There has been a Coptic church on this site for centuries. St Mina (or Menas) is one of the most well-known of Egypt's saints, and St George needs no introduction.Yesterday, a church dedicated to their blessed memory was destroyed in a small town just outside Cairo. It was torched by 'thousands of Muslims' (or are they Islamists? Or, for Baroness Warsi, are these 'thousands' simply a minority-of-a-minority ‘extremists’?) chanting ‘Democracy Akhbar’ – Democracy is Great! It is a curiously syncretised slogan, juxtaposing the Anglo-Greek with the Arabic: perhaps we will be hearing many more of them in the years to come. ‘Allah Save the Queen!’, perhaps; or the Aquinas-Mohammed ‘Just Jihad’ theory; or ‘Halal a day helps you work, rest and play’; or ‘Sharia – it’s what your right arm’s for’.
Apparently, the clergy in this church are still unaccounted for. There isn’t a mention of this barbarism on the BBC, or, for that matter, in any of the ‘mainstream’ media. As far as they are concerned, it hasn’t happened. So the UK is oblivious, preoccupied by the drama of the latest Middle East revolution, or distracted by David Beckham’s tattoo. Our media Attention Deficit Disorder can’t be bothered with the aftermath of the delightful downfall of dictators: Saddam was removed from Iraq; the Chaledean Christians are persecuted. Lebanon had its ‘Cedar Revolution’ to eradicate Hezbollah; the land is ‘cleansed’ of Christians. The people of Tunisia topple their corrupt president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali; the Islamist hordes attack women and murder a Roman Catholic priest. And freedom-fighting Egyptians occupy Tahrir Square until Pharaoh Mubarak is forced out of office; and in moves the godfather of the Muslim Brotherhood Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi.
But we’ve moved on to Libya now: Colonel Gaddafi is the latest tragic hero to captivate our attention and entertain our thoughts.
And if not that, it’s the latest round of Dancing on Ice.
Or David Beckam’s tattoo.
As far as the British people are concerned, there is no persecution of Christians in Egypt, or anywhere in the Middle East, for that matter. For no ‘reliable’ media is reporting on it.
So, when you hear that ‘a mob of nearly four thousand Muslims has attacked Coptic homes’, do not believe it.
When you see that they have ‘torched the Church of St Mina and St George’, look the other way.
When it is reported that the clergy ‘died in the fire’ or are ‘being held captive by the Muslims inside the church’, let it fall on deaf ears.
When you read that ‘the mob prevented the fire brigade from entering the village’, don’t give it a second thought.
When you read that ‘a curfew has been imposed on the 12,000 Christians in the village’, just turn a blind eye.
When you read that ‘terrorised Copts have fled’, be oblivious.
And when you are told that ‘the mob chanted "Allahu Akbar" and vowed to conduct their morning prayers on the church plot after razing it’, don’t, for God’s sake, let the penny drop.
And if you want a reputable source for this atrocity – for one can expect AINA to be a veritable mine of islamophobic misinformation and propaganda – look no further than The Corner of The National Review Online, which draws on the AINA report but tells us further that Egypt’s Copts are begging for the Egyptian Armed Forces to protect them. Nina Shea, who is Director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, says:
“I also received a message from a Coptic friend that this week members of the Muslim Brotherhood, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’, stormed a Christian school on Thabit Street in downtown Asyut and attempted to take it over. Egyptian security forces, including an army unit, intervened and routed out the Brotherhood members. The school had been built by Presbyterian missionaries in the early 1900s, and is now directed by Presbyterian Pastor Naji. Christian leaders from this southern area expressed a deepening sense of insecurity as the Muslim Brotherhood emerges from the underground.”This incident follows the recent report of attacks upon a monastery. Egypt’s 10 million Coptic Christians are being religiously persecuted under the cloak of political chaos.
But that’s of no concern to the BBC or the rest of our trusty mainstream media.
They’ve got the latest Dancing on Ice spat.
Or David Beckham’s tattoo.
