1000s Of Egyptian Muslims Show Up As ‘Human Shields’ To Defend Coptic Christians From Terrorism

[kpete]

Source: Think Progress

Thousands Of Egyptian Muslims Show Up As ‘Human Shields’ To Defend Coptic Christians From Terrorism

On New Year’s Day, a devastating terrorist bombing at a Coptic church in Egypt killed 21 people and injured 79 others. Although the identity of the culprits was not known, it was assumed that they were Muslim extremists, intent on targeting those they saw as heretics. Religious tensions immediately rose in the country, and angry Copts stormed streets, battled with police, and even vandalized a nearby mosque. The riots and heightened tensions between the Muslim and Coptic communities was likely what the terrorists wanted — to divide the Egyptian community and create sectarian strife between different religious groups.

Yet by Coptic Christmas Eve, which took place Thursday night in Egypt, things had changed completely. As Egyptian Copts attended mass at churches across the country, “thousands” of Muslims, including “the two sons of President Hosni Mubarak,” joined them, acting as “human shields” to protect from terrorist attacks by extremists. The Muslims organized under the slogan “We either live together, or we die together,” inspired by Mohamed El-Sawy, an Egyptian artist:

*****Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside. From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.

“We either live together, or we die together,” was the sloganeering genius of Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon whose cultural centre distributed flyers at churches in Cairo Thursday night, and who has been credited with first floating the “human shield” idea. Among those shields were movie stars Adel Imam and Yousra, popular preacher Amr Khaled, the two sons of President Hosni Mubarak, and thousands of citizens who have said they consider the attack one on Egypt as a whole. “This is not about us and them,” said Dalia Mustafa, a student who attended mass at Virgin Mary Church on Maraashly. “We are one. This was an attack on Egypt as a whole, and I am standing with the Copts because the only way things will change in this country is if we come together.”

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/2011/01/08/thousands-muslims-human-shields/

---

“We either live together, or we die together,”
the world's population could be saved by this motto, kpete

[Kingofalldems]

1. Great story--K and R

[northoftheborder]

2. Beautiful inspiring story.

[kudzu22]

55. Very encouraging

Glad to see that not everyone in the world is crazy.

[Zephie]

3. Wonderful. We need more of this worldwide.

[feslen]

35. agreed. we need this to be REAL NEWS for the "news" stations!

[Jack Rabbit]

4. Wonderful

Are they covering this on FoxNews?

[Robb]

5. K&R

[WhiteTara]

6. a shining beacon in a dark world. K&R n/t

[SemperEadem]

7. So simple yet so beautiful

[Trajan]

8. A peace movement ? ....

What the Middle East has needed all along - a peace movement ...

[DissedByBush]

12. An active Muslim "peace" movement that's actually about peace?

Hurrah! We need more Muslims like this, and quick!

This is a symbol of hope I've been waiting for.

If things like this happen often enough, maybe the Christian wingers can stop saying all Muslims are terrorists, or at least sympathizers.

[femrap]

9. Gives me hope....

"We either live together, or we die together."

But I still think all of these organized religions cause more harm than good.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. Once a month or so, I read something that makes me think "maybe humans don't suck."

This is the January entry.

[defendandprotect]

44. Humans don't "suck" in general .... it's the few among us who are violent and work to create

violent conditions --

I can't imagine the view of the world young kids now have given all of the violence

on TV -- ??? Every effort is made to portray a violent society and violent world.

[roguevalley]

11. goodness happens. I am so happy for Egypt. They have so much

hardship I am happy for this.

[WillParkinson]

13. But...but...Muslims are evil! Evil I say!

Isn't that the great meme now?

[blondeatlast]

14. Wonderful. This is where peace begins. nt

[kag]

15. Wouldn't the world be a nicer place...

if Americans behaved like this when people started shooting at mosques and vilifying muslims.

A few days ago my son asked me what 911 was like. It was a little surreal reliving it all, but I told him about the solidarity from around the world, about how in England they played the U.S. national anthem at the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and stuff like that. I told him that one of the things I will never forgive W for was squandering all of that good will.

So instead of "We either live together, or we die together," we had "Go shopping" and "Be afraid!"

[zbdent]

32. "shooting at mosques" ... hell, just thinking about building a mosque

(or actually, a cultural center) on private property ...

