One home one pain. Egyptian solidarity in Alexandria and beyond.

In his memoirs about Egypt Lord

Cromer claims that he could not „find in Egypt
but Egyptians only. Some of them pray in the
mosque and some of them pray in the church,
but all of them Egyptians.‟

Is Alexandria still as cosmopolitan and

as welcoming nowadays? Are all Egypt's
citizens still seen as Egyptians, irrespective of
race color or creed? Or maybe they are given
labels according to religion, culture or
language? Walking through the streets of this
beautiful port city, admiring its magnificent
mosques and churches (which stand just
opposite each other) and meeting its people, on the last day of 2010, one would say that it is
as intercultural and open as it has always been.
- “Kul Sana w Enta tayb ya Amm George!”
-“Wenta tayb ya Mohamed”
With these words, fifty year old baker Amm Mohamed greets his neighbor, Amm George,
who owns a bookstore on the corner side, wishing him a Happy New Year.
Marianne and Fawezy are with their newly born son Samy in the church. They pray to Jesus
asking him to make their wishes come true in this upcoming year. Ahmed and Khadiga are
praying to Allah asking him to make their wishes come true in this upcoming year as well.

Families, in their houses are preparing popcorn for the kids. Abdallah and Amr are outside
partying with their friends, waiting for the big countdown in the Greek club by the Corniche
of Alexandria. Sarah is waiting for her boyfriend; she wants to share this special moment with
him. They may not all share the same faith; however, they are all Egyptians and at 11:59 all
happy, peaceful, and looking forward to a new prosperous year.

Midnight does not bring joy this time. Instead, it brings the deadly sounds of explosions and
blood.
 The kids scream, Ahmed and Khadiga run to see what happened, Abdallah and Amr
cannot believe their eyes, Sarah is terrified. In Sidi Bishr district's Khalil Hamada Street,
where The Saints Church is facing a Mosque, a bomb has exploded. The lethal blast did not
differentiate between Muslim Amm Mohamed or Christian Amm George. There was no
difference between innocent child Samy and seventy year old Aisha, or even between
Marianne or Fawezy, husband and wife. Over twenty were killed and over seventy injured.

In chaos and pain, media all over the world stop reporting the facts and start adding
their comments. Too often they are insensitive and offensive, in a direct or indirect way
blaming all Muslims for the attack, and go too far recounting attacks on Christians in the
Middle East from past years. No one was interested in what happened just after the explosion.
Human tragedy was not big enough to stay longer, to talk to the people and visit the hospitals.
And in fact that was the moment
when perhaps the most important
aspect of this event started. For that
was when Egypt showed its true
human solidarity; and in fact, its true
face.

Immediate and massive spontaneous

rescue actions were initiated. In the
crowd, it was impossible to recognize
who belongs to Islam and who belongs to Christianity. Everyone was ready to use his car as
an ambulance, or act as self-appointed paramedic. A few hours later hospitals were full of
victims, but also of blood donors. The news spread very quickly and the lines of people
willing to help, in the best way they could – donating their blood, were rising (see picture
above). Millions of Egyptians condemned the attack. Children were drawing posters showing
their solidarity with the victims (see picture below, it says: ‘Egypt darling, I am against
terrorism’) young people were changing their social network profile pictures to the now
ubiquitous symbol of a Muslim crescent beside a Christian cross, united next to each other.
On the streets of Alexandria one could feel
real solidarity. No one expected that all
over the world the news will report „An
attack on the Christian minority‟,
suggesting that it was done by Muslims.
Thousands of people in
homogeneous Christian countries could
only read and hear what their country's
media served them. That is why before one
will look at Monday‟s newspaper cover
page, it will do good to remember that true
Islam is not a religion of hate. No real
Muslim would kill any human being; no
real Muslim would attack a place of
worship of another religion. A mosque is
located exactly opposite the target of the attack, and it was also damaged during the blast (see
picture below). People of Alexandria know that it was a terrorist attack. When a Christian
man in a Christian country organizes an attack in a crowded public place, an attack which
takes the lives of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and atheists, he is not referred to by
his religion. He is instead labeled –deservingly- as a terrorist. It serves no purpose, and
adheres to no logic, to call these murderous killers “Muslims”, no more than calling Spanish
E.T.A. members or Irish I.R.A. fighters “Christians”.

Whoever is responsible for the tragedy in Alexandria is a terrorist too. There is no

need to call him by his religion, which he is interpreting wrongly. In fact, the Holy Qur‟an
states:
‘THOSE WHO KILL A HUMAN BEING ON EARTH, IT SHALL BE AS IF THEY HAD KILLED ALL
MANKIND, AND THOSE WHO SAVE THE LIFE OF ONE, IT SHALL BE AS IF HE HAD SAVED THE LIFE
OF ALL MANKIND.’
 Muslims and Christians
can live together in peace.
People in Alexandria know it
well, for they have been doing
just that, for over a thousand
years. People in Western
countries should listen to
different accounts of the
bombing before arriving at any
conclusions:

-„My name is Ahmed, I am a Muslim, and today I donated my blood to the victims of
the attack, I feel responsibility towards standing with my Christian friends in this terrifying
attack,‟ said a University of Alexandria student who lives in the neighborhood.

- „I have no doubt that this is an external attack from outside Egypt, I cannot imagine my
Muslim friend bombing our church, I have never seen violence from them towards me. Yes in
Egypt we have some conflicts between Christians and Muslims, we cannot deny this, but this
conflict does not -under any circumstances- reach a point of massive killing. No, please, we
are one nation under one flag‟ - told us Mary, a 37 years old Christian housewife.

It is crucial to keep in mind that terrorism is religion-less, nation-less and origin-less,

and not to let one insensitive –or otherwise motivated- journalist
create your point of view on this matter. Particularly with over a
billion peaceful, tolerant, and God fearing Muslims around the
world, who ALL cringed upon hearing of this barbaric act. Once
again the famous quote by Giandomenico Picco, Personal
Representative to the Secretary-General for the United Nations
Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations comes to mind:
‘History does not kill. Religion does not rape women, the purity of blood does not destroy
buildings and institutions do not fail. Only individuals do those things.’

Written by: Abdallah (a.hendawy@sda-web.org) Yasmine (ykhaled@ids.ac.uk) and Anna (a.szramkowska@ids.ac.uk)

Remarks:*Pictures provided by Abdallah Hendawy, one of the authors
*Feel free to translate this article into your language and spread the message