Almost instantly, this film became highly controversial because he presents a quote from ‘Abd Allah from the village stating that Copts had burned their own church and now blamed Muslims. Runderkamp then ends the film with the statement that reality is not always what it seems.
On November 27th, Prof. Dr. Hans Jansen, whom I had earlier criticized for his blog on Mārīnāb, sent me this link: http://www.amsterdampost.nl/lex-runderkamp-totale-krankzinnige-in-dienst.... This was the first critique on Runderkamp’s film that I had seen. I responded that our reporting from Mārīnāb on October 1st did not support Runderkamp’s findings. I had posted a response on this site because on November 27th the NOS (Dutch Broadcasting Channel) had yet to create a blog where people could respond. I do not like the Amsterdam Post blog; it is right-wing, Islamophobic, and full of hateful language criticizing Runderkamp which, despite his mistakes in reporting, is still undeserved.
Historian Jan Dirk Snel began researching this issue and found my comment on the Amsterdam Post blog, in addition to other comments, and provided a substantial critique on Runderkamp’s piece, see http://jandirksnel.wordpress.com/.
Through Jos Strengholt, a Dutch Anglican priest in Heliopolis, Cairo, Snel was introduced to me and the work of Arab-West Report. Snel started quoting our work and several e-mails I had sent him in response to his questions. Strengholt also contributed to the discussion on his blog:
http://strengholt.blogspot.com/2011/11/nee-de-kopten-staken-geen-eigen-k....
The media in The Netherlands took notice and Herman Veenhof of the Nederlands Dagblad wrote a critique on November 29th:
http://www.nd.nl/artikelen/2011/november/29/veel-kritiek-op-koptenreport....
The film was first discovered in Egypt by the Salafi newspaper, al-Masriyoun of December 5, 2011 and then translated by Arab West Report. The title from al-Masriyoun says it all: “Dutch TV: Copts set Mārīnāb ablaze and framed Muslims” (http://www.arabwestreport.info/year-2011/week-49/6-dutch-tv-copts-set-ma...). This title could not be more inflammatory and hostile toward Christians. The image of Christians among deeply conservative Muslims in particular is already very negative and these incendiary articles can and will be used as propaganda in Salafi circles against Christians.
The Nederlands Dagblad responded to this with an article that states that the NOS TV reporting is used against Copts in Egypt. See: http://www.nd.nl/artikelen/2011/december/06/nos-reportage-ingezet-tegen-....
A discussion started on the NOS website, including a Dutch article by Lex Runderkamp about his work in Mārīnāb and readers providing many critiques of his work: http://weblogs.nos.nl/buitenlandredactie/2011/12/03/1567/.
Lex Runderkamp’s decision to investigate the church burning in Mārīnāb was fully understandable because it was the reported church burning in Mārīnāb that brought so many Coptic demonstrators to the streets of Cairo. The demonstrations had already begun after Lamis Yehya and I returned from Mārīnāb on October 2nd. The demonstrations grew in the following days and culminated in the march of October 9th that became chaotic and ended in 27 Copts dead. Was this tragic escalation really needed? I don’t think so and obviously Lex Runderkamp did not think so either.
Any good journalist would first search the Internet for information prior to visiting any location or conducting interviews. Lex Runderkamp almost certainly had not seen our report before going to Mārīnāb, which must have been caused by us using a transliteration system to avoid the many different spellings that otherwise could be used. Search engines, unfortunately, do not see transliterated words.
If Lex Runderkamp would have seen our report, written by Lamis Yehya, he would have known that we met General Muhammad Badran, Deputy Security Chief of Aswan, outside the Christian houses. Lamis then recorded the following words of the General, who had been in the village since the burning began on Friday:
On Friday (September 30th), about 1,000 Muslim youth had gathered at the building to demolish it, closing the street. They all had their own simple hammers and instruments that could not break the walls. Also, they are not workers, so one of them set a fire inside the building to ensure the demolition of the cement building, the General explained. […] Near the building a storehouse where carpets, blankets, and wheels from the church were kept was set on fire as well. These items enabled the fire to spread beyond the church.‖
We met with the Muslims after we had met with the General and told them what he had told us and none disputed the General’s claims.
The villagers reported on October 1st that at around 1:00–2:00P, Muslim youth from the village formed a group that swelled to around 1,000 people who attacked the church under construction. Based on the comments of the various parties, I do not think it should have come so far.
I ended my conclusion in the report with the words:
Reconciliation between Muslims and Christians is much needed, not only in Mārīnāb, but in many other places of Egypt as well. We pray for a better future of Egypt in which Egypt will show the world that Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters who together can work to build Egypt.
I have been in one of the demonstrations at Maspero. Copts I met were not very informed about the situation in Mārīnāb. The only thing they knew was that again one of their churches had been burned. Nothing was known of the wider background on Mārīnāb. The demonstrations were, in my opinion, more motivated by a general sense of discomfort and frustrations with developments in Egypt than the church in particular. It was sad that the videos placed online about the burning of the church under construction and the highly inflated and inflammatory reporting about Mārīnāb served as the spark that led to the disaster as Maspero.
Lex Runderkamp’s intentions were undisputedly well-intentioned, but claiming on November 26th that Copts may have burned their own church without even reporting that large numbers of Muslim youth attacked the church under construction on September 30th presented the view of ‘Abd Allah and certainly not that of Egyptian security nor the church. He interviewed local Christian villagers, but did not interview Father Salīb, the most prominent Christian in this area and the most important Christian voice on this issue. That was a major blunder.
Runderkamp’s reporting has been discovered by various Egyptian media and unfortunately resurrects this issue. This is something that Egypt in its current transitional period and sensitivities does not need.
I am standing by my earlier formulated words:
Reconciliation between Muslims and Christians is much needed, not only in Mārīnāb but in many other places of Egypt as well. We pray for a better future of Egypt in which Egypt will show the world that Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters who together can work to build Egypt.
For the investigative report of Lamis Yehya on Marinab click here.
