Copts and Muslims Move Closer Together

"Not just dialogue, but also cooperation" – that's one of the slogans of the Coptic Evangelical Association for Social Services in Cairo. Three years ago, the organization founded the project called "The Young Generation."

The goal of the project is to bring young Christian and Muslim men between the ages of 25 and 40, all of whom work in religious professions, together for the purposes of discussion.

In order to encourage this dialogue, the organization holds weekly conferences for participants, who are organized into work groups throughout Egypt.

No more than 30 participants may belong to any one work group. The groups discuss a broad range of religious, political and social issues. In addition, workshops are organized, as well as tours of various institutions.

Defining principles

Sheikh Atia al-Fiqqi, an employee of the Egyptian Waqf Ministry for Religious Foundations and member of one of the groups in the project for promoting religious dialogue, became aware of the project at the ministry. He explained that both the Ministry for Religious Foundations and Al Azhar University have reacted quite positively to the project.

Sheikh Atia views the project as a chance to establish contact with Christian counterparts and to clarify fundamental questions, since vague perceptions have spread throughout Egyptian society over a longer period of time. He believes this is the result of child rearing practices and the educational system.

The lack of opportunities to get to know and to discuss issues with one another is especially detrimental to understanding each other's religion, says Atia. He had never met a priest before, except at social functions whose sole aim was media coverage.

Atia explains that Muslims and Christians usually resist dialogue. They are convinced that dialogue between the religions means that one of the two sides will eventually have to distance itself from its own principles in order to verify the principles of the other. Others fear that dialogue is part of a conspiracy aimed at eliminating the differences between the religions.

The young generation

The two-way exchange that took place at the conferences led all of the participants to adopt a critical attitude toward the habits of the past.

Their original position of rejection became a much more open attitude, as aversion was replaced by acceptance, defamation by respect, accusation by tolerance and discord by cooperation.

Participants in the discussions, which are held throughout Egypt, debate significant issues such as the importance of religion in the information age, the challenges to Egyptian society in the 21st century, the role of the media in reforming religion, scientific discourse or the importance of the syllabus in helping to raise a young generation open to dialogue.

A Christian-Islamic committee

A committee especially formed for the project, made up of experts and consultants of both Christian and Islamic faiths, is responsible for organizing the workshops and forums for the various discussion groups. The events are held at the headquarters of the Christian Evangelical Association in Cairo and at churches and mosques all over Egypt.

Nabil Labib, a priest who is also a member of one of the program's discussion groups, believes that the two sides truly have moved closer to one another. Representatives of both religions have got to know one another and in some cases, even personal friendships have developed. He also says they have been successful in overcoming their mutual suspicions.

Nabil stresses that each discussion is approached scientifically. The organizers distribute a theory paper in advance and later, participants discuss its various aspects. Finally, the results of the debate are summarized and distributed to all of the groups in the country's governorships.

Additionally, the published discussion reports are archived in the library of the Coptic Evangelical Association, which houses a large collection of books on Islam and Christianity as well as on the history of dialogue.

A lack of publicity

Atia and Nabil agree that the organization's effort to promote dialogue has its weak points. One of these, they say, is that the general public is hardly aware of the discussions. The proposals and results drawn up at the sessions go unnoticed outside of the conference rooms. The noticeable implementation of their proposals is not currently taking place within Egyptian society.

Nelly Youssef

© Qantara.de 2004

Translation from German: Mark Rossman