Christians, Muslims “One Hand” in Egypt’s Youth Revolution

Christians, Muslims “One Hand” in Egypt’s Youth Revolution

Posted on 02/07/2011 by Juan

Sunday saw a return to Egypt of themes of national unity across the Christian-Muslim divide that recalled the heyday of early Egyptian nationalism in 1919, when the modern nation was formed in the cauldron of mass demonstrations against British colonial rule.

Nowadays, Copts are roughly 10 percent of the Egyptian population, or about 8 million people. Coptic Christianity is its own branch of the faith, tracing itself to the foundational teaching of the Apostle Mark the Evangelist in Alexandria.
The Al-Arab newspaper reports that Christian protesters conducted funeral prayers over the spirits of the martyrs that have fallen in the demonstrations since January 25. The three Coptic denominations mounted three joint prayer ceremonies.

On Friday, Christian youth had stood guard to protect Muslims as they prayed at Tahrir Square, since people at prayer are vulnerable to the secret police.
AP says that Father Ihab al-Kharat gave a sermon on Sunday in which he said, “In the name of Jesus and Muhammad we unify our ranks … We will keep protesting until the fall of the tyranny.”

Al-Arab writes that crowds of youth participated, under the leadership of prominent Coptic figures such as Michael Mounir, the head of the Coptic Organization of the United States, Dr. Imad Gad, an expert at the Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, and George Ishak, a leader of the Kefaya!

(Enough!) protest movement, along with members of Coptic community councils. (Other Copts are more ambivalent about the movement or oppose it).

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