Of course, when it comes to flying a flag which has come to represent the "Confederacy", of course the "you do what you want on private property" statements come out ... hell, even when it's on PUBLIC PROPERTY ...

but then, they can't see the cognitive disconnect ...

[hugo_from_TN]

43. Maybe you don't want to admit that Americans do behave like this.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/11/corvallis_community_stands_sid.html

[DissedByBush]

56. Luckily that's kind of rare here

Even here, note that the arson was in response to the arrest of a Muslim who had planned to bomb a Christmas celebration.

Mostly here the idiots do stupid stuff, burning Qurans and such.

In Muslim countries it's quite common to burn Bibles.

Along with their owners.

And the churches they are in.

That is when churches are allowed in the country at all.

[eridani]

57. They did. After an unsuccessful firebombing attack on a Seattle mosque right after 9/11

--people did the same thing, and left flowers, American flags, and notes of support all over the doorstep.

[mntleo2]

74. In Seattle Jews, Hindus and Christians guarded the mosques too

...I was one of them and I came to love worshiping with only women during Ramadan because they taught me God had a woman's face too. I wore a head scarf in solidarity and was hit in the side with a rock by a passing car while waiting for the bus. It truly taught me that some people are disgusting all right ~ and then others are beautiful.

And I am deeply touched with what was done with these Muslims in Egypt. It is true that we can choose to live together or we can die together in violence. But personally I would rather be alive and loving my neighbor as these wonderful people have demonstrated because my "neighbor" makes my life more bearable. I know it because I have seen real Love in action and the almost superhuman courage it takes to Love and I will never forget its healing. From that small action I learned that Love is far more powerful and carried greater strength than holding a gun to someone's head and forcing them to do or be something against their will or kill them because they can't. Because Love changes hearts, it makes the person want to be better, which fear and force can never do.

That is what I learned from guarding the mosque after 9/11

Cat in Seattle

[patrice]

16. .

:cry:

[Rage for Order]

17. This is an awesome story

The complete antithesis to "It's not my problem"

:thumbsup:

[No Passaran]

18. Don't expect the media to report this

muslims can't be this kind to their neighbors /sarcasm

[Rage for Order]

22. Um, okay...

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-01-07/world/egypt.coptic.church.attack_1_egypt-s-coptic-christians-car-bombing-egypt-s-muslims?_s=PM:WORLD

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/01/egypt-copts-and-muslims-come-together-for-once-during-orthodox-christmas.html

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/religion_theseeker/2011/01/muslims-shield-christians-for-christmas-in-egypt.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/07/AR2011010705579.html

http://www.startribune.com/world/113003664.html

[No Passaran]

23. Nothing on TV. You fail

[Rage for Order]

29. LOL

You said media, plural, not "the medium of television". And maybe TV did report it and you just weren't watching it when they did. At any rate, next time perhaps you should specify which particular types of media you expect not to report a particular story.

[uppityperson]

34. You must have a lot of tvs to watch all the news all the time. I am in awe of your abilities.

[tpsbmam]

51. Actually, using the links you provided, this was presented as being a much smaller

number of Muslims participating by a couple of the links or they didn't indicate that "thousands" of Muslims participated and "formed a shield." And I note that two of your links are blog posts -- those won't appear in the printed papers unless they're redone as newspaper articles. They're only found online by those who'll look for them.

Here is from the Star Tribune article:

Still, turnout was heavy, as Christians said they were determined to attend. Muslims also joined some services as a show of solidarity, getting permission from church officials ahead of time to get through police limiting access to Christians.

Around two dozen Muslims held a solidarity gathering a street away from the Saints Church — kept back by police. They held signs reading "no to terrorism, yes to citizenship" and "long live the cross and the crescent."

Inside a church in the Cairo suburb of Maadi, several Muslims joined the service, holding candles.

The front pew at a church in the Cairo district of Omraniya was filled with prominent Muslims from the neighborhood.

And this is from the CNN article:

Egyptian Muslims attended Christmas services Friday in a show of solidarity with Coptic Christians days after a bombing killed 23 congregants in the country's north.

Seriously, the above are not the same representation as "thousands formed a shield."

The others did report the "thousands" information. WaPo's was in the form of an Editorial, which will be reprinted in the hard copy of the paper and which, frankly, more people are likely to see if they just scan the site for news.

