President of Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisi opened a massive cathedral (the Cathedral of Nativity of Christ) on Christmas Eve in Egypt’s new administrative capital just 28 miles east of Cairo. During the inauguration, security was at its peak since there had been a deadly bomb blast at the Al-Haq mosque near the Virgin Mary Church in the Nasr district of Cairo. This incident was unfortunately not surprise news, as jihadists have been repeatedly trying to attack those belonging to the Christian faith. In fact, Coptic Christians, who account for around 10 percent of Egypt’s population, have been hit by a string of attacks by the Islamic State group in recent years. The blast killed a policeman who was trying to deactivate the device and wounded two other individuals. Sisi began the grand opening of the cathedral by giving a speech, which “carried a message of unity” according to those present at the event. “We are one and will continue to be one,” Sisi stated. This message alone depicts Sisi as a strong and capable leader, as he is not losing hope of being able to keep his people together despite the continuing difficulties Egypt is facing. His confidence also sends a message to those responsible for the crime that he is not afraid to keep moving forward even if it means facing potential deadly consequences. Egypt’s top Muslim cleric Ahmed al-Tayeb also demonstrated leadership as he told those present at the inauguration that, “If islamic law requires Muslims to protect mosques, it equally requires Muslims to protect churches.\u201d A mosque and a church differ regarding how often their congregations occur, but they both share one similar characteristic: they are still places where people can go and practice their faith. Therefore, the level of protection offered should not differ between the two, as individuals of all religions should have the opportunity to go and pray without fear of being severely injured or even killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The opening of the cathedral was hailed by US president Donald Trump, as he stated that, “Sisi is moving his country to a more inclusive future.” Pope Francis also illustrated a positive response to Coptic Pope Tawadros II as he stated in a video response that Tawadros, “was able to give a true testimony of faith and charity, also in times of difficulties.” There was no immediate claim of responsibility of the blast until the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawki Allam denounced that the attack was led by a terrorist organization and instead stated that, “extremists” had planted an explosive device on the roof of Al-Haq mosque…near the Virgin Mary Church.” Al-Azhar, Egypt’s highest institution of Sunni Islam, also condemned the attack, stating that, “The targeting of worship places and killing of innocents is a flagrant criminal act that violates teachings of all religions.\u201d Regardless of who committed the crime, it doesn’t make it any more right for an individual\/group of individuals to put other’s lives in danger. It is crucial that investigators quickly figure out the culprit so they can find them before they commit another deadly act and potentially take more lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President of Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisi opened a massive cathedral (the Cathedral of Nativity of Christ) on Christmas Eve in Egypt’s new administrative capital just 28 miles east of Cairo. During the inauguration, security was at its peak since there had been a deadly bomb blast at the Al-Haq mosque near the Virgin Mary Church in the Nasr district of… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2925,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924\/revisions\/2925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}