that would be made but obvious that fear among Egypt’s Christians is substantial.
Kees Hulsman,
Editor-in-chief Arab-West Report
* Dr. Mohammad Sammak
Sec. Gen. of the Christian-Muslim Committee for Dialogue
Sec. Gen. of the Executive Committee of the Christian-Muslim Arab Group
Sec. Gen. of the Islamic Spiritual Summit
Emerging Perspectives on Intercultural and Interreligious Relations
Dialogue Across Borders is a database of summary translations of Arabic newspaper articles with references to their sources about intercultural and interreligious relations, focusing primarily but not exclusively on Muslim-Christian relations. The database also contains articles with editorial analysis and interviews on the subject.