(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The recent criminal attacks against the Coptic Church in Alexandria form part of a new link in a chain of terrorist acts experienced by many countries in the world, which targeted thousands of innocent people of different faiths and races and were committed by perpetrators belonging to different religions and nationalities.
Really, terrorism has no particular home, religion or borders. Unfortunately some of these extremist acts are performed in the name of Islam and Jihad falsely. Islam is for peaceful co-existence with all faiths, colours, races and for safeguarding human life, mind, property, honour and faith. Jihad is for self-purification and amendment and for the liberation of man from oppression and persecution.
Terrorism hijacks Islam and defames its beautiful teachings. It causes instability in the Islamic world, exhausts its potentials and resources and diverts it from pursuing its aims of human and material development.
Terrorism harms the reputation and interests of Muslims and restricts their movements, especially abroad where every Muslim is looked upon as a terrorist project, and every Muslim is guilty till proven innocent and every innocent Muslim is under suspicion until he dies. For some, the good Muslim is the dead one! Even if a Muslim is praying in an aeroplane, some people think that he is performing his last prayer before detonating his explosive belt!
Terrorism granted an invaluable service to certain Western governments by providing them with excuses to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan and subject most of the Islamic countries to their domination on the pretext of terror fighting. We Muslims have become the biggest victims of terrorism because the terrorist acts targeted us most. The Muslim victims of terrorism are far greater in number than the non-Muslims.
We Muslims are also the victims of the war against terror which killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Terrorism is the enemy of Islam and Muslims will never reconcile or ally themselves with it. No doubt the attack against the Coptic Church and the killing of worshippers and injuring of Muslims who were passing by is condemned without reservation. God says: “Nor take life which Allah has made sacred” (Holy Qur’an 17:33).
The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said: “Whoever kills a man of the People of ‘Thimmah’, (Christians and Jews), will not even smell paradise.”
Certainly, targeting the places of worship of any faith goes against the teachings of Islam which believes in and teaches the freedom of worship and the sanctity of places of prayer.
The Copts of Egypt welcomed the Muslim Arab conquerors in the seventh century because they helped them to get rid of the Byzantine oppressors who used to occupy Egypt and persecute its people.
Religious diversity in the Islamic World is evidence of the tolerance of Islam and its respect of religious freedom and human dignity. Thus, it is no wonder to witness churches, synagogues and temples of Buddhism and Hinduism in Muslim countries. Muslims did not demolish the churches they found in conquered lands; rather, they protected them.
Islam went so far in safeguarding the temples of all religions as to maintain the safety of the churches and synagogues as it does for its own mosques.
Allah says: “Did not Allah check one set of people by means of another, there would surely have been pulled down monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques in which the name of Allah is commemorated in abundant measure” (Holy Qur’an 22:40).
Any aggression against innocent Jews or Christians or their places of worship which may be carried out by Muslims because of ignorance and extremism is an offence against Islam itself. Islam teaches us to deal justly and kindly with non-Muslims who live in our countries. Allah says: “Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for your faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them, for Allah loves those who are just” (Holy Qur’an 60:8)
The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said: “Whoever wrongs a covenantee (who enjoys a covenant of protection by Muslims) or denies him a right or commissions him to do things beyond his capacity, or takes anything from him against his will, I will be his foe on Judgement Day”.
Even if some Christians and Jewish forces killed innocent Muslims in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and destroyed our Mosques, it is forbidden for us to retaliate by killing innocent Jews and Christians and destroy their churches or synagogues.
Allah says: “Nor can goodness and evil be equal. Repel evil with what is better, then will be between you and whom was hatred become as it were your friend and intimate!” (Holy Qur’an 41:34).
To those in the West who cry for the protection of Christians in the Middle East we say: Thank you very much for your care and concern. We are worthy of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, more than anybody else because he is our beloved prophet and he is from our own countrymen. He was born in Bethlehem, Palestine, my country, and not in London or Paris. And Christianity was born in Nazareth, not in Rome. We consider ourselves more Christian than the Christians! For us, the Christianity of Jesus, peace be upon him, is one of the Islamic messages.
We Muslims are worthy of protecting the Christians of the Middle East more than anybody else because they are our fellow countrymen and it is our mission and responsibility to protect them. Islam has in fact hosted Christianity and Judaism in the Middle East and has protected them since the seventh century.
The threat against the Iraqi and Egyptian Christians came from an Iraq which is under Western occupation. Those who shed tears for the tragedy of the Iraqi Christians should blame themselves for their biased and unwise policies regarding the Islamic world which invited terrorism to Iraq and the Middle East in general. Unfortunately, the Iraqi Christians were safe and prosperous under the Saddam regime.
The Egyptian government showed the world how we protect Christians when it deployed 70,000 policemen to protect and guard the Coptic Churches and the Egyptian People gave crystal clear evidence how Muslims protect Christians when thousands of Egyptian Muslims joined their brothers and sisters the Copts in their churches to become human shields in order to protect them. Those who cry for protection of the Christians in the Middle East, they would do a better job if they seek protection for the Christian and Muslim Palestinians who have been suffering under occupation since 1948 and seek protection for the mosques and churches of Palestine and try to stop the Judaisation of Jerusalem.
Why only demand the protection of Christians in the Middle East, why not also for Muslims under occupation?
Those who call for the protection of Christians only in the Middle East are in fact sending a wrong message to the fanatic Muslims who will recall the crusade campaigns, and to the fanatic Christians who interpret it as an invitation for rebellion against the Egyptian authorities and their fellow Muslim citizens. Such messages stir negative reactions on official and popular levels. It incites tension and deepens the sectarian differences instead of maintaining calm and harmony which prevailed because of the positive Islamic and Christian attitudes in the face of the church attack crisis.
Thanks to the awareness of the Muslims and Christian Egyptians who realized that the attack on the church was the work of foreign criminals who targeted them all in order to create a civil sectarian war between them and destroy their country.
Muslims and Christians in the Middle East are in need of a wiser and more balanced message which calls them to enhance dialogue, participation and co-operation among them to strengthen their mutual trust, respect and love.
They need to be invited to avoid provocation and isolation which causes fear and hatred and to work for more integration in the whole Arab society, in order to continue to maintain their national unity and live in peace and harmony.
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