Muslim-Christian tensions around Deir Abu Fana monastery, Egypt


The clashes that have happened on May 31 in Deir Abu Fana, have attracted much media attention in Egypt and world wide. I want to open a critical discussion on that incident and appreciate any contributions and new thoughts on that subject.
There are some questions I would like to put forward.
Further I would recommend you to read Arab -West Report, www.arabwestreport.info
In week 15, 2008, you find interviews with the Governor/ the monks/ the villagers and local Sheikhs. On the website you find a map/ video material will follow.

I.Can we trust various media reports? - does it reflect in your eyes the incident as it happened or do you think it is important to acknowledge that the conflict is twofold and is a fight on land and due to the fact that both parties involved in the fight represent different religions, it resulted in a sectarian clash?
II.Conflicts about landownership occur often in Egypt since ownership documents are often 'urfi. The Bishop says to own legal papers that proves that the monastery owns the land. However, the Governor says that “all these lands are still the state's property. The monastery seems to have some documents that include 'urfi contracts between some of the citizens who had sold some of these lands to monks . All these contracts are null and void....” (Interview with the Governor, al-Minia, July 3). Since it is known that land is often obtained by creating 'urfi contracts, why is the government then not trying to make these papers legal?
III.Writer Ahmad al-Aswani writes on al-Aafaq.org that “What is happening to our Coptic brothers........is no longer a matter of sporadic incidents”. Do you agree with his view?
IV.I would like to explore solutions for these tensions, not only about this monastery but frequent incidents and much biased reporting about Egyptian Muslim-Christian relations. It is for me obvious that efforts must be made to make Muslims and Christians live together in peace and equality what what do you think are steps that are needed?

You can respond in any language you want, English and/or Arabic.

Thanks,

Dilan

Hi Dilan,

thanks for starting this discussion which will hopefully bring about some deeper thinking about "hidden" reasons.

To serve the "outside reader" in this case those who are not familiar with Egyptian local customs be so kind to explain the following details:

Why is land ownership so important along the Nile ?
What is the meaning of 'urfi ?
Which roles do the monasteries play for the Coptic population ?


Thanks DieterM

I would strongly recommend you reading the various texts we prepared for Arab-West Report, week 15, on Abu Fana. I have been working with a team of six people for two weeks about this and these texts provide a lot of background information (www.arabwestreport.info)

Below the interview with the governor of Minia I explained a number of terms he used. I wrote about urfi contracts: – Often handwritten agreements between citizens, not registered with official state institutions and therefore not recognized by the state. Urfi contracts are often used to avoid long painstaking bureaucratic procedures of state institutions.

The status of the documents of Bishop Dimitrius is thus a major issue. If these are indeed urfi contracts as the governor stated then his legal papers are indeed very weak. The problem is that bishop Dimitrius and clergy all state that there papers are legally perfectly ok without providing further details and thus that is reason to question those statements.

One should of course distinguish between land that has been owned by the monastery for ages. That land is not under dispute. And newly developed desert land and here are the questions about their legal status.

Why is landownership so important: See the translation of my article for the Reformatorisch Dagblad, in AWR week 15, article number 2. What do you think of a country of 80 million inhabitants on a surface as big as the Netherlands? The remainder of Egypt is desert. The population pressure is thus tremendous and it is therefore not surprising that people who are able to afford this are looking at the desert. Not all desert areas, however, can be developed. It depends on the soil. If rocky or too mountainous or too salty efforts to develop that are hopeless. Important too is the availability of water and thus there should be either ground water or a source closeby – that could be the Nile valley. It is thus not surprising that any efforts to reclaim land are on the edge of the Nile valley. The monastery is expanding in the desert. The villagers see that that reduces their ability to reclaim land from the desert. See the google map on the AWR website. We marked the monastery, its extension and _link_ed that to photos from our visit.

Monasteries are of major importance for the Coptic Christian population. The late German researcher on Coptic history and traditions Dr. Otto Meinardus told me once that when monastic life flourished the church in Egypt flourished and when monastic life was in decline the life of the church was in decline. Bishops and the pope are elected from among the monks. The influence of the pope and bishops on the ordinary faithful is tremendous. A bishop is a man of God and thus one is not supposed to doubt his judgment and decisions. He should be obeyed. This is a practice I disagree with. For me the pope and bishops deserve respect. They are humans as we all are humans with all weaknesses we have. We should not blindly accept whatever they say but ask questions, and at times might disagree but that is unfortunately not the attitude of most Coptic faithful. This attitude of bishops does not make it easy for bishops who are in fact monks who have been placed by their faithful on a high elevated place. If they don't watch out they become isolated, surrounded by people who always agree with them but therefore are insufficiently able to have open frank discussions on issues such of Abu Fana with members of their own church.

Raed al-Sharqawi posted today his latest news on Abu Fana on the website of AWR, www.arabwestreport.info

A friend of mine wrote:
"We continue to be with you and this issue in our prayers.

