Muslims shield Christians observing mass

[LordDon]

Stories like this (http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/3365.aspx) keep me going in spite of all the grim shit going on in the world:

Egypt's majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.

From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as "human shields" for last night's mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.

"We either live together, or we die together," was the sloganeering genius of Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon whose cultural centre distributed flyers at churches in Cairo Thursday night, and who has been credited with first floating the "human shield" idea.

"This is not about us and them," said Dalia Mustafa, a student who attended mass at Virgin Mary Church on Maraashly. "We are one. This was an attack on Egypt as a whole, and I am standing with the Copts because the only way things will change in this country is if we come together."

[burger]

Well that's an uplifting story...thanks for posting it

[Vigil80]

That is a beautiful story. Sounds too good to be true.

[Narradisall]

Wow, that really was an amazing thing to do.

Nice to see some good news getting highlighted for a change. Shame the mass media doesn't run headlines on such things. The church attack got much more coverage. Shame.

[Khrymsyn]

Big bravo for that one. Sometimes gets tough to see much good left in the human race with all of the negativity that's constantly in the news. =(

[Voodoo]

Big bravo for that one. Sometimes gets tough to see much good left in the human race with all of the negativity that's constantly in the news. =(
When you stop watching the Hellavision, you realize much sooner that there are good people all around you.

[J Arcane]

This is awesome. Go Egypt.

[carnage11]

Yeah, that's a pretty awesome story. Hopefully there is a ripple effect and we see more stuff like this. It's just a shame you have to go to some off beat news site to get a story like this.

[Shrinn]

That's incredible.

[astranoir]

This made my day. Awesome.

[OldeWolf]

Finally a positive Muslim news and one that supports other religion other than their own to boot too.

[Superman's Dead]

Back when Iraq first fell, there was a cover story in Time about a Shi'ite militia that kept up a guard around a Sunni mosque in their neighborhood so that no one would get any crazy ideas about blowing it up. One of the favorite news stories I've ever read.

[Blue]

Awesome. Really appreciate you posting this.

[JRR006]

Very brave, good people!

[AntonThaGreat]

Truly standing together in solidarity.

I applaud these people and actually want to report this from another thread:

http://s-ak.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/web03/2011/1/11/2/sarah-palin-is-feeling-unjustly-blamed-15559-1294729462-10.jpg

[TheFlyingOrc]

Truly standing together in solidarity.

I applaud these people and actually want to report this from another thread:

http://s-ak.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/web03/2011/1/11/2/sarah-palin-is-feeling-unjustly-blamed-15559-1294729462-10.jpg

By all means, take a feelgood thread and turn it angry. Sounds like a great idea.

[MagGnome]

When you stop watching the Hellavision, you realize much sooner that there are good people all around you.

Agreed. My life has certainly improved since I stopped reading or watching mainstream news.

[VerseD]

I went last year through Syria, Jordan, West Bank, and Egypt, and I talked to a lot of Muslims who told me the same thing: "I like Christians, Jesus is in the Koran, which also says not to kill people, and hey, I only have one wife." This as they serve me tea and invite me home for dinner.

The general notion is that all Westerners are afraid of Muslims and think them violent, prejudiced, backwards polygamists -- and reading most newspapers, I can see where they'd get such ideas -- when in fact they are very proud of their faith, but also more tolerant, generous, and hospitable than almost anyone else on the planet.

Fundamentalists are the same-sized sliver amongst Muslims as in any other culture. What's sad is that it takes a great act like this to draw any attention to the whole rest of them, while a thousand acts of daily kindness go unnoticed.

[CES]

I went last year through Syria, Jordan, West Bank, and Egypt, and I talked to a lot of Muslims who told me the same thing: "I like Christians, Jesus is in the Koran, which also says not to kill people, and hey, I only have one wife." This as they serve me tea and invite me home for dinner.

The general notion is that all Westerners are afraid of Muslims and think them violent, prejudiced, backwards polygamists -- and reading most newspapers, I can see where they'd get such ideas -- when in fact they are very proud of their faith, but also more tolerant, generous, and hospitable than almost anyone else on the planet.

Fundamentalists are the same-sized sliver amongst Muslims as in any other culture. What's sad is that it takes a great act like this to draw any attention to the whole rest of them, while a thousand acts of daily kindness go unnoticed.

Muslims Actually Quite Reasonable as a headline doesn't sell as much as Muslim Terrorist Blows Up Bus, 25 Killed which is just a sad truth of the world. Islam as a whole is actually and always has been more or less progressive. It established the basic laws of war (which follow the UN declaration remarkably closely) back in the time of the Crusades when Christianity was carving up folk and burning down villages.

Slightly more on-topic, Muhammad himself is supposed to have said "Be good to the Copts of Egypt, Be Rightous to God about the Copts" so any attack on them goes against the word of the Prophet and is borderline blasphemy.

[AntonThaGreat]

If you guys want to learn a little more about Islam, there's a great National Geographic special called Inside Mecca (http://www.hulu.com/watch/70099/national-geographic-specials-inside-mecca#s-p2-sr-i0)on Hulu.

[LordDon]

Christian Egyptians return the favor (http://yfrog.com/h7ap5rdj):

http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg619/scaled.php?tn=0&server=619&filename=ap5rd.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=640

[VerseD]

This is awesome.

[Narradisall]

Not nearly enough coverage of this good stuff. Makes you hopeful.

[CES]

And we're back to the bad. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12393075)

More than 1,000 Muslim protesters have stormed a courthouse and burned two churches in central Java, Indonesia.

The attacks in Temanggung happened after a Christian man was sentenced to five years in jail for distributing leaflets deemed insulting to Islam.

Indonesian police said the crowd considered the sentence too lenient and were demanding the death penalty.

One step forward and two back.

[MagGnome]

Wow.....

There are no words for that kind of crazy.

[Superman's Dead]

And we're back to the bad. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12393075)



One step forward and two back.

Well, sort of. The Egyptian Muslims and Coptics are hopefully bonding during the harsh times they're presently living through, helping each other out and truly understanding who each other is as people.

Elsewhere in the world is always a different story.

[CES]

Well, sort of. The Egyptian Muslims and Coptics are hopefully bonding during the harsh times they're presently living through, helping each other out and truly understanding who each other is as people.

Elsewhere in the world is always a different story.

The point was that incidents like that don't help the negative viewpoints the world gets of Islam. I mean, sure, we all know it's the actions of a few fuckheads but it's prime fuel for the scaremongers: "Look at those savages, wanting to kill someone over leaflets of all things! That's not the way a human being should act."

[Superman's Dead]

The point was that incidents like that don't help the negative viewpoints the world gets of Islam. I mean, sure, we all know it's the actions of a few fuckheads but it's prime fuel for the scaremongers: "Look at those savages, wanting to kill someone over leaflets of all things! That's not the way a human being should act."

Ahhh, gotcha gotcha gotcha.

People should just watch Stargate.