All through last week the Churches and Christian institutions in Egypt have vocally denounced the 15-minute film produced in the US and uploaded on YouTube The innocence of
All through last week the Churches and Christian institutions in Egypt have vocally denounced the 15-minute film produced in the US and uploaded on YouTube The innocence of Muslims, a film which depicts the life of the Prophet Mohamed in a disdainful manner that has had Muslims the world over all in a rage.
Al-Karama Party called for a boycott of all American and Zionist products. It demanded that the American administration should offer an official apology to Islam and Muslims all over the world, and to work striving to enact an international treaty to criminalise the derision of sanctities, religious symbols and heavenly religions.
In solidarity; in hostility?
In a conference held in Cairo and attended by intellectuals, politicians, and representatives of the Coptic and Catholic Churches, the journalist Nagy William called for a “Cairo Statement” to condemn the rogue film which, he said, has provoking more than one billion Muslims the world over. William pointed out that, given the all-time solidarity that unites Egypt’s Copts and Muslims, it came as no surprise that the Copts took to the streets in support of their Muslim fellow citizens.
William called for the respect of faiths, but reminded that derision can never undermine any religion, and advised everyone to exercise self-control.
Radical Islamists, however, opened fire on the Copts in the Diaspora. They spread unsubstantiated news that the Copts abroad were the producers of that film. After Maurice Sadeq, a Copt who resides in Washington, propagated the film online, all hell broke loose against the Copts abroad and demands were made by angry Islamists to drop the Egyptian citizenship of Diaspora Copts.
“Seeing all Copts in the Diaspora as Maurice Sadeq is like identifying all Muslims with [al-Qaeda chief] Ayman al-Zawahri,” said the Egyptian American Nabil Assaad who heads the Minorities for Peace Union in New Jersey to Watani.
Medhat Qelada, head of the Coptic Organisations Union in Europe, echoed the same sentiment. “It is unfair to place all the Copts in the Diaspora—a diverse and versatile group of people—in one basket, and judge them according to the misdeeds of one individual,”
Ripping the Bible
As demonstrators in Cairo surrounded the US embassy in angry protest, the Islamist writer and journalist Abu-Islam Ahmed Abdallah, who was in their midst, ripped up a copy of the Bible as an act of revenge. Not one Islamic body criticised Abu-Islam‘s deed; quite the contrary, he was treated as a hero by the Egyptian media which hastened to host him on talk shows. Even the Journalists’ Syndicate, of which Abu-Islam who is chief editor of the Salafi weekly Sout Baladi, is a member. He is also the owner of the Islamist satellite channel Al-Umma (The Nation).
Mustafa al-Maraghi, head of the Coalition of Egypt’s Copts, and Professor of Law and Islamic Sharia at Cairo University, filed a complaint with the prosecutor-general against Abu-Islam for disdaining religion and upsetting social security and peace. On the same day that Maraghi filed his complaint, the lawyer Karam Ghobrial, head of the legal committee of the coalition also filed a complaint against Abu-Islam for former deeds of scorning Christianity in declarations on the media and in books he wrote, and almost daily on his satellite channel.
It goes both ways
“We reject the disdain of Islam,” Qelada said, “and we also refuse the disdain of Christianity which so many Islamists engage so readily and publicly in.”
Awad Shafiq, Professor of Law with the Geneva University, told Watani that freedom of expression as seen by the West is totally different than in Egypt. Films that scorn the Christ have been publicly screened despite Catholic censure.
Shafiq wondered out loud at the timing of the crisis over the disdainful film. “The film was produced last July,” he said. “is there any reason a scandal should erupt over it now? Who benefits from all this?”
For his part, the spokesperson of the Gamaa Islamiya Tareq al-Zumor, said on satellite TV that the demonstrators at the US embassy in Cairo had nothing to do with either religion nor politics, and insisted they had been exploited by some “political stream” that wished to implicate the current ruling [Islamic] regime in Egypt.
Zumor said that since 1991, when the Soviet Union fell, the Americans embarked on attack Islam. “Just look at the American movie of Dracula,” he said. “The Vampire in the film relates to the crescent, the symbol of Islam; and disappears with the sun which represents the Christ.” He stressed that such movies are made to accentuate what the West sees as the ugliness of Islam.
Other beneficiaries
“Those who made that film which derided the Prophet Mohamed, knew exactly how we would react, and actually counted on it,” said Fadel Soliman, head of Gussour lil-Taareef bil-Islam, literally Bridges to Introduce Islam. “We should have had a different reaction,” he said, “possibly an unexpected one. The 58 member Muslim States in the United Nations might have threatened to suspend heir membership till legislation is passed to protect Muslims like the one that protects Jews, he suggested.
The military expert Sameh Seif al-Yazal warned that the situation has now moved from the political to the economic and military perspective. He stressed that the American deployment of two destroyers laden with Tomahawk missiles near the Libyan and Egyptian shores can only pose a military threat to Egypt. Seif al-Yazal believes that the whole issue is related to the upcoming American presidential elections, in order for the popularity of the Republicans, known for their hostility towards Arabs and Muslims, to rise.
Unique approach
The Azhari Sharia Professor Sheikh Mustafa Rashed asked Muslims to exercise wisdom and self-control. Sheikh Rashed said that he has not seen the film, so could not express an opinion of it. “But,” he said, “I reject and condemn any disdainful material. I ask all my Muslim children and brothers to resort to reason. I would like to remind them of the Prophet Mohamed’s grandfather’s response when Abraha al-Habashi came to demolish the Kaaba in Mecca; he said: ‘The Lord is able to protect His house.’”
Sheikh Rashed said he likewise believes that the film and its makers should be left to Allah’s judgement because “Allah needs no protector,” he said.
He pointed out to the Christian’s response when films that disdain Christ were made. The non-violent response, even if angry, denoted their full confidence in their faith, he said.
Sheikh Rashed advised Muslims not to retaliate to the disdainful film by lashing out at Copts. “We should not listen to extremist, terrorist notions because these work for the benefit of specific groups which strive to transform Egypt into a Wahabi model of a State, and obliterate the Egyptian nation.
Reported by Robeir al-Faris, Nader Shukry, Nasser Sobhy, and Lillian Nabil
WATANI International
17 September 2012