I just returned from a visit to the UK where I attended a church service in Startfort, London. Stratfort is an area with a large percentage of Muslims living in it. They prayed for the victims of the Manchester bombing while simultaneously speaking with great love about their Muslim neighbours. They want good relations with their non-Muslim neighbors in the UK but there is also a lot of fear.

The pastor told me of a leading local Muslim who had earlier, before the attack, spoken about the UK becoming a Muslim country. This was for him simply a matter of statistics. Muslim families are encouraged to have large families. Since democracy is all about numbers, naturally, it would follow that if current trends continue, the Muslim community will at a certain time outgrow the non-Muslim community in the UK. Muslims, the pastor said, are already trying to find their way into positions of influence and this too is based on both numbers and good lobbying work. The purpose would be to bring the government of the UK in line with Muslim principles. These arguments were heard in this church and it is used by far right radical groups to bolster Islamophobia.

It remains to be seen if this scenario will come to fruition. Just as many Christians in the West have secularized, also many Muslims in the West are secularizing. Thus, it remains to be seen if Muslims can take over societies as easily as some claim.

There was no hate in this talk, neither from the Muslim friend of the pastor, nor from the pastor himself, but such talk creates fear. What is happening to the UK they once knew?

Our French Muslim intern Dina Bouchkouch responds “I believe the different communities should keep standing with each other and organizing meetings/ talks/ activities to answer back to these attacks. “

Image selected by Dina Bouchkouch

The London Evening Standard of May 26 reported about the victims of the Manchester attack but also about the “Muslim heroes of Manchester.” The article title is referring to Muslims who in various ways supported  the victims and their loved ones. This too needs to be made known.

In Egypt, on May 27, two busses and one truck with Coptic Orthodox Christian pilgrims on an isolated desert road from Minya en route to the Monastery of St. Samuel were fired upon by  ten masked men in military uniforms with automatic arms. 29 people, among them ten children, were killed and 25 were wounded.

Coptic Solidarity reported on May 30 that “According to survivors, victims were shot dead after being requested to recite the Islamic confession of faith "shahada" and amid cries of "Allahu Akbar."” They also reported that “President El-Sisi quickly held "external terrorists" responsible for the attack and conducted airstrikes on camps inside Libya, despite lack of evidence that these groups or targets are the actual culprits. Some evidence suggests that the attackers are native Egyptians, as they spoke a local Egyptian dialect and were familiar with a relatively unknown desert route to the monastery.”

This critique of Coptic Solidarity is justified, but they are not in their statement claiming that President al-Sisi “allows Salafists and other Islamists to dominate the public sphere, spreading hate speech in state-owned media and educational curricula. Publicly labeling Christians as infidels or 'kufar' amounts to a license to persecute and kill them.”

Of course the public labeling of Christians as infidels or ‘kufar’ amounts to a license to persecute them, but who is doing so? And who are the Muslims opposing such labeling? The late Dr. Abdel Mo’ti Bayoumi, co-founder of the Center for Arab-West Understanding, was a great Muslim scholar and publicly opposed such labeling.

Copts have suffered tremendously this past year with attacks on the Cathedral (December 2016), the Patriarchate in Alexandria and Bishopric in Tanta (April 2017) and the expulsion of Christians from el-Arish (February/March 2017).

The government has instructed churches in Egypt to have security cameras, metal detectors at the gate and has told many of them to man their own metal detectors. Efforts are being made to provide better protection but it is obvious that this has been insufficient.

Coptic Solidarity is right about sentiments of homegrown anti-Christian hatred in Egypt. But we would play into the hands of extremists if we would generalize. The great majority of Muslims in either the UK or Egypt does not at all support such extremism. There are political reasons for such extremism. President al-Sisi pushed Islamists out of political life. Responses to extremist attacks with armed responses in return do not help. These are people willing to die for their version of Islam. Rather, it is need to respond directly to this understanding of Islam. Simply denouncing attacks such as the Shaykh al-Azhar and Mufti did are fine but definitely insufficient.

Dina Bouchkouch believes “Coptic Solidarity should talk with Muslims. The politics to ensure a certain safety to the Christian community is not enough. I don't hear about initiatives between Copts and Muslims in Egypt after the recent attacks. Where are the common Egyptians, busy with other life problems?”

Today yet another terrorism attack to place just outside the German Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing 80 people and injuring 350 others. All terrorist attacks are political statements. Responding with security measures and retaliation is insufficient.

Terrorism divides people and creates fear. We should not only not give in to that but also provide intelligent responses to the ideology they are adhering to.

May 31, 2017

Cornelis Hulsman,

Editor-in-chief Arab-West Report

With thanks to Dina Bouchkouch contributing to this newsletter