“Again, the Crescent embraces the Cross on the street”; An overview on Muslim-Christian Relations in Egypt during the January Revolution in 2011.

The portrait of the crescent embracing the cross was already rooted in the Egyptian sentiment as a symbol of Muslim-Christian unity since the revolution in 1919, when it was represented on a flag during the demonstrations against British colonization. That year was authentically sculpted into contemporary history, when Egyptians from diverse religious groups stood hand by hand on the streets, challenging the colonial power. It also illustrated a conviviality among the religious leaders that positively impacted the grassroots movements in churches and mosques. Abouna Sergius, a Coptic priest, had preached from the pulpit of the famous Al-Azhar mosque, where these speeches lasted for months, confirming that Copts stood in solidarity with their fellow Egyptian Muslims to face British occupation. In her article Vivian Ibrahim stated that all Egyptians groups were together as a cohesive unit. (no. 14 (November 14, 2015Vivian Ibrahim, ‘Beyond the Cross and the Crescent’)

The revolution in 1919 led 800 Egyptians to lose their lives, and although it reaped fruits, it was not promptly. Afer thirty years of British occupation in Egypt, and as World War One started, Britain exploited all the economic and human resources for her military efort. Afer the war came to an end, Saad Zaghloul and his company had travelled to the British Administrator Reginald Wingate, asking him for independence, but they were not even welcomed. So, they started collecting thousands of signatures for Egypt to be represented in the Reconciliation Conference in Paris. The occupation forces had decided to exile Saad and his fellows to Malta. At that point, the first symptoms of the revolution had started; the peasants had cut of the railway roads, the labourers and employees went on strikes, and the schools, universities and Al-Azhar students had marched in massive demonstrations asking for independence or death! The women had also demonstrated before the men, the Copts with the Muslims, al of them as one.

Until today, the 1919 revolution was an obligatory historical period in the school syllabus that children should pay attention to. Generations were inspired by all those Egyptian, Muslims and Christians and how they had stood together against the foreign British forces that took over our land. This confirmed that the critical situation unveiled what had already existed inside the Egyptian character, that Egyptians profoundly love their neighbours and bravely face enemies without considering any religious sectarianism.

Before displaying the January revolution events, it is important to know that in the collective memory of the Egyptian people, the term ‘Copt’ and ‘Coptic’ always comes to refer to the Egyptian Christians and the church afairs in Egypt. (Magdi Guirguis, ‘The Copts and the Egyptian Revolution’). About the Christians’ presence in Egypt and their situation afer the revolution, Abu-Munshar indicated the following:

“In Egypt, Christians make up 10% of the population, making Egyptian Christians the largest Christian community in the

Arab world. When studying the position taken by Christians in Egypt towards the Egyptian revolution, one sees a clear divergence. Whereas the late Pope Shenouda iii (d. 2012), opposed the revolution, many Christians in Egypt supported and actively took part in it.” (Maher Y. Abu-Munshar, ‘In the Shadow of the ‘Arab Spring’’).

Before the 2011 revolution, many voices had called for a common project that would grant democratic life to Egypt. At that time the hierarchy of the Coptic Christian Church, as all the religious leadership in Egypt, was in partnership with the regime. When the Egyptian revolution erupted, the Egyptian Christians joined together in massive numbers and protested in the streets with their fellow Muslim Egyptians, demanding the removal of the regime. The relation between the church and the government did not forbid the Copts from expressing their rage regarding the oppression and injustice that the nation had experienced during Mubarak’s regime. (Paul S. Rowe, ‘Christian- Muslim Relations in Egypt in the Wake of the Arab Spring’) Although while Mubarak ruled, the church was privileged by expanding her own structure in order to organize the Christian community all over the country, many priests and church leaders had explicitly engaged in the demonstrations. against the system that Mubarak represented…; it was against fostering personal loyalties of public servants at the expense of loyalty to Egypt; it was against a security state that had litle regard for human rights; and it was against rule-for-life by any one individual.” (Elibrachy, ‘An Egyptian View of the Revolution in Egypt’)

Various reactions could be observed among the Egyptians during the 18 days of demonstrations, as some had strongly participated, some merely watched, some hesitated or were afraid, and others had actively opposed the revolution. (Guirguis, ‘The Copts and the Egyptian Revolution’).

The nucleus of the 2011 revolution had started by a demonstration that took place in downtown Cairo, where the protesters stood up for the death of the 28-year-old internet activist Khaled Saeed, who was brutally mistreated and murdered by the police in Alexandria in 2010. This early demonstration was chosen to take place on the 25th of January, as it represented the ‘Police Day’ in Egypt, which was considered to be a challenging action towards Mubarak’s regime.

Khalid Ali, a political activist, lawyer and one of the famous key figures of the Egyptian revolution, had bullet-pointed nine main signposts that appeared in the political theatre a decade before the revolution and indicated the sufering and oppression that Egyptians experienced during Mubarak’s regime. The highly moving latest two signposts were the death of Khaled Said and the Two Saints Church bombing that killed dozens of people and reopened deep sectarian wounds. (Ali, ‘Precursors of the Egyptian Revolution’)

El-Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar – the oldest historical Islamic university and the highest supreme Islamic Sunni institute in the Islamic world, based in Egypt – had announced on the national Egyptian television through a phone call with the national news program that: “...the continuity of these demonstrations afer the warranties that were announced, is really an invitation to chaos, and it is not possible for such a big and huge country like Egypt to be pushed forward towards such chaos”. Also, the news had explicitly announced that the continuation of recent demonstrations would be ‘religiously forbidden’.