[Raster]

19. I weep tears of joy. Literally.

“We either live together, or we die together"

[patrice]

36. I'm with you!

Notice that it is an artists' coalition that is helping the people with this, a CULTURAL artists' coalition! That's beauty -full!

[Orrex]

20. This just goes to show that Muslims have no respect for human life

Wait--what?

[JAbuchan08]

31. but when will moderate muslims start standing against extremist?

wait... what?

[niceypoo]

21. Dont let the teabaggers get wind of this...

You hear that FOX?

[dipsydoodle]

24. K & R

:thumbsup:

[jwirr]

25. What a wonderful example to live by.

[bengalherder]

26. SELF-DELETED BY MEMBER

This message was self-deleted by bengalherder.

[reggie the dog]

27. this is excellent news

the extremists failed to turn egypt into an intolerant place, in fact it seems to be building solidarity between the two religious groups!

[aquart]

28. Bless them all.

[treestar]

30. How wonderful!

[Odin2005]

33. That is awesome!

There is still hope in this world! :D

[Maat]

37. What great, loving people!

They get it.

[Poll_Blind]

38. K&R for solidarity among those who promote Peace!

PB

[Hatalles]

39. K&R

[Raksha]

40. This is one of the few stories that has given me hope in a long time.

“We either live together, or we die together."

Any chance of this slogan getting adopted in Israel? What about here in the U.S.?

[AlbertCat]

46. “We either live together, or we die together."

Notice how the slogan is... secular.

Religion was used for the violence, secular wisdom for the coming together.

(according to Wikipedia, "Coptic" used to just mean "Egyptian".... so there is a huge nationalistic sense to the whole thing)

[AlbertCat]

47. Dupe...

Oops...sorry...

[blaze]

41. K&R

:grouphug: Egyptian Muslims :grouphug:

[1monster]

42. K&R This is the only way to fight terrorism. To show that the people will not

stand for it in any way.

Way to go Egyptians!

[defendandprotect]

45. Wonder If I would -- or how many of us -- would have this courage?

Admirable!!

[tavalon]

83. That you ask this question, leads me to a believe that you would have too had urage

It's hidden on the fairness gene that you clearly have a strong amount of.

Edited to Change a
word to courage

[defendandprotect]

87. Too kindly an assessment --

we can try to be something -- especially on the internet --

but it is only a wish for ourselves and not a true test.

I thank you, however, for that lovely thought!

[tavalon]

88. I've walked side by side

with too many of my fellow DUers to believe that many here are only internet warriors.

[renate]

48. that is so inspiring

Thank you for posting this. Absolutely beautiful.

[fascisthunter]

49. There ya go.... proof not all Muslims nor Most Hate Christians

the fact some actually believe either is testimony of what hate radio and Fox News do to people in this country.

[pampango]

50. Great proof that most Muslims are like most other people. Don't let the wackos define you. n/t

[DissedByBush]

67. The problem is in the number of wackos

Most estimate that the fundamentalist violent types are a tiny percentage of Muslims.

Problem is that's still millions of people who literally WANT YOU DEAD.

They consider it their duty to Allah to make sure you DIE.

While most Muslims do not agree with them, most also do nothing to stop them. It's kind of how the religious right tolerated the Westboro Baptists while they only picketed homosexual funerals.

So it is rather refreshing to see Muslims actively opposing the wackos. Sadly, they risk their lives by doing so.

[No Elephants]

72. SOURCE for "millions of Muslims want us dead?

[ForeignSpectator]

80. No source but doing the math...

you don't need a big fraction of muslims to be fundamentalist extremists to arrive at an order of millions,
the fundamentalist extremists being defined as the ones that "want you DEAD".

Assume, only 1% of all is extremist, at 1.2 billion total that equals 12.000.000 muslims "want you DEAD".
If the percentage of wackos among US christians serves as some kind of benchmark then...you get the idea.

So, while the statement above is not particularly helpful, it's not an outlandish claim to make.

That being said, the OP is good news. Let's hope that this is only the first step in a campaign of ordinary
muslims against radicals and extremists. They stood silent long enough.

[Violet_Crumble]

85. I don't agree at all...

Let's not assume anything when it comes to percentages. For one, being a fundamentalist and holding extreme views on religion does not mean that someone wants DissedByBush dead. Not unless Islam is different than other religions, because I know of people of other religions who are fundamentalist extremists, but who aren't violent and wouldn't hurt anyone...

I agree that the statement made wasn't particularly helpful, as it seemed to me that the intent was to conjure an image of millions of Muslims just itching to get into some bloodcurdling violence and kill every DUer who turns up in this thread thinking that the OP was a really great thing....

[DissedByBush]

86. The image is the proper one

Militant Islamic fundamentalism is just what I described -- they want to kill YOU. If they ever met you and had a chance, they'd kill you. They may tolerate you in pursuit of their goals, the 9/11 hijackers waited so they could score a huge kill, but in the end they want you DEAD.

Read around. All reasonable estimates are below 1% (hateful Christians give it higher, but we'll ignore them). Even restricting it to 18-30 and male (not that there aren't female suicide bombers), it's still a few hundred million people out of which to extract that small percentage. It's still millions.

Yes, these are the people who want you dead. Or they may accept you as a virtual slave as long as you kept your head down and obeyed, and paid the tax for being non-Muslim.

[LongTomH]

52. There are times when I feel like giving up on the human race!

Then, an act of simple human decency like this gives me hope again!

[BanzaiBonnie]

53. “We either live together, or we die together,”

[47of74]

54. Once again, allow me to take the time to say...

[forty6]

58. What the one above me said !!!!! n/t

[annabanana]

59. This does the heart good. We can see the beauty of the human spirit

here.

[rasputin1952]

60. This shows me, and I hope the rest of the world, that we can

all live together without hate.

“We either live together, or we die together,”

simply brilliant

[1776Forever]

61. What a lesson we could learn from this in our country between Repub's & Dems - Awesome!...n/t

[shanti]

62. wasn't Haile Selassie

a coptic christian? just wondering...

[PatrynXX]

63. But you'll never hear this on the news

Haven't heard a peep except here.

[X_Digger]

64. K&R! --- shame you wouldn't see something like this in the US if the roles were reversed. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

65. Most human beings are decent folks....but the crazies and the stupids get the publicity.

[Lucinda]

66. Thank you for the post.

I needed this. :)

[Swagman]

68. very inspirational. Let's hope it sets off a trend !

[bertman]

69. K & R. nt

[The Doctor.]

70. It's been so hard for me to cry lately.

This was a nice gift.

Thanks for posting.

[DeSwiss]

71. MIC won't like this.....

...because they need us separated and fighting each other. To justify stepping-in and taking control. For everyone's security.......

- We can do this.

K&R

[woo me with science]

73. This is beautiful. nt

[Scruffy1]

75. Just when I get really dppressed.........

Kpete does something to cheer me up. I've been thinking that's its been a long time since I heard any good news. The community I live in, which is largely catholic with a muslim minority rallied around Islamic businesses right after 9/11
to make sure there was no harassment. I was quite proud to live here and still am. Many took turns 34 hours a day and there were no problems. I think a lot of this is because its always been an immigrant community where people haven't forgotten why they came here in the first place.

[LeftishBrit]

76. Very inspiring

'We either live together or we die together'. Indeed. And I hope more will choose the former.

[CJvR]

77. Impressed.

I just hope the fanatics wont make them pay for this stand.

[indimuse]

78. Bless them~

The ONLY thing that will save us ALL iz LOVE! knr!

[xchrom]

79. Thank you, Mr El-Sawy. Great idea. Nt

[Enthusiast]

81. K&R

I am encouraged by this.

[tavalon]

82. My sig line is below it was coined a bit earlier

Just goes to show you that many of the best and brightest people have similar ideals. I stand behind the actions of these courageous Muslims. They are good people, first and foremost.

[Violet_Crumble]

84. There's more than a few thousand Muslims in Egypt! Where are they all?

Why aren't they all standing up to the extremists?? They're responsible for the extremists and yet they stay quiet! Not good enough. We need to see Muslims speak out against violence!!!

disclaimer: Imagine yrself a sarcasm icon after the above. I'm channelling the reaction of RW Islamophobic types who make the mistake of reading the OP and are frantically looking for a way to put it in a framework where Muslims are still the Bad Guys...