Tuesday, January 4, 2011

The Alexandria Coptic Christmas Bombing

Now that I am technically a Lutheran, I'm getting used to the idea that major holidays are seasonal events that not only begin long before the week of the celebration, but continue afterwards. I have always been accustomed to weeks of Advent before Christmas, but to hear a sermon on "The Slaughter of the Innocents" the first Sunday after Christmas, when gift wrapping was still scattered around my living room floor, was a bit disconcerting. For those who don't know the story, the Wise Men who came to see the infant Jesus announced they were coming to greet a King. The local ruler Herod was threatened by this news of another King, and immediately killed all male children under two years of age. Jesus was only saved by the fact that his parents whisked him off to Egypt before the soldiers got to him.

Having heard the sermon, in which the Pastor reminded us that children are still being unjustly killed in many parts of the world, I should have been prepared for the news of the bombing of the Coptic Church in Alexandria in which 25 people lost their lives. I'm not sure why this particular story has saddened me so much. After all, Muslim suicide bombers have killed hundreds of people - not only Christians but Shia and innocent Sunnis as well - over the span of only the past few weeks. Maybe it's because I've walked the streets of Alexandria and visited Coptic churches in Cairo. Maybe it's because I've had Coptic friends. Perhaps it was seeing this Facebook page of Mariouma Fekry. Her last post, just a few hours before she went to church where she was blown to little pieces, was: 2010 is over...this year has the best memories of my life...really enjoyed living this year...I hope 2011 is much better...i have so many wishes in 2011...hope they come true...plz god stay beside me & help make it all true. :)

In the midst of Muslim denial, denial, denial, writer Hani Shukrallah in this article which is well worth reading gets closer to the truth than most. He at least acknowledges the thinly-veiled resentment, jealousy, and hatred many Middle Eastern Muslims feel towards the Christians living in their midst. But as a Muslim, Hani cannot go to the root of the problem. It is not only that he is unwilling and unable to, he is not allowed to. The one thing Hani Shukrallah cannot do is consider the possibility that the hatred many Muslims harbour toward non-Muslims finds its source in their Prophet and their Book and their Religion.

The most important thing in understanding Islam is to see it from the perspective not of a 21st century Muslim academic living in the West, but of Muhammad. To the Prophet and his early followers, the world was divided into two groups of people. Those who accepted Muhammad as Allah's Final Prophet were the mumineen, the true believers. All who rejected the message were the kuffar.

This is where the story gets interesting. The Quran has nothing good to say about the kafir (singular) and the kuffar (plural). Ask your Muslim friends if they consider you a kafir, and they will assure you that you are not. "You are a Person of the Book," they will say. "The Quran says that Christians are the closest people to the Muslims. It would never use the word kafir to describe a Christian."

On the surface, that sounds nice. The reality is that the only reason Christians and Jews were called "People of the Book" is because they had books - the Torah and the Injil - that they could read, whereas the Arabs were mostly illiterate and had no books. The Christians whom the Quran describes as close to the Muslims were those who accepted Muhammad as a Prophet. But what about the statement that the Quran never called a Christian a kafir?

It is true - technically - that the word kafir is not used in the Quran to describe Christians, but a quick look at Arabic grammar gives a different story. The difference between a verb and an active participle, or the person doing the action of the verb, is a simple change of vowelling and pronunciation. The verb sakana means to reside, and a resident is a saakin. Kataba means to write, and a writer is a kaatib. Qatala means to kill, and a killer is a qaatil. Saraqa means to steal, and a thief is a saariq. Kafara means to disbelieve in Muhammad, and an unbeliever is.....you guessed it, a kaafir.

When your Muslim friends tell you the Quran does not use the exact active participle kaafir to describe a Christian, they are correct. But the Quran does say in surat al-Maidah (5:17) that those who believe Jesus was the Son of God are guilty of kafara. Following Arabic's own rules of grammar, they are the kuffar.

It is ironic, if not tragic, that the country the infant Jesus fled to in order to escape a Roman King would, 2000 years later, blow up 25 of his followers as they were leaving a celebration of his birth. 2010 began with the slaughter of 7 Copts as they were leaving a church in Nag Hammadi, and ended with the massacre of four times that many in Alexandria. Until Muslims become willing to look at the source of this hatred, my fear is that things will get much worse before they get better.

10 comments:

Susanne said...

