Monday, January 03, 2011
Editorial

For all the adjectives which could be deployed to describe the killing of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians on New Year’s Eve, one is above all not appropriate: unforeseeable.

As heinous and hideous a crime as it was, the bombing outside of a Midnight Mass in Alexandria, for anyone taking at least a passing notice in 2010 attacks on Middle East Christians, should not have come as a total surprise.

Drive-by shootings, violent and deadly protests and the halting of church construction have all been endured by Egypt’s Christians in the past year. That is to say nothing of Iraqi Christians, 53 of whom were blown up in a Baghdad church two months ago.

But these incidents are not (as some will likely claim) the opening shots in a war of religions. They are base atrocities born out of poor societies seemingly incapable of protecting their citizens of all creeds from the rot of extremism.

In Egypt, as in Iraq, a risible economic situation sees millions – from both religions – subsist below the poverty line.

Extremism mostly takes root in societies with a large percentage of unemployed, poor, uneducated and sedentary individuals and groups. They are fertile breeding pools for those who choose violence to express dissatisfaction with life in the name of religious duty.

Attacks, when they do occur, are greeted with the cliché of condemnation coming from across the world. Politicians, clergymen, royalty, activists all rush to voice their two cents of disapproval yet, unsurprisingly, people keep dying.

Obviously, condemnations are useless and serve as no deterrent to the continuation of killings and mayhem. Words will not suffice, especially not after each attack has already been carried out.

It is a problem only solvable by addressing the roots, not the results; the roots being economic and social inequality compounded by poor security, education and literacy levels.

Blaming outside forces, as Egypt’s president has chosen to, is wrong even if it is correct; if Egypt and Iraq were coherent and harmonious societies, they would not produce individuals who offer the ideological and logistic support which facilitates such crimes, even if perpetrated by foreign hands.

Little good too will come from calls for unity in the face of terrorism, unless the contributing factors for terrorism are addressed by governments in the Middle East.

If this cannot be achieved, the fall in this part of the world will not only be that of its Christians. The whole region will suffer, cast as a place devoid of ethics, civil rights or self-respect. Currently – and regrettably – this is far from unforeseeable.