Muslims Burning Down Churches
Catholic friends, I hope most sincerely that this question does not offend
you, but I genuinely care about this, and genuinely want to understand.
You're all aware that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is being driven back
underground by the Egyptian army, which replaced President Morsi by coup in
June. Just yesterday, an Egyptian court completely banned all Brotherhood activities anywhere in the
country and seized all its assets.
You will also be aware that the Brotherhood has expressed its rage and
frustration by attacking Christians, who have long been on the organization's
shortlist for annihilation and are conveniently defenseless.
As noted by The Spectator, the past month and a half has
been marked by "perhaps the worst anti-Christian violence in Egypt in seven
centuries, with dozens of churches torched." Lapidomedia, a center for religious
literacy in the media, points out that on a single day -- 14 August 2013 --
"fifty-two churches and at least forty church schools, Christian-run orphanages,
clergy vehicles, Bible Society bookshops and even a Christian-owned tourist
cruise ship [were] destroyed following the break-up by Egypt’s interim regime of
Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins in the capital Cairo."
In Suez, a convent of the Congregation of the Good Shepherd and the adjacent school and hospital were robbed and set on fire. A Franciscan church was also set ablaze, the Coptic Catholic Patriarchate of Alexandria reported.
In the northeastern city of Minya, there was another attack on the Coptic Catholic church of Mar Guirgis, which had previously been attacked by the Muslim Brotherhood. There were fires at a Jesuit church, the Coptic Catholic Church of St. Mark and a convent and school of the Sisters of St. Joseph.
In the north-central city of Beni Souef on the Nile River, there was a fire at the Franciscan Convent of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
In the central Egypt city of Asyut, there was a fire at the Franciscan Church of St. Therese and at a convent of Franciscan sisters.
At Cairo’s Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima, attackers threw stones and assaulted the doors of the church, but failed to enter.
More than 25 other attacks targeted Orthodox and evangelical churches, the patriarchate reported.
On 5 September, St. Catherine's monastery in the south Sinai peninsula shut its doors, unable to withstand the collapsing security
situation.
How has the pope responded to all this?
Pope Francis used to be Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was famous for cultivating warm relations between the Christian and Muslim
communities back in Argentina. It is thus perhaps unsurprising that his
response to the violence has been to temper whatever defensive outrage he might
feel on behalf of the targeted Christians and extend the hand of friendship to
Muslims. On 15 August, the day after that horrific day of violence, Pope Francis
said: “I wish to ensure my prayers for all the victims and their families, the
injured and all those who are suffering. Let us pray together for peace,
dialogue and reconciliation in that dear nation and throughout the world.” To
the ears of this non-Catholic, that sounds commendably Christian, but it also
sounds frankly a bit boilerplate, considering the life-and-death reality of the
danger Egyptian Christians -- and Christians elsewhere in the Muslim world -- are facing daily at the hands
of fundamentalist Islam.
Pope Francis has not merely stuck to a generically mild script as the
situation has deteriorated; he has gone out of his way to extend the hand of
friendship to the Muslim world. On Good Friday, during a procession dedicated to
the suffering of Christians in the Middle East, the pope made a point of
reaching out to "our Muslim brothers and sisters." On Holy Thursday, he washed
and kissed the feet of two women, one of them a Muslim. The processional ended
with a hymn sung in Arabic.
Now, I know how it feels to be an outsider watching all of that. How does it
feel to be a Catholic? Pope Francis said, "the answer which Christians offer in
the face of evil...[is to] respond to evil with good, taking the cross upon
themselves as Jesus did." I understand that that is an entirely appropriate
sentiment for him to express, considering his role. But is it Christian to
flatly deny all righteous outrage? If I might put it in this bald way, what good
does it do the Copts running for their lives in Egypt to be told to take the
cross upon themselves? Are they being instructed to lie down and die, to let
themselves be purged from their homeland and martyred for their religion?
As a Jew and a resident of Israel, I am perhaps peculiarly sensitive, both to
instructions to placidly accept my own victimization and to the reality of
Muslim fundamentalism. I have benefited greatly from my own relationships with
believing Christians, particularly evangelicals, and I find myself enraged on
Christians' behalf when I read the news about their treatment in Egypt,
Pakistan, and elsewhere in the Muslim world. Part of me wants to shake the pope
by the shoulders, to wake him up. But presumably if I were Catholic I would view
all of this differently. Or would I?
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