Muslims turned up in droves for the Coptic Christmas mass Thursday night, offering their bodies, and lives, as ‘shields’ to Egypt ’s threatened Christian community

Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.

From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as ‘human shields’ for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.

‘We either live together, or we die together,’ was the sloganeering genius of Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon whose cultural centre distributed flyers at churches in Cairo Thursday night, and who has been credited with first floating the ‘human shield’ idea.

Among those shields were movie stars Adel Imam and Yousra, popular preacher Amr Khaled, the two sons of President Hosni Mubarak, and thousands of citizens who have said they consider the attack on Egypt as a whole.

‘This is not about us and them,’ said Dalia Mustafa, a student who attended mass at Virgin Mary Church on Maraashly. ‘We are one. This was an attack on Egypt as a whole, and I am standing with the Copts because the only way things will change in this country is if we come together.’

In the days following the brutal attack on Saints Church in Alexandria, which left 21 dead on New Year’ eve, solidarity between Muslims and Copts has seen an unprecedented peak. Millions of Egyptians changed their Facebook profile pictures to the image of a cross within a crescent – the symbol of an ‘ Egypt for All’. Around the city, banners went up calling for unity, and depicting mosques and churches, crosses and crescents, together as one.

Source

You can find full information on this event in (http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=A/65/L.5 ; http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2010/ga11013.doc.htm ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Interfaith_Harmony_Week)

This seems to be an excellent opportunity for the Coalition to start moving from proposals to action through interfaith cooperation in partnership with the UN. Consequently, the SC will contact in the coming weeks (November 20109 the Jordanian missions to the UN in New York and Geneva as well as pertinent UN bodies in order to find out how the Coalition could cooperate globally and locally to the celebration of this event.

Consequently the Coalition is expected to work on a double track strategic approach, dealing simultaneously with getting political support to the proposed Decade and continue exploring promising avenues for partnering with the UN towards shared goals.

(See agenda and program)

While keeping the core elements of this initiative (DECADE, interreligious cooperation, partnership with the UN around some UN goals, seeking for sustainable peace), the new strategic approach means shifting from a “United Nations Decade of Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, Understanding and Cooperation for Peace”, which needs to be proclaimed by the General Assembly and with the UN as main actor, to an “Interreligious Decade for Peace in cooperation with the United Nations”, in which the initiative would be mainly in the hands of the Coalition and the cooperation with the UN would be agreed through MOUs (Memorandum of Understanding) with the UN Secretary General and individual UN agencies on specific partnerships aimed at achieving shared goals.

This less formal and more flexible approach is being considered as alternative path because the UN General Assembly through its resolution (A/RES/64/81) labeled “Promotion of interreligious and intercultural dialogue, understanding and cooperation for peace”, adopted in December 2009, postponed any decision on a possible UN Decade in this field until its 66th session (Sept. 2011). Furthermore, it is uncertain that the consensus among the UN member states needed for having such a UN decade proclaimed by the GA may be attained in the near future.

The Steering Committee has been working since its Geneva meeting on May 2010 designing this new approach and drafting a new proposal, which will be shared with the Coalition members in October in order to be finalized in December 2010.

Up to 100 religious leaders from diverse faiths including Christianity, Judaism, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Islam, Indigenous Spirituality and Shinto traditions will gather in Winnipeg in June 21-23, 2010 at the invitation of Dr. Lloyd Axworthy, President & Vice-Chancellor, University of Winnipeg and the Canadian Council of Churches

It is the first time Canada will host the G8 Religious Leaders Summit which, for the past five years, has been organized to complement the meeting of G8 political leaders. G8 leaders are meeting in Huntsville, Ontario, from June 25-27, 2010.

This high profile religious leaders from around the world will gather at The University of Winnipeg from June 21- June 23 to listen and report to one another – but most importantly collaborate on sending a unified message to government leaders of the G8/G20 nations.

The message will press governments to remain true to the