Wow, that Facebook message was so touching. I like to think that young lady is basking in God's presence now and 2011 is more than she ever imagined in a really really GOOD way.

But what a horrible way to get there.

I still cling to the fact that I believe God is in control and my life is in His hands.

Thanks for sharing your views on this topic.

Anonymous said...

We need to have a good Lutheran beer and chop this post into little pieces.

Neluroman said...

Sorry,but Herod wasn't a roman king.He was a jew.It is true that Roma had authority over him,but that doesn't means that he was a roman.

Quotable Quotes: said...

Neloroman, thanks for the correction. I have changed "Roman king" to "local king".

Anonymous said...

Herod wasn't a Jew, he was an Idumean (descendent of Esau, they intermarried with the Ishmaelites) and his mother was an Arab (this means mixed).

See Josephus. The Antiquities of the Jews. Book 12, Chap. 8.

kate b

Samn! said...

kate b,


The Idumeans had been forcibly converted to Judaism by the Maccabees.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, I didn't know this

kate b

Peter Penguin said...

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/3365.aspx

Comment?

aemish said...

Sliiightly off topic, but have you ever seen Zeitgeist? It's free online and I was hoping you might comment.

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

Abdallah Muslim said...

My friend “Quotable”,

I invited you to comment on my explanation for “70 weeks prophecy” and “Valley of Bacca” on Old Testament, please brother spare some time and comment, I will be very happy to have your feedback and please correct me if I did any mistake somewhere…

http://debatewithachristian.blogspot.com/

I added 2 posts after my debate with some Atheist, If you are bored too and have some time, please check these: “World of Spirits” & “Universe Creation”..

http://debatewithatheist.blogspot.com/
-------------------------------

My Friend “Quotable”, I will start a new blog just to reply on some of you marvelous statements so not to bother you every time to delete my replies from your blog, but please allow me to quote from your speech with referring to you only as “My Coptic friend” (or any other nick name you like without referring to your blog unless you want to), and I will start with your statement:

“Until Muslims become willing to look at the source of this hatred”, my fear is that things will get much worse before they get better.”

Which I think I can write a book on it, but I have a small tiny problem that I don’t know what to select, that whether I compare:

Our barbarian occupation to Andalusia and what we left there (universities, hospitals, educated whole Europe students, Alhamara palace, etc..)

And with the “mercy” and “passion” of your Crusades when they invaded Palestine and “enlightened” our territories by killing all men and women and boiled their babies and ate them …

Or with your merciful occupation to Libya or Algeria with killing and raping 100 of thousands of muslims there …

Or…

Compare how millions of you and your families are still living since 15 centuries in middle of biggest Muslim country and still having your ancient churches never touched by Muslims and compare such brutality of Muslims; with western “Mercy” when they reached America and there was millions of native Indian Americans living there and How by your “forgiveness and Compassion” they all extinct and because of you they are all enjoying their new life in Heaven now…

Or …

Or compare Taj Mahal that built by the Muslim Empires in India, and How you’ve built Afghanistan and Iraq and let them advance in civilization 100 years back…

Please, my friend advise me which one to select? So I can start writing..
-----------------

About telling that you are “Kuffar” Infidels in our religion, book and prophet, YES it’s true…
YOU ARE INFIDELS “KUFFAR” in our religion… and if any Muslim tells you other than that he is a liar.

But WHY do you care? Whether we said it or not…

My friend, just to relief your heart more I would like to say to you:

THAT WE MUSLIMS ARE INFIDELS in your religion too, Not ONLY infidels, but PROUD to be infidels in your religion..

WE are proud to say that we are infidels in saying that Jesus (PBUH) son of God, or part of God or God himself.

We are proud to be infidels in following all your rituals that came from roman pagan Empire Constantine, which is not related to any single teaching of Jesus (PBUH).

(Hope you read the story AZZAZIL for a Coptic priest who wrote it in 4th century, I am half of it now, but believe me it’s amazing…)

YES, we are INFIDELS and PROUD of it, and in all your churches that are full of Idols, crosses that Jesus never carried in his life, I really wonder what he will do then when he descends again and see them for the first time …

I always was amazed about what he did when he just was alone and entered the temple and destroyed all bad things inside…

Just imagine my friend what shall he’ll do when he descends back soon and find 2 billion Muslims waiting to follow him and starving to fight with him…

I can’t imagine what he will do then, but I am pretty sure it will be such as:

Mass destruction ….something…

Good night,