'Promote understanding to achieve peaceful co-existence'

Anba Ermia, General Bishop and President of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center

Cairo - We should educate those who appear in the media that nobody should touch religion, says Coptic Bishop

Bernd Debusmann Jr.

Published: Tue 28 Feb 2017, 10:08 AM

Last updated: Tue 28 Feb 2017, 12:17 PM

With Egypt still reeling from a spate of anti-Christian violence, a senior leader of the country's Coptic community has a message for the region: peaceful coexistence is possible and intolerance has no place on public television.
"We should educate those who appear in the media that nobody should touch religion," he said. "Religion is not for TV. It's for the church and the mosque. TV channels should (bring together) Muslims and Christians," Anba Ermia, General Bishop and President of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center, told a group of reporters on a visit arranged by the UAE-based Muslim Council of Elders.
He was speaking at St. Mark's Cathedral in Cairo, just beside the site of a December 11 attack by a Daesh suicide bomber that nearly 30 people - mostly women and children - dead.
Ermia held out an Egyptian program as an example of how to bridge the gap between Muslims and their Christian neighbours. Conceived in 2011, the "Family House" is devoted to training local sheikhs, imams, priests and pastors to engage in social development and dialogue, with the aim of fostering unity between the two religions. Since it's inception, more than 220 people have graduated from the program.

Recent acts of violence directed at Egypt's CoptsIn February 2017, over 100 Coptic families fled their homes in Egypt's restive North Sinai following a series of killings in El Arish.
On December 11, 2016, a Daesh suicide bomber struck St. Peter and St. Paul's church, which is next to St. Mark's Cathedral, the seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope. A total of 29 people were killed, mostly women and children.
In February 2015, 21 Egyptian Coptic migrant workers were kidnapped in the Libyan city of Sirte, and later executed by Daesh militants.

It was designed by the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Ahmed Al Tayeb, and the late Coptic Orthodox Pope, Shenouda III.
"The main problem is the inability to understand the other," Ambar Emia said, speaking through an interpreter. "If (people) make no effort to discover who (the other) is, they will be afraid."
"There are common things between Christians and Muslims," he added. "We aim to reach acceptance of each other. Nobody should use religion to impact badly on the other."
Ermia added that the media had an important role to play, and noted that the program has previously been criticized in regional media outlets. He said Family House could be adapted easily to other countries in the region affected by religious violence and pledged to promote the program's reach.
"We will try implement this idea all over the world and reproduce it," he said.

The Coptic church has set up in memory of the victims of the December 11 attack.
The bombing at St. Mark's cathedral followed a string of violent anti-Christian acts elsewhere. In February, more than 100 Coptic families fled North Sinai, following a series of gruesome killings in the area, which is considered a hotbed of Daesh extremists. On February 19, the local Daesh affiliate released a video depicting the man responsible for the December bombing, and threatening further attacks on Egyptian Copts. In 2015, 21 Egyptian Copts were kidnapped and beheaded on a beach in neighboring Libya.
Ermia said that education has a vital role to play in countering violence by instilling tolerance at a young age, and preventing extremist groups from influencing young people, which he said is facilitated by a "lack and neglect" of culture and education.

St. Peter and St. Paul's church in Cairo, where 29 people were killed by a Daesh suicide bomber on December 11.
"We have a high percentage of youth in Egypt, and bad groups are triggering Egyptian youth by destroying the education and health sectors," he noted. "Developing education is a shared responsibility of society, the public and the government."
"We (must teach) that we are all living in the same country, and loving the same country," he added.
Youth unemployment in Egypt is running at just above 30 per cent, according to recent statistics.
bernd@khaleejtimes.com