(Carrillo, Welsh & Zaki, ‘The Revolution, New Egypt, and Psychological Sense of Community’).

Bahieldin H.Z. Elibrachy says in his article about the main reason for the revolution: “The 2011 revolution was not merely a revolution against the person of President Mubarak. It was

Similarly, the former Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Shenouda iii, had explicitly declared his condemnation to the demonstrations and his support to President Mubarak. As a result, the Coptic bishops and church leaders had done their best not to let the Christian clergies and Copts to be at Tahrir Square, referring to the critical situation for the future of the church if Mubarak stepped down. This approach directly influenced many Christians, especially clergies that had not shown up by then, and considered the church’s request and Pope’s words, but it didn’t completely forbid the Copts to be strongly presented amid the revolution.

Another key factor was media. In Egypt media highlights whatever it would like to highlight, sometimes according to certain agendas, and other times just by imitating and following bigger media platforms. Most of them do not show another perspective of the story as it may contradict their agenda or oppose the adopted ideology. But there were some scenes that pushed networks to reconsider that the story of the revolution had much more perspectives rather than the one displayed on the media screens. Some of them indicated magnificent scenes that totally contradicted the propagated scenario about the Muslim-Christian relations in Egypt.

For example, churches in Egypt used to have force guards on their doors. If one visits any church in Egypt, this uncommon scene will be one’s first eye-popping image. At the time of the revolution even these guards disappeared! According to the stereotyped ideas regarding the hostility between Muslim and Christians, this would have been a perfect moment for Muslims to atack the churches and destroy the Christian possessions and symbols, and vice versa! But what the scene had illustrated was outstanding; Muslims were protecting the churches from any expected armed atack as if it were their own home, commenting: this is God’s house!

On the other side, another well known scene occurred during the Muslim time of prayer. While Muslim believers were bowing on the floor, Christians were protecting them in the middle of Tahrir Square where a lot of danger surrounded the protesters who were under live fire, tear gas and the injured lay in the so-called ‘field hospitals’.

These words were said by an Egyptian Muslim who was part of a gathering that calls our minds back to the scenes of Egyptian Muslims gathering around Coptic churches afer the brutal terroristic atack that targeted the Saints Church in Alexandria. That atack led to the death of 21 Copts, while Al-Qaeda took responsibility. (Aslan, ‘Christians and Muslims, We Are All Egyptians’)

Does this mean there are no tensions or challenges between the two communities? Does this indicate a just life for Christians in Egypt? That no requirements or objectionable discourses exist? The answer is no! All these exist and more, however, Egyptian Muslims and Christians do not hate each other. We live in the same society that suffers from social, educational and political stress. We all go to the same schools, universities and we work at the Egyptian governmental desks that sufer from lack of vision and bureaucracy. We also claim that we worship the same God; Allah.

Ronald A. Baasten in his article about the Christian-Muslim relations, states: “’Allah’ is simply the Arabic word for ‘God’, in the same way that ‘Theos’ is Greek for ‘God’. Perhaps to clarify we should observe that ‘Allah’ or ‘God’ is not a proper name, but a descriptive term which can be translated, unlike proper names. Christians have for millennia referred to God as ‘Allah’, long even before the emergence of Mohamed, for example the Copts in Egypt who have been around since the first century.”

(Baatsen,‘The Will to Embrace’)

At the time of revolution, the interior forces had disappeared from the country; the police stations were empty, the prisons were opened, all the prisoners were freely moving all around the Egyptian cities where many of them started to commit thef and smuggling among various neighborhoods. Also, some of them did robbed the weapons lef in the police stations! If there were a real profound hostility planted against the other from the early days, if both sides hated and wished to harm each other, the days of revolution would have been the golden days for these deep feelings to rise up to the surface as the power and force were suspended.

The bbc News, while covering the January Revolution in Egypt, reported about the Coptic Christian protesters surrounding their fellow Egyptian brothers and sisters while performing the noon prayers, as a human chain against the internal force atacks.

ofcial announcement of President Mubarak’s resignation. All over the Egyptian cities the nonparticipants waved at their homes, the car drivers honked their horns, and the people on the streets sang songs. The slogans they used to recite and proclaim at the time of the revolution in Tahrir Square were “Muslims, Christians, we are all Egyptians”, and “Christians and Muslims, one hand”. All of this at the time thatEgyptians felt that their chains had dropped from their hands. Now it is the moment to be ourselves -some saidapart from any misuse of a religio-political agenda.

To finish, I would like to repeat the words of the Sheikh from Luxor (the British Museum YouTube channel, ‘Copts and Muslims for a Peaceful Coexistence’), who afrmed that the Egyptians’ authenticity and those real feelings toward one another appeared on the surface during times of distress. The revolution had revealed the power and cohesion of the Egyptian nation, where the crescent embraces the cross on the street.

— ramy hanna

Ramy Hanna is an ecumenical activist who studied Intercultural Theology at Goetingen University. He also represents the Coptic Orthodox Church in wcc Commissions. He is a member of a local scm in Egypt and recently a 'Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace' report group member of wcc.

A shared emotional connection and collective celebratory behavior – not commonly witnessed except at the football games – was strongly experienced on the streets afer the