Remember that letter from an Egpytian I posted, where she couldn’t understand why Jews wanted a state of their own in the midst of all those Muslims? Well, Egyptian Muslims rioted on Friday to let their fellow Egyptians–who just happen to be Coptic Christians–how tolerant they are.
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (AP) – Thousands of Muslims rioted outside a Coptic Christian church Friday to denounce a play deemed offensive to Islam, prompting police to beat protesters and fire tear gas into the crowd, officials said. One person died and more than 90 were injured.
Police said 53 protesters were arrested as people hurled stones, smashed windows and tried to storm St. George Church. Protesters also set a police car on fire and wrecked eight other cars, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The police were firing rubber bullets. I expect to hear the international human rights groups and the UN denounce the practice immediately, just as they do when Israel does it.
A photographer for The Associated Press saw police fire rubber bullets into the crowd, causing injuries. Police claimed officers only fired rubber bullets into the air while trying to disperse the crowd.
One protester, Mohammed Zakaraya Hassan, 48, died of circulatory collapse after being trampled and inhaling tear gas, according to a police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
So what was the great offense that sparked the riots?
The riot was sparked by the distribution of a DVD of a play that was performed at the church two years ago. The play, “I Was Blind But Now I Can See,” tells the story of a young Christian who converts to Islam and becomes disillusioned.
That’s the AP whitewash. Let’s see what other news services have to say, like the BBC:
Entitled I Once Was Blind But Now I See, the drama tells the story of a poor young Copt who is drawn to Islamist militants who then try to kill him.
But… why are they trying to kill him? I don’t get it? What’s so offensive about that? Let’s see if the AFP can tell us what the deal is:
The play, performed by amateur actors, tells the story of a young Christian who converts to Islam and is exhorted by a sheikh to kill priests and destroy churches, according to the independent Al-Dustur paper.
Performances of the play had to be abandoned after it sparked a public outcry.
Church authorities have distanced themselves from the new recordings of the play.
Ohhh, now I get it. The play is calling Muslims terrorists.
The really sick thing is the way some news sources portrayed this stabbing attack on a nun. From the BBC article, which includes a picture of the nun:
On Wednesday, a Muslim man stabbed a nun in protest at the sale of a DVD of the play, staged at the church in 2003.
From the AFP:
The protests came three days after a man lightly wounded a nun with a knife at the entrance to the same church, and a man who came to her aid was stabbed in the back.
From the AP:
No, you’re not misreading, and I didn’t forget to cut and paste. The AP didn’t mention the stabbing at all. Why, you’d think they were trying to whitewash violent Muslim activity or something. The closest you get to it is this statement at the very end of the article:
Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s 70 million people, who are overwhelmingly Muslim. Accusations of forced conversion are common in the country.
Accusations of forced conversions from what to what? Notice the deliberate vagueness that allows you to blow off the accusations because they are unclear. Shall I clear it up for you? Muslims are not being forced to convert to Christianity.
Yeah, that’s some religion of peace and tolerance. Not.
From the AFP:
The protests came three days after a man lightly wounded a nun with a knife at the entrance to the same church, and a man who came to her aid was stabbed in the back.
That’s the first report I’ve read that claims the nun was ‘lightly wounded’. apparently she had a finger severed and was operated on in hospital after the loving member of the Religion of Peace stabbed her in the lung.
The AFP has been overrun by propagandists and in this case they evidently reported what they wanted others to believe. Also, I found it interesting that the man who went to help the nun was stabbed in the back. Well, either he changed his mind – a bit late – about helping her, or the AFP got that one wrong as well.
The story, as reported by AP, even got as far as the tip of Africa:
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=85&art_id=qw1129782066324B221
I found these consecutive paragraphs from the article fascinating:
Christian-Muslim relations usually are fairly smooth in Egypt, though violence flares from time to time, particularly in small southern communities, and some Copts complain of discrimination.
The play and the protest reflect the charged atmosphere between Muslims and Christians in Egypt, where accusations of forced conversions are routine.
It’s as if the writer couldn’t decide whether to spin the story or tell the truth so he provided both options. And then a careless editor failed to pick it up.
As far as the BBC’s report goes, if you turn it around and imagine how they would have jumped on the story if a Christian man had stabbed a Muslim woman, their bias becomes clear.
Tolerance? Please do not bring up religion. It’s philosophy.
Would you choose Chirac, Kofi, Schumer, Wellstone or Condi? I have problems wit all of the above. I’m not French or Black. One…(two, three, four) is different from the other.
The difference is….philosophy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy
Yes philosophy is not science. Politics is almost as far as one can get from science. Philosophy overwhelms current political thought. The way fingers on a chalk board overwhelm whatever it was I was just thinking.
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I like that line about Coptic-Muslim relations in Egypt being “fairly smooth.” Well, yes, depending on your definition of “fairly smooth.”
But stand back, everyone. The Presbyterians and Episcopalians are extremely sensitive to rubber bullets, rudeness at checkpoints, and stuff like that when it comes to Israelis. Think of the howls of protest they will raise when their own co-religionists are suffering in Egypt.
Meryl, your loyal readers expect you to link to their condemnatory statements, which should be forthcoming…any day now.
Let us not hold our breaths waiting for the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Church of Christ, and various Episcopal and Anglican churches so start threatening to divest from companies doing buisness with Egypt.