The following comments appeared on the lower screen of the video clip, some of these comments were transcribing what was said in Arabic by people in the village: [I compared with Cornelis Hulsman, AWR's Editor in Chief, this Arabic translation with the Dutch text of Runderkamp.]
0:01 Sunnis: "Why they attack Islam" presents [On the video one sees the picture of Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda III with the words and then we see poster of Pope Shenouda with the word 'WANTED' and below 'Shnodah’s Trial'.]
0:04 Dutch TV report about the Church of al-Mārīnāb
0:08 A screenshot of al-Distūr website that has the title of an article “Dutch TV: The building of al-Mārīnāb is a guest house and not a church. Christians burned it, not Muslims. Author: Admin, Date: December 4, 2011, Classification: Egyptian News.
0:14 A screen shot of the same article but on the website of al-Wafd newspaper that carried the title: “Dutch TV: Copts burned al-Mārīnāb with their own hands.”
0:16 In this village on the Nile, the village of al-Mārīnāb, where the majority of citizens are Muslims and a small group of Christians that reach 30 individuals. Around two month ago the church was set on fire and this piece of news was the focus point of the global news,” with a narrative voice [of Runderkamp] speaking in Dutch.
Dutch TV-report (narrator: Lex Runderkamp):
In dit dorpje aan de Nijl, Marinab, zijn de meeste inwoners gelovige moslims. Maar een kleine groep van ongeveer dertig mensen is christen. Hun kerk stond twee maanden geleden ineens in brand en werd daarmee wereldnieuws.
Translation of the Dutch text:
In this village on the Nile, al-Mārīnāb, most inhabitants are faithful Muslims. But a small group of about 30 people are Christians. Two months ago their church was suddenly on fire and so became world news.
Diana:
The Arabic rendering is close to the Dutch text. Runderkamp, although, says that the majority of citizens are faithful (or believing or pious) Muslims and that the church was suddenly (“ineens”) on fire.
0:33 A Coptic man is interviewed and said “they tell you, ‘the scene of a church is not familiar to us and the scene of the Cross is hurting us and will hurt our children afterwards.’ ”
Dutch TV-report:
[Shnuda Yousef (kopt):] ‘Ze zeiden het niet gewend te zijn een kerk te zien. Het beeld van een kruis is aanmatigend voor ons en onze kinderen, zeiden ze.’
Translation of the Dutch text:
[Shnuda Yousef (Copt):] ‘They said they were not used to see a church. The image of the cross is presumptuous for us and our children, they said.’
0:41 The Dutch narrative voice starts speaking again and a comment on the screen [added by the person who placed it on al-Mukhalis TV website] appears “The fire was set by Copts themselves on September 30 and they accused the Muslim youth of the village.”
Dutch TV-report:
De brand, zoals de kopten hem zelf filmden op 30 september, zou zijn aangestoken door de jonge moslims uit het dorp.
Translation of the Dutch report:
The fire, as the Copts filmed it themselves on September 30th, allegedly was initiated by the young Muslims from the village.
Diana:
Here is a difference between the texts in Arabic and in Dutch. The Dutch text says: ‘The fire, as the Copts filmed it themselves on September 30th, which allegedly was initiated by young Muslims from the village.’
So the Arabic text stated that the Copts set the fire themselves, but did not state that they filmed the fire.
0:49 An old man appears, Greiss Sidhum, Copt, and says “I’m fed up with this country and I do not feel comfortable in this country because our brothers the Muslims [he literally said in Arabic "al-Ikhwān al-Muslimīn. It can be translated as "our brothers the Muslims" or "the Muslim Brotherhood," it is not known which the man meant] is bothering us very, very, very much.”
Dutch TV-report:
[Grace Sidhum (kopt)] ‘Ik heb het helemaal gehad met dit land. Ik voel me hier niet ` goed meer. De moslims vallen ons vreselijk lastig.’
Translation of the Dutch report:
[Grace Sidhum (Copt)] ‘I am fed up with this country. I am not feeling at home here anymore. The Muslims are bothering us very much.’
Diana:
Difference in translation: The man is saying: our brothers the Muslims [he literally said in Arabic "al-Ikhwān al-Muslimīn. It can be translated as "our brothers the Muslims" or "the Muslims Brotherhood," it is not known which the man meant].
0:55 The narrative voice starts speaking again and a comment at the lower part of the screen reads “In Cairo, Copts protested in streets against al-Mārīnāb church incident, 28 of them died but in the village the story seems different. From the beginning, the church was not set on fire, the fire was set in a building that was supposed to look like a church. Copts here are a small group, they are 30 individuals and they never owned a church. It should be noted that Copts always stated that the building was a church and was named a guest house. The Muslim residents made us watch a video with the title “Head of the Coptic Church in the region.”
Dutch TV-report:
In Caïro gingen kopten de straat op om te protesteren tegen de aanval op hun heiligdom in Marinab. 28 kopten kwamen daarbij om het leven.
Maar in het dorp blijkt het verhaal toch anders te zijn. Om te beginnen is er geen kerk in de brand gestoken. De brand was op deze bouwplaats, waar een kerk moest verschijnen. De kleine groep van 30 kopten heeft in dit dorp nooit een eigen kerk gehad.
Maar nog opmerkelijker is: de kopten hebben steeds ontkend dat ze een kerk aan het bouwen waren. Zij noemen het een gastenhuis. Mosliminwoners laten ons een video-opname zien van een speech van de hoogste kopt uit de regio.
Translation of the Dutch report:
In Cairo Copts went out on the streets to protest against the attack on their sanctuary in al-Mārīnāb. 28 Copts, thereby, lost their lives.
