The attack on worshippers in an Alexandria church in Egypt on January 1, 2011 marks a lowpoint in relations between Muslims and Christians in Egypt. Never before in modern Egyptian history have extremists tried to kill as many worshippers as possible in a suicide attack. Earlier clashes were often related to extreme responses to local tensions that already existed. This attack was not.
This monstrous terrorist attack resulted in deep tension between large numbers of Muslims and Christians in Egypt and made many European non-Muslims point to Islam as the main culprit which deepens a rift in Muslim – non-Muslim relations. This book demonstrates that making such wrongful allegations only serve extremist groups which want nothing else but to create a sharp division between Muslims and non-Muslims.
The basis of this book consists of publications of the Egyptian electronic magazine Arab-West Report, which since 1997 has systematically followed Muslim-Christian relations in Egypt and investigated tensions throughout the years. These studies illustrate that the Egyptian government and the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church also bear responsibility for certain problems in society that are witnessed today. Certainly they did not intend for extremists to exploit the frustrations which followed the consequences of their acts, but the fact remains that frustrations in society are easily exploited and therefore must be addressed.
That tensions are addressed well is also in the interest of Europe, but in order to do so the various causes that have resulted in these tensions must be understood. These include:
•poverty, overpopulation, and unemployment
•problems around church building and government procrastination in creating a unified law for building houses of worship
•a lack of transparency in conversion procedures
•church pressure on government in a variety of cases
•insufficient preparation by the church to deal with conflicts when they occur
Concerned citizens in the West – chief among them Coptic migrants and other Christians – want to see action and often engage in highly emotional responses. On one hand this is understandable but on the other this does not contribute to the search for solutions. This study shows that no easy solutions are at hand; nevertheless, the need to find them is more urgent than ever.
The text has been uploaded in German and English. A French version does also exist.
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