Pyramids in Peril of Islam
by Lord David Alton
The Pyramids are synonymous with Egypt. And yet, if some radical Islamists get their way, the Pyramids – the last of the seven wonders of the world – will follow the famous centuries-old Djingareyber tombs in Mali’s Timbuktu and the sixth century Buddhas of Bamiyan, in Afghanistan, carved into the side of a cliff, and dynamited and destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban on the orders of Mullah Mohammed Omar.
Islamists decreed that the Buddhas and the Mali tombs were idolatrous and now, Abd al-Latif al-Mahmoud ,”Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs” has called on Egypt’s new president, Muhammad Morsi, to “destroy the Pyramids and accomplish what the Sahabi Amr bin al-As could not.” This was a reference to the leader of the Arabian tribesmen who conquered Egypt in the seventh century. Some historians say that these invaders destroyed the Ancient – or Royal – Library of Alexandria – the most significant library of the ancient world. This contested account is supported by five contemporary Arabic sources which report that the Library was destroyed by Amr on the order of the Caliph Omar – a view which Abd al-Latif al-Mahmoud clearly holds.
Why would anyone want to burn books or destroy or deface monuments? Our own history – the whitewashing of church paintings; the destruction of stained glass windows; the public burning of statues of the Virgin Mary – provides some clues.
Books in Alexandria contained knowledge which contradicted the teaching which Amr wished to impose and tombs, statues and great edifices open the possibility of finding a different way to reach God.
Mali’s orgy of destruction, and maybe Egypt’s next, reveals an extraordinary intolerance: a desire to obliterate what is precious to others.
In turn, this reveals a deep seated insecurity and inability to cope with diversity and difference. For these radicals, if something – or someone – is not part of the Islamic nation – the Umma – then it may not be permitted to exist.
The Afghanistan Buddhas could not be tolerated because they pointed back to a richer history than the Taliban could allow.
Similarly, the al-Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine radicals, who seized Timbuktu in April, will not accept a divergent view of Islam. The tombs are centuries-old shrines to Islamic saints, revered by Sufi Muslims – whose gentle ways have been targeted wherever radical Islamists have come to the fore – most notably in Pakistan and Somalia.
Now, as the Egyptian writer, Raymond Ibrahim has reported, it’s the turn of Egypt’s 138 Pyramids – mainly built for the Pharaohs during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods – the earliest of which was built around 2630 years before the birth of Christ. The most famous of the pyramids are found near Cairo, at Giza. What the Saudi Sheikh, Ali bin Said al-Rabi’I, calls “symbols of paganism” are, for many of us simply breathtakingly awesome.
But it’s not just the Pyramids that Egypt’s radical Salafis want to see the back of. They have also called on President Morsi to banish all Shia Muslims and Baha’is from Egypt and the country’s Christian Copts have long been in their sights. Persecution of Copts has already led to an exodus of Biblical proportions.
The Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organisation says that over 100,000 Coptic Christians left Egypt last year. Its director reports:
“Copts are not emigrating voluntarily; they are coerced into that by threats and intimidation of hard-line Salafists, and the lack of protection they are getting from the Egyptian regime.” This story from modern Alexandria helps to explain why:
What happened in Alexandria in 2011 was far worse than the burning of books fifteen hundred years ago. As they celebrated Midnight Mass at the Coptic Church of the Two Saints in Alexandria, radical Islamists detonated bombs, killing 21 people. As Pascal once observed “Men never do evil so cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction”.
Among those who died at Alexandria was a young Coptic woman called Mariam “Mariouma” Fekry. On the last day of 2010 she entered the following note Facebook:
“2010 is over…..this year has the best memories of my life….really enjoyed living this year……I hope 2011 is much better…….I have so many wishes in 2011….hope they come true…..plz God stay beside me & help make it all true.”
Just hours after writing her message, Mariam was killed, along with her mother, her aunt and her younger sister, Martina.
Commenting on Mariam’s death, a Muslim writer, Amira Nowaira, recalled a different Egypt – one which respected difference. Amira Nowaira contrasted Mariam’s death with her own upbringing in a tolerant and accepting country:
“As a child growing up in a traditional Muslim family in the 60s, I remember quite clearly after suffering a bout of illness that conventional medicine seemed unable to cure, my mother took me to an Orthodox church in the popular district of Moharrem Bek to light a candle in honour of the Virgin Mary. As we stood together in the beautifully decorated and darkly lit church, my mother, an ordinary, middle-class woman, whispered some heartfelt prayers. She didn’t feel that she was on alien territory, or that she was in any way betraying her faith in appealing to the Christian God to heal her daughter. This simple and spontaneous act of reverence seems sadly unthinkable in today’s Egypt.”
The violence which robbed Mariam, her sister, her mother and aunt, of their lives and the loss of the innocent co-existence described by Amira Nowaira, are all part of the festering story which characterises Egypt today. The 2011 attack on the Coptic church of the two saints was a premeditated attack on all that Alexandria has stood for historically, as well as what it might be.
I hope that the world will become agitated about the threat to the Great Pyramids but, more important still, it must listen to voices like Amira Nowaira’s and understand that the killing of a young girl like Mariam – and the destruction of all her hopes and dreams – represents the loss of something far more precious than even the most awesome of World Heritage sites
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