It is not possible for anyone to know who finances the killing of the Christians in the East. The matter is big and political enough that I cannot be convinced that these crimes are carried out by street people who consider Christians heretics and cannot tolerate their presence. In the same way I cannot be convinced that the crimes are merely political. On one side, it is a mixture of politics the nature and depth of which is unknown to me, and on the other it is a clear hatred of an obvious religious nature. To attribute this to a merely political move void of hatred of a religious nature, is naïve; also, one is not convinced that the crimes originated in religious anger. One does not express his anger collectively unless such expression is stirred by those intelligent “stirrers” who dwell in anger or politics or both.
It is not convincing to attribute that to extremists or extremist movements. We are acquainted with extremism that is expressed at the level of intellectual writings or speeches. But such has never been a door to mass eradication. People used to remain friendly and at peace with each other though the religion of the other might not be fully in their favor; one would embrace what he likes in the religion of the other or ignore what he chooses without that leading to a conflict of a personal nature.
Nowadays only decadence in moral standards can explain the massacring of Christians in Iraq and Egypt. And though some accuse Israel of that, yet they (the killers) are morally unjustified in going along with that without any guidance from their leaders. And when guidance is not given, it remains the right of all of us to remind those responsible for them to offer proper guidance to them so that they do not toy vainly with those around them and that the harm they inflict on others does not spread in the world making their language that of death. We do not desire them to be murdered for the sake of the murderers’ own sanity and peace; we will always tell the murderers that God, whose mercy we know, loves them in the same way he loves us. We will always honor them and endear them wanting them to be at the highest level of civilized humanity living with and honoring each other so that none would remain under the mercy of lunatics.
Mass killing due to religious belonging is not merely an internal political matter but a CRIME which should be denounced publicly in any country where it takes place. And a country cannot be a sound one unless it is involved in keeping the safety and existence of those that inhabit it. We need to hold on to the moral standards we embraced since the start of civilized living.
The question that naturally lends itself is why the procrastination on the part of the Egyptian government in the face of such massive crime. Is the government paralyzed with fear? Fear of whom? The Copts who are an easy to deal with, amazingly pious, good and extremely patriotic people are effaced from the political scene –none of them is elected. Killing the Copts is not due to wrong behavior on their part or to a kind of disloyalty to the country. Nothing at the level of internal political life justifies the killing.
The question that comes to mind is whether such killing spreads to other Arab countries where the Christians are citizens. I am inclined to think that the there is no fear that this would happen in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine; the citizens in those countries accept each other with deep conviction and believe that they are in cultural dialogue with each other; they also live in unity with each other and have a sense of need of each other. Our emigration or evacuation is of no benefit to anyone.
However, I think that there is a possibility that some powers are against us wanting to us to diminish. The more intelligent among those powers is Israel who has a special open dislike to the Christians, evident in Zionist literature.
Safety measures for the Christians who go for prayers is not enough. These are measures that can be easily breached and the nations are limited in the number of soldiers mobilized to do that service. And that affirms to the Christian that his safety comes from the government or the Non-Christian citizen; the Christian does not beg for that since he is also a citizen par excellence.
The Arab world should get done with the feeling of the presence of a majority and minorities; and it is important that no group of citizens feels that it protects the other. God did not entrust people to each other; we are all brothers to each other and are supportive of each other; and this is not only a commission from God, but from a human right of a civil nature in which religion has nothing to do. Any human is born equal to the others; he is judged when he attacks others and if he considered himself above others.
In front of the danger that one group can incur on another, the religious leaders of each of these groupings should offer guidance to their people as to what God says concerning killing so they can understand that killing is a catastrophe and sin leads us into continuing in it and that it causes us to annihilate the other.
Our prayers go for our loved ones in Iraq and Egypt so that they remain steadfast in their faith and for them to entreat God to plant forgiveness in their hearts for those who had slain their relatives because “they did not know what they were doing”. I join them in prayer asking God not to hold the killings as sin against the killers. This is the Lord’s commandment to us; and it binds us. We also pray to our God to stop every murderer from crime as he stopped Abraham from killing Isaac his son.
Those killed for God’s sake are witnesses to the Truth and they dwell in divine glory. They have become light so that we keep ourselves away from hatred. Yet we speak loudly of our just case and those of others so that all humans can get to the freedom of the children of God in purity of heart. Someone said: “The cross is not made of steel but of wood”; that is we do not inflict a cross on ourselves, but we accept it when it comes our way without complaining. At the same time we do not refuse any service of love towards us coming from anyone who safeguards his noble-mindedness. And as we want to lift oppression from us we seek to free all who are oppressed; we are the allies of all those oppressed in the world. Morally, we are murdered with those murdered and we appeal to those who have knowledge and piety in all religions to urge those who have knowledge and piety of the other religions to remain brotherly with each other and to nurture a sense that they are all one in a refined humanity that seeks the good for all.
Translated by Riad Moufarrij
Original Text: “مقتل المسيحيين في مصر” –An Nahar- 08.01.2011
