Christian-Muslim Riot in Egypt
Coptic protests in Alexandria, Egypt, got so out of control on Saturday--turning into a Christian-Muslim riot-- that Egyptian police intervened to arrest 15 persons. The protests were against the knife attack on Easter Friday by an unbalanced man at Coptic churches, which left one man dead. Copts charged that Muslim fundamentalists were behind the attack, and rejected the description of the man as unbalanced. The Muslim Brotherhood condemened the attack, but a spokesman on Aljazeera managed ungraciously to add that a lot of Muslims get beaten up and hurt by the Egyptian government (i.e. implying that Copts are coddled by Mubarak while good Muslims get the jack boot.)
In fact, the attacker was likely from al-Zawahiri's Islamic Jihad, i.e. al-Qaeda, and was trying to polarize sectarian relations in Egypt. It worked.
The real mystery? Why this isn't news in the United States.
Egypt comprises one-third of the Arabs, and the Copts are probably 6 or 7 million strong, and so are the biggest Christian community in the region.
I guess those small town American murder mysteries and missing white women just take precedence.
posted by Juan Cole @ 4/16/2006 12:09:00 AM
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7 Comments:
It's also not news in the U.S. because the U.S. news media ignores the fact that there are a significant number of Christian Arabs. Specifically, they ignore the fact that there are many Palestinian Christians, and that they, too, suffer from the Israeli occupation. Acknowledging them would make it harder to portray Palestinians simply as bloodthirsty Muslims who just hate Jews for no good reason - and it might create empathy among some American Christians.
Juan--
Do you really think mahmoud salahidin (the guy who stabbed the Copts in Alexandria) was a jihadi?
To me (up the river a bit, in Cairo) the manner of the attack (or attacks, there may have been several knifemen) seems rather puzzling. If Salahidin were a jihadi it seems to me he would have used a bomb or at least a machinegun (they don't have trouble obtaining either here), which is why my going theory was that he's a provacateur. I'm interested in your reasoning though...
Just goes to show you how the level of tension has escalated in the region. We are not safer because of the actions taken in Iraq, quite the opposite.
"I guess those small town American murder mysteries and missing white women just take precedence."
Like the comment. Our news is sanitized for mass appeal. It is OK to show dead Iraqis but not returning US soldiers' caskets. We haer about B Spears and American Idol gets more voters than US elections.
Christians in the Muslim world have long been ignored by the US Media, and I strongly suspect the reason is Palestine. Apparently, a substantial minority of Palestians are Christians, especially in the north. To reveal this runs the danger of causing empathy among American Christians. So the media just doesn't mention it.
"American Idol gets more voters than US elections"
Those in charge of Idol want a lot of people to vote, and make it possible to do so w/o a lot of fuss.
Ah, I don't WANT it to be on US news. This has been a bad year. Dubai ports, Danish cartoons, an Afghan Christian convert. Muslims and Arabs have just been getting worse and worse press since January 1. What's upsetting me is that I get personally attacked in emails as if I had anything to do with them, or that I must be stupid since I'm not as panicked as the rest of the uninformed Americans on those issues.
I should add that its doubtful that this unbalanced man was involved with any group or terrorist organization. He would have used a more deadly weapon, and that's not how one would properly polarize sectarian relations in Egypt. If he was a subscriber to the idea that Copts are coddled, what would a knife attack hope to accomplish in that struggle, aside from more coddling and more crackdowns?
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