In Egypt October 9 at least 25 Christians were killed and many hundreds injured when they peacefully marched to protest the burning of a Christian church.
Those attacking the Christians are said to be "thugs and the Egyptian Army" in this article, and we must assume many of the 'thugs' were Muslims in deep error.
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But....many Muslims were marching WITH the Christians in solidarity.
A Muslim woman named Basma Amin was among them.
"Perhaps the most heart-wrenching part of her account comes when Amin describes a Christian family, a mother and two small children, along with several other Christian women, who had taken refuge with her in the Hilton. When darkness fell, they wanted to go home. They begged her to go with them, she writes, in the hope that having a Muslim woman wearing a veil in their midst might afford some protection. Amin says she didn't share their confidence.
"It was a painful feeling," she writes, "and I sincerely didn't understand why they said that, since I was completely of the opinion that the army was shooting randomly....... many of the injured and the dead are Muslims, as we learned later."
At the end, Amin stresses four points:
- "The procession of Copts was peaceful from the beginning, and there were many Muslims and ordinary people in the crowd to express their solidarity."
- "Hooligans attacked the people twice, once at the Ahmed Helmy tunnel and again near the Ramses Hilton."
- "The army opened fire on the people indiscriminately, with real bullets, and armored cars crushed the young people in the first rows of the march. Many people witnessed this. I personally saw the marks left by the bullets on their bodies.
Her witness is powerful.
My questions to you :
If a Mosque were burned in your town, would you condemn that act? Would you march with Muslims to protest the burning? Would you give shelter to a Muslim family who were endangered?
http://ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/black-sunday-christians-egypt
