The remorseless and sanguine Russian dictator Joseph Stalin once noted, “The murder of one is a tragedy; the murder of millions, a statistic.” Alas, if current events are any indication, there is truth in this perverse claim. Recently, there have been random attacks on Christians in Egypt and the Middle East.
On New Year’s Day, a bombing took place in Alexandria at a Coptic church that left 23 dead. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which came after threats from an al-Qaeda-linked group in Iraq and a deadly attack on a Baghdad cathedral on October 31.
At the same time, Pope Benedict XVI has called on Egypt and other Muslim nations to protect their Christian minorities. But a new round of violence has emerged. An off-duty police officer in upper Egypt checked train passengers for the green cross tattooed on the wrist of Coptic Christians in Egypt. After identifying those who were Copts, he killed one and injured five others, firing his handgun at innocent civilians simply because they are Christians. According to eyewitnesses, the gunman sought out Christians on board the commuter line and shouted, “Allahu Akbar”—that is, “God is great,” as he opened fire.
What are we to make of this break with the code of civility? A police officer with the responsibility of protecting all citizens of the state including the Christian minority takes it upon himself to kill Christians wantonly, seemingly because they are Christian. Moreover, it would be one thing if this were the random act of a crazed, lunatic. However, the assailant is an officer of the law, there to provide stability.
Of course, this was an aberrational act from Egyptian authorities. But how random was it? It did not trigger a response from the Cairo paper and it did not generate a stir in the media. In fact, the only noticeable response came from the Coptic population in which 200 went to the hospital where the wounded were taken and were later dispersed by the local police.
When the pope’s emissary raised an issue about the safety of Egyptian Christians (numbering about 10 percent of the population), the Mubarak government reacted by recalling the ambassador to the Vatican. He noted, “We will not allow any non-Egyptian party to intervene in our internal affairs under any pretext.” Presumably, that includes the targeting of Christians for slaughter.
The brazen manner in which Christians are targeted throughout the Muslim world from Sudan to Iran and Egypt to Afghanistan should be a source of concern for the United Nations. However, the rights of minorities are only honored in the breach among Muslim states. When the reverse occurs, when a Muslim minority in a non-Muslim state is mistreated, it becomes an issue for the Muslim bloc nations and is immediately inserted into the Security Council agenda. Unfortunately, it appears the recent murder of Christians and the pope’s appeal will fall on deaf ears.
Clearly, it is time for Christians to assert themselves by speaking out against the continued abuse in Muslim nations. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak may have lost control in Egypt, but it is not too late to restore order in other Muslim nations. In some cases, the Copts are pawns to promote civil unrest with political realignment the ultimate goal. But whatever the motives, these murderous conditions should not be allowed to prevail.
-Herbert London is president of the Hudson Institute and author of, “Decline and Revival in Higher Education.”
