Arab Angles, Issue No. 1

Welcome to Arab Angles, an independent volunteer project that aims to present English translations of analyses and opinions published in the Arabic-language media in different countries, dealing with political, social and cultural issues from a variety of viewpoints.

Each issue of Arab Angles will present articles that examine a single topic from different perspectives. This first issue contains articles from the independent Egyptian media on the underlying reasons for the sectarian violence that broke out in Alexandria in April 2006, when a Muslim attacked worshippers in three Coptic Christian churches there. In addition to offering different explanations of sectarian violence in Egypt, the articles in this issue have much to say about the functions of religion in Egyptian society:

The Sword of Force and the Scales of Justice: ‘The Citizen’… Holds the Knife

In the magazine Weghat Nazar [Points of View], ُeditor Ayman El-Sayyad argues that religion is not the main issue: rather, the Egyptian state’s violent repression of all dissent, and its refusal to accept an independent judiciary, have created a climate in which ordinary citizens have come to believe that they must resort to violence in order to achieve their aims.

Unstable Nation

The editor of the newspaper Al-Dustur [The Constitution], Ibrahim Eissa (who was recently jailed for defaming the Egyptian president), rails in his inimitable half-comical, half-serious style (to which the translation cannot hope to do justice) against religious bigotry in Egypt, which he sees as partly a way of compensating for a collective inferiority complex, partly a cover for corruption, partly a result of ignorance about religion, and partly a substitute for the political competition that the state forbids.

One-Dimensional People

Writing in the newspaper Nahdat Misr [The Rebirth of Egypt], Abd El Moneim Said argues that Egyptians have become one-dimensional, that religion has usurped the place of all the other ties that once held Egyptian society together, and that this has divided Egypt along religious lines.

Is Egypt Protecting the Rights of Minorities, or Paving the Way for Civil Strife?

In an article published on Ikhwan On Line, the web site of the Muslim Brotherhood (Egypt’s mainstream Islamist group, which is banned but tolerated to an extent), Ahmad El Talawy expresses the view that the US and Israel have provoked sectarian conflict in Egypt, as part of a plan to divide Egypt and other Arab states into statelets along ethnic and religious lines. He emphasises that the Muslim Brotherhood is committed to full and equal citizenship for Christians and Muslims.

What is Behind the Incident in Alexandria?

Writing in the Coptic newspaper Watani [My Nation], Samih Fawzy argues that disruptions in Christian-Muslim relations elsewhere in the world have been needlessly imported into Egypt by a self-serving media, which encourages Muslims to be hostile towards Christians rather than addressing the real problems Christians have faced for decades.

We hope you find this issue of Arab Angles stimulating reading.

What is Behind the Incident in Alexandria?

By Samih Fawzy (سامح‏ ‏فوزي)
Appeared in the 30 April 2006 issue of Watani (وطني), an independent Coptic newspaper published in Egypt
Original title: ما وراء‏ ‏حادث‏ ‏الإسكندرية؟

(For background on the topic of this article, please see Muslim-Christian Relations in Egypt.)

The question seems superficial, yet it has become important. Why are Egyptian Christians paying the price for the worldwide disruption of Christian-Muslim relations? What have they and their Muslim fellow citizens got to do with what is happening in Iraq or Afghanistan? Why must Christian-Muslim relations in our society carry the burden of a global cultural discourse that pushes people towards a clash of civilisations, religions and cultures?

Clearly, Egyptian society, like other societies, is negatively affected by the global atmosphere of unrest. It is no longer possible to claim that relations between Muslims and Copts remain aloof from these negative effects. It is difficult to say that Egyptian society is impervious to the global changes that are taking place, particularly in light of the efforts of some media outlets and political currents — particularly Islamist ones — to import global conflicts, and to create links between those conflicts and local events.

Is Egypt Protecting the Rights of Minorities, or Paving the Way for Civil Strife?

by Ahmad El Talawy (أحمد التلاوي)
Published on 18 April 2006 on Ikhwan On Line (إخوان أون لاين), the web site of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
Original title: ما يحدث في مصر.. حقوق للأقليات أم تمهيد للفتنة؟!‏

(For background on the topic of this article, please see Muslim-Christian Relations in Egypt.)

Between the incidents that have occurred in churches in Alexandria, and the verdict recently handed down by Egypt’s Administrative Court in favour of a married couple who had been trying for nearly two years to win the right to be listed as belonging to the Bahai faith in official documents, the thread of a link is thin, yet strong and frightening; it is the thread of sectarianism in Egypt.

In the background of what happened is the question: What is happening in Egypt now? This question has been, and still is, on the lips and in the minds of many people, both inside and outside this great nation, following the many incidents that have taken place recently in Egypt, and that have made it clear that there is a quickly progressing plan to demolish the governing principles on which the Egyptian state is based, striking at the heart of Egypt’s national security.

These incidents basically concern the identity of Egyptian society and the nature of the prevailing relations between its various members. To elaborate further on the issue of sectarianism in Egypt as a society and as a State, in the series of events that have taken place recently — and which are not likely to be the last of their kind — it is possible to see a far-reaching plan to accentuate the sectarian dimension of discourse in Egypt, in a way that, in some respects, threatens the unity of the Egyptian nation, which makes negative thoughts spring to mind when this problem is discussed.

These incidents concern sectarianism in Egypt. In some ways, some of them concern the policies of the Egyptian state, which has erred in its handling of this matter, thus exacerbating it, and — as is perfectly clear and needs no demonstration — one can see the outlines of an international conspiracy against Egypt, in view of the fact that this country is truly one of the keys to resolving the crisis of the Arab and Islamic world.