But in the village the story appears to be different. To start with, no church was set on fire. The fire was in this construction place, where a church was to appear. The small group of 30 Copts never had a church of their own in this village.
But what is more remarkable: the Copts always denied that they were building a church. They called it a guesthouse. The Muslim residents showed us a video of a speech of the highest Copt in the region.
1:32 Father Salīb al-Dīk appears in the video and says “We write a condition which is that we say that this is a tent like Christian says, if it appears to be a church, the church is in you...demolish it...do whatever you like.”
Dutch TV-report:
[Vader Salib Aldik (kopt):] ‘We kunnen een afspraak maken: we noemen het een ontmoetingsplek. En als het toch een kerk blijkt te zijn hebben jullie het recht hem te vernietigen.’
Translation of the Dutch report:
[Father Salib Aldik (Copt):] ‘We can make an agreement: we call it a meeting place. And if it turns out to be a church, you have the right to demolish it’
1:45 Two months ago the building appeared to be changing into a church to the village’s residents, so people went to object and here the conflict started. Then the fire was set, the Muslims assured that the other side is the one that set the fire. When the fire was set, people came to extinguish it.”
Dutch TV-report:
Pas twee maanden geleden zagen de inwoners van het dorp plotseling de koptische kerkkoepels verschijnen. Zo begon het conflict.
En dan nog de brand zelf. De moslims ontkennen dat zij het vuur hebben aangestoken. Op de dag van de brand zou de gemeente de koepels komen verwijderen.
Translation of the Dutch report:
Just two months ago the village inhabitants suddenly noticed that the Coptic church domes were appearing. So the conflict started.
And then the fire itself. The Muslims deny that they set the fire. On the day of the fire the village authorities would come to remove the domes.
Diana:
One can notice some differences.
- The Muslims deny that they set the fire – is rendered as ‘The Muslims assured that the other side is the one that set the fire.
- On the day of the fire the village authorities would come to remove the domes’ is left out and replaced by ‘When the fire was set, people came to put it off’.
2:07 Sayīd ‘Abd Allah, Muslim, started talking and said “at the same time the people were coming out of the mosque, they intentionally were holding car tires and collecting it in the adjacent building. The tires made a huge smoke, so it is normal for any citizen to rush into the smoke to put it off regardless of the place of the fire, people rushed to the fire, so they took advantage of the people gathering and cried out “Help us security, Muslims are burning the church.”
Dutch TV-report:
[Abdallah Ali (moslim)] ‘Op het moment dat de moslims de moskee uitkwamen hadden de kopten al autobanden verzameld in het huis naast het gebouw. Er kwam rook van de banden. Dus we gingen allemaal helpen om de brand te blussen ook al was het in hun buurt. Moslims renden daarnaartoe. En toen we daar stonden belden ze de politie om te roepen dat de moslims alles in brand staken.’
Translation Dutch report:
[Abdallah Ali (Muslim)] ‘At the time the Muslims were leaving the mosque, the Copts already had collected car tires in the house next to the building. Smoke came from the tires. So we all went there to help to extinguish the fire, although it was in their district. Muslims rushed out. And as we were standing there, they called the police to tell that the Muslims were setting every thing on fire.
2:30 Then Lex Runderkamp appears in the video clip and say “It is a common thing that there is no police in Egypt now that will investigate who caused the fire. So looking in the matter in a blind way made it look like Muslims are the ones who did it. But what is true is that there is strong evidence that everyone including the international community acted and interacted with the case based on a misleading information.”
Dutch TV-report
Er is in Egypte geen politie die uitzoekt wie de brand heeft aangestoken. We gaan er eigenlijk allemaal blindelings vanuit dat de moslims dat gedaan hebben, maar er zijn echt sterke aanwijzingen dat iedereen – ook de internationale gemeenschap – reageert op verkeerde feiten.’
Translation Dutch report:
There is no police in Egypte to investigate who started the fire. We all assume blindly that the Muslims did it, but really there are strong indications that every one – including the international community – is reacting to wrong facts.
Evaluation of the translations:
The Salafi translation was rather close to the Dutch text of Runderkamp. It shows that this was not a machine translation but they added “Why they attack Islam.” The film of Runderkamp is clearly seen as evidence that Christians burned their own church under construction with the purpose of blaming Muslims. This is not true and with the widespread anti-Christian sentiments this will be widely believed by, in particular, those Muslims who have no personal Christian friends and who have no knowledge of other cultures and unfortunately there are millions of such people.
Below the video on YouTube are comments in Arabic:
44 people liked the video, six marked the video as their favorite and three commented. The three people who commented were against Christians and believed what was presented in the video. A user called “Wsmshrb” stated that accusing Muslims was like an alliance between Christians and the media and that it can turn any story to 180 degrees. Another user said that Pope Shenouda and the mobs in the churches are the cause of problems, not the Christians.
Diana:
It is clear how the film of Runderkamp is used as a propaganda to “proof” that Muslims of the village are innocent and Christians deliberately framed them. Muslims will see this as if Christians want to change the image of the public domain and make it appear more Christian while their numbers are small. Continuously hammering on this will fuel anti-Christian sentiments. 'Abd Allah and other Muslims in the village sincerely feel they have been misled by Christians in the area. This feeling is widespread in Egypt, see for example Jayson Casper's work on 'Izbit Bushrah where Muslims also believed Christians had misled them when they wanted to build a church. Runderkamp is fueling the belief that Christians do this but the addition of 'deliberately framing' makes this image of Christians even worse.
For earlier reporting in Arab-West Report on Runderkamp's reporting on al-Mārīnāb see:
Dutch media reporting on this issue:
