Arab News Blog

Pope Shenouda III has suspended the Coptic Church’s membership in the Middle East Council of Churches, in a dispute which finds the controversial Secretary of the Coptic Holy Synod, Bishop Bishoi, involved. The Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos, denied Bishoi the right to defend the church when others attacked the Secretary General of the MECC, Girgis Saleh, a Copt.

Right now, the Al-Masry al-Youm report is the only thing I can find, so this is a preliminary comment. Hopefully, we’ll learn more shortly.

We all recognize that Eastern Christians are waning in the land where the religion was founded and neighboring lands, driven out by militant Islamists, Iraqi warfare, Israeli land pressure, and the like. But the internal feuds that have riven Christianity since the earliest centuries have not gone away.

If you can’t readily remember the difference between a Nestorian and a Monophysite or, more importantly, why both terms are offensive to the churches Catholics and Orthodox refer to with those terms, this will be way too abstruse for you.

Many of the main characters in this drama have been the subjects of posts here before. Pope Shenouda III is a regular subject of the blog, as the Coptic Pope/Patriarch is in his 80s and succession is a lively issue. Anba (Bishop) Bishoi is Bishop of Damietta and would very, very, very much like to be the next Pope; as Secretary of the Holy Synod he’s got an excellent chance, but is a polarizing figure who alienates other religions (suggesting Catholics and Orthodox cannot be saved, while Shenouda has been an ecumenical figure), he may have polarized the Copts out of the Middle Eastern Council of Churches. Patriarch Theophilos III, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, is a controversial figure in his own right, having come to power when his predecessor Irenaios was deposed in 2005, caught up in a dispute over leasing church property to Israeli settlers in the Old City. But there’s another issue: the Orthodox church still insists that the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem must be Greek. Almost all of his church’s followers in the Jerusalem Patriarchate (mostly Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan), its priests, and many of its bishops are Arabs; yet the Patriarch always comes from a Greek monastery. As does Theophilos.

So none of the main characters in this drama are exactly uncontroversial. It will be interesting to see what happens next, assuming this report is true. I haven’t got much more at this time.

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If you need a little strong qahwa mazbut to get your Monday started, you might try this article on the Cairo coffeehouse scene from Al-Masry al-Youm’s English website. A lot of it focuses on Zahret al-Bustan, next to the Cafe Riche. The Riche was a regular spot for me in the old days, before it was closed for many years after the Cairo earthquake, though it’s since been reopened I understand.

An article mainly for the Old Cairo hands, or those about to become some.

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Several quick takes on Egypt, courtesy of Al-Masry al-Youm’s English site:

• Just shoot the protestors. The Egyptian independent and opposition media are having fun (actually that’s probably not the right word: how about “aneurysms”?) over suggestions by more than one (though one is quoted here) ruling party figures that democracy protestors should just be shot down in the streets.

• Farouk El-Baz, the Egyptian-born ex-NASA scientist who was critical to the US space program (so much so that in at least one Star Trek episode there’s a shuttlecraft named the El-Baz: no kidding), and brother of Usama El-Baz, who was Egypt’s foreign policy guru for decades and still commands attention (in short: smart family), has spoken to students at Cairo U and said that “over the past 7000 years Egypt has never been as backward as it is now.” I suspect this is normal Arab exaggeration: nobody could read or write 7000 years ago, though indeed that marks the beginnings of Egyptian civilization.

• An account of what our old friend Eyjafjallajökull (why does the spellchecker keep questioning that?) has done to Egyptian air travel.

• Remember the Nag Hammadi killings back in January? Well, the trial has been postponed for the third time.

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Did I forget the links again? Do read the first link, very nice local reporting on an issue that’s long nagged at me: the barricades surrounding the US Embassy in Cairo’s Garden City neighborhood, which is also where I live. The permanent barriers and checkpoints are really getting tiresome and have depressed this part of Central Cairo that should be vibrant. I am relatively unaffected since I don’t drive, and can easily cycle (yes I am the one of the crazy khawagas who cycles across Cairo) past the barriers. But it’s really rather bad for the neighborhood, increasing traffic density through small streets and blocking off a thoroughfare in Lazoghly St. It’s just not very nice for local residents, who of course were never consulted in the process. Not to mention the image of America it gives: it looks like the second biggest embassy in the world, in a key regional ally, is in a Green Zone. And it’s not only the Americans, the nearby Brits are to blame too (and perhaps, a little further off, the Canadians and Belgians too.)

Also, there’s a new movie about Garden City that I’m dying to see.

• US embassy in Cairo drives out the locals | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today’s News from Egypt
  The Garden City Liberation Front shall triumph!
• Middle East International Film Festival: “Neighbors” (Tahani Rached, Egypt)
  I want to see this film about Garden City, where I live.
• Hamas says group wants to maintain cease-fire

  For the record – remember this during the next war.

• Hamas orders Gaza smuggling tunnels shut

  Very odd – just after Israel’s alert about Sinai?

• La « Mal-Vie »: Rapport Sur La Situation Des Droits Économiques, Sociaux Et Culturels En Algérie

  Report on the Algerian malaise.

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Bishop Bishoi, Coptic Metropolitan of Damietta and Secretary of the Church’s Holy Synod, has given an interview to Al-Masry al-Youm in which he cites the gospels on why one should support Husni Mubarak, (article is in Arabic). Now, this seems pretty self-serving (blogger Zeinobia is calling him “the Salafi bishop”), but there’s more than meets the eye here.

As Secretary of the Holy Synod for the past 25 years, Bishoi is a powerful figure and a strong candidate to succeed the aged and ailing Pope Shenouda III. He’s also a polarizing figure. Though he’s been active in ecumenical talks with other Christian churches (his website has links here), he’s also made remarks to the effect that Catholics and Protestants cannot go to heaven (Arabic reports here and here; the Wikipedia article on Bishoi addresses the issue.) Shenouda has been very active ecumenically, has met with Roman Popes and Greek Patriarchs, and talked intercommunion. Bishoi seems more divisive. (One reason that Al-Masry al-Youm frequently covers Coptic issues is that some of its primary funding and leadership is Christian.)

But Bishoi is not a minor figure, and if anyone in the Coptic church can be said to be “running for Pope,” it is he. His episcopal website, in English and Arabic, is here.

This blog has discussed both Pope Shenouda’s politics and his fragile health several times. Bishoi, though he has a very different style than Shenouda, seems well-positioned to be a strong contender for the succession. (Traditionally, when a Coptic Pope dies, three candidates are chosen as proposed successors. Their names are put in a container from which a child draws one name, presumably with the guidance of the Holy Spirit; coincidentally however, the name drawn is always someone approved by the Presidency of the Republic.) There is another issue in that ancient canons say the Patriarch should be chosen from the monks, not from the bishops. But Shenouda was a bishop when chosen, as were several other modern Popes. (Shenouda, however, was a “general bishop” without a geographic see, while Bishoi is Bishop of Damietta.) Still, don’t count Bishoi out as the next Pope.

And he’s clearly making it known to the regime that he’s utterly reliable on Mubarak’s (presumably father’s or son’s, since Shenouda has endorsed Gamal) infallibility.

Of course, he’s gambling on the race over which octogenarian passes from the scene first: Mubarak (who turns 82 on May 4) or Pope Shenouda (who’s 86).

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I’m off for the weekend and it’s my daughter’s birthday, so anything short of peace breaking out won’t lure me back, but here’s a story to leave you with. It relates to last Friday, not to today, but here’s the tale: Mohamed ElBaradei was making a visit to the Delta city of Mansura last week, his first major foray out of Cairo to promote his reformist agenda. Plans were for him to attend Friday prayer at a mosque that can accommodate 3000 worshipers, but surprise, for “security reasons” he was told to attend a mosque that can hold only 500.

As the linked Al-Masry al-Youm English report notes, regular worshipers at the mosque were surprised to see a new preacher in the pulpit. He repeatedly cited the Qur’an Sura IV, 59, ” O ye who believe! Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger, and those charged with authority among you.”

He also prayed for the health of Husni Mubarak, that his Presidency would continue, and noted that Mubarak had made Cairo as significant as Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.

I’ll let Muslims comment on the propriety of that remark, but my own reaction is: subtle. Subtle as an atom bomb. Do they think this helps their case?

Oh, and also: doesn’t the government keep saying the Muslim Brotherhood can’t run as a political party because it’s wrong to mix Islam and politics?

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Pic of IslamOnline strikers from Flickr user Ahmed Abd El-fatah

Over the last few days, Egyptian media circles have been up in arms about a strike at IslamOnline.net, the portal about Islam, Islamists and politics in the Muslim world. The chief meme being put out by employees and their supporters is that the “moderate” brand of Islam the site had promoted is being pushed out. A new board has come in at the Islamic Message Society of Qatar, which owns the site. Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi, the board chairman and founder, is said to be considering resigning. The new board wants to take the site in a more Salafist direction — for instance, board members objected to mentions of Valentine’s Day on the site. All of this info, of course, comes from the strikers so we have to take their word for it, the board is staying mum.

Now, I’ve always been irked at people describing Qaradawi as a moderate. But IslamOnline, which is not always necessarily so moderate, did put out an excellent media product and fascinating debates about Islamists, notably the Egyptian Muslim Brothers (I suspect that more than a few Brothers work at IslamOnline). I notably remember reading there the most trenchant critique of the Brothers’ political party program there, by a leading member of the group. It also has very wide discussion of social and personal problems from an Islamic perspective. Overall, while it wasn’t my proverbial cup of tea, it was possibly the most professional new media publication in Egypt, and certainly more “moderate” than Qatari wahhabis (they’re not much talked about, but are just as bad as their Saudi counterpart).

The strike thus far has featured a huge sit-in at the Sixth October City office of the site, which was broadcast live online, and vigils. And it’s very much the talk of the Egyptian Twittosphere.

There’s been some good reporting on this, here are a few links:

Islam On-Strike | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today’s News from Egypt

Going Off-line | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today’s News from Egypt

Daily News Egypt – Full Article (DNE: I thus punish you for not putting the headline of articles in the title of the page.) 

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Since the return of Mohamed ElBaradei to Egypt, the official government press has either ignored him completely (see this daily roundup at Al-Masry al-Youm of a day in which the government press ignored him and the independent and opposition papers led with him), or else they have been making fun of him, even in one case basically saying he won’t give interviews with the government press because his wife won’t let him (that’s an English language blogger’s summary; the link was to Al-Gumhuriyya’s home page a day or two ago, and today the link goes to today’s homepage; I poked around briefly without finding the story but it may be archived somewhere on the site). Do they think branding him as henpecked (his wife’s a professional in her own right) will dilute his support?

I’m not surprised, but in the age of the Internet, satellite television, and independent newspapers in Egypt, it seems that the pettiness shown by the state media ought to seem fairly glaring even to Mubarak’s staunch supporters. The fellahin may not know about ElBaradei’s return, but they aren’t his constituency. Does the state press think their ignoring him will make him go away? Does it think making fun of him will make people see him as a clown, a man of whom the state media was itself enormously proud when he was head of the IAEA and one of the most recognizable Egyptians in the Western world (after Mubarak, and of course Zahi Hawass, who is on one of your cable TV channels in his Indiana Jones hat right now)?

It just seems like something out of the pre-Internet era, the pre-satellite TV era, that distant time nearly 30 years ago when the local state media was the only media and Husni Mubarak was President of Egypt.

Oh.

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From Al-Masry al-Youm English, on the Facebook competition:

While Mohamed ElBaradei has yet to announce whether he will run in the 2011 presidential election, Facebook fans already see him as their favorite candidate for the presidency. Over 100,000 Facebook members have joined a group endorsing ElBaradei for presidency.

Supporters of President Hosni Mubarak are also promoting their candidate through their own Facebook groups.

One such group is named “Friends of President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak” and has 1582 members so far. Another group called “The First Association for the Nomination of President Mubarak” has 528 members. The group says its main objective is to “support the great President and hero Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s son who sacrificed for his country and shared with us our moments of happiness and sadness.”

A third group, with 418 members, called “Hosni Mubarak”, feature the president’s resume along with some photos on their Facebook page. Another 320-member group called “The Fans of President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak,” warns against any insults on their page, saying “the group is monitored by security bodies.”

Youth belonging to the ruling National Democratic Party have also set up a group called “Fans and Supporters of Gamal Mubarak.” The group has 6977 members so far.

I know, Facebook doesn’t count, and the government makes the rules and counts the votes. And Al-Masry al-Youm is an independent newspaper. Still, an interesting note. Also, a tip: “the group is monitored by security bodies” does not make me want to join that particular Facebook group. How about you?

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