Ultimately it is not INFORMATION that changes the hearts, but the Holy
Spirit. so don't be disheartened if it all doesn't work the way it
should.

We should strive and also let God do his part."

This is certainly true but good information needs to be at hand. Lack of information, lack of transparency makes it possible to manipulate. Many people are manipulated. Coptic researcher Dr. Samir Marcos told me yesterday that he was astonished to meet with many people with strong opinions but not _base_d on any substantial information. Bishop Dimitrius, the governor and a very small group of people know what is going on but most people don't know key information, not clergy in Mallawi, not Egyptian Christians, not Coptic activists. I was told today that Coptic lawyers Naguib Gibrail and Mamdouh Nakhla have not visited the monastery after the attack on May 31. This is horrible.

Tomorrow I am going back to Minia and the monastery to ask for more information. I was supposed to go to the press conference of the bishop. We had informed his spokesman father Bola we would come. Tonight at 10.30 pm I spoke with bishop Marcos who told me to my surprise that bishop Dimitrius is traveling to the US to meet Pope Shenouda a second time in the US within two weeks. OK, but it would have been nice if father Bola would have made the effort to inform me and others who were planning to come. I called the priest and he confirmed the press conference was postponed to August 14 now. It has the appearance that bishop Dimitrius did not want to face the press and thus decided to go to the US to avoid meeting press. The press conference was anyhow strange. Not earlier had a bishop called for a press conference following a dispute with the government over land and handling tensions following the attack on may 31. In a way I am glad bishop Dimitrius does not hold the press conference. It could have led to more tensions in an already charged atmosphere. More tensions are certainly not needed. It would, however, have been nice to have been informed earlier. I am now using the occasion to try to find more information that will be presented in AWR.

I have been with a delegation of the Cairo Foreign Press Association to Minia and the monastery of Abu Fana on July 6 and 7. I tried to call Bishop Dimitrius on his mobile telephone on Tuesday evening to inform him personally about this press visit but I was told that the bishop was in his cell praying and I only got to speak to father Bola who told me at 10.00 pm that the FPA delegation was not welcome to visit the monastery. I subsequently immediately informed chairman Volkhard Windfuhr who tried numerous times to call the same mobile number but no one responded.

When we arrived at the monastery a group of six to seven monks was sitting outside the gate, welcomed us and were very willing to explain us their point of view, at times very emotional. On Wednesday we visited the monastery and neighboring village and met with MP Alaa Hassanein (Muslim) and Christian businessman Eid Labib who are trying to negotiate a settlement with monks and villagers. Following this we were invited by the governor for dinner in hotel Aton/Nefertiti. Here MP Alaa Hassanein received a telephone call from Bishop Yo'annis, personal secretary to H.H. Pope Shenouda, and gave the telephone to the governor who then emphatically told the bishop that he was not giving a press conference. The governor then gave the telephone to me and I told the bishop we had visited Abu Fana and were planning to visit the next day al-Bahnassa where I would explain the group about the Holy Family tradition. I also told the bishop that there had been no press conference, neither had the governor been willing to respond to any questions from members of the FPA delegation. I understood that if the governor would speak to the foreign press the bishop would interpret this as an attack on the church. The governor consequently did not do so because he wants a solution to the conflict and thus did not want to speak to our members but I am totally shocked by the pressure methods the church is using.

All indications are that the church is divided. It seems that church leaders did not want us to hear the story from the monks who indeed have made very crude comments that show no willingness to a compromise.

On July 3 one of the monks had claimed that miracles had happened, pictures of saints were not consumed by the fire, a sign that God is with the monastery. We have photographic evidence (see www.arabwestreport.info - visit July 24) that the claim of miracles is a lie. This has nothing to do with Christian ethics at all.

I have seen several comments on my article for Christianity Today http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2008/07/egyptian_villag_1.html

Medhat writes on the CT website that the governor "is not trustworthy since he belongs to the hard line of Muslim fundamentalists" and that. "There is no evidence that one Muslim was killed or injured in this incident, but police and security forces in Menya district "cooked" the reports to represent a distorted vision of what happened."

The governor does not show any sympathy for Islamists. From the statements/comments he makes and the language he is using I cannot but conclude that he is a secularist. Compare him to the secular Turkish generals.
Both the church and the governor have not gone public with documents to support their stances and one can certainly blame both church and state for lack of transparency.

Denying that one Muslim was killed is ridiculous. I have met with his family and have seen his picture. The governor told me during a brief that that was not an interview that he attended the funeral and was sad to see the end of life of a young man who had a pregnant wife. The young man was very poor and it will be very hard for his widow to continue without him. These are human dimensions that should not be denied. Not only this, none of the monks denied that the young man was killed but they deny the monastery was responsible for his death.

One of the journalists commented that it seems that both monastery and villagers are benefiting from this conflict. It brings in financial support to both parties in the conflict. Sad, but in the way it is handled it will never come to an end and conflicts like these will come back over and over again. That is not because of an Islamist governor (as Coptic activists abroad claim) but because of various interests to keep the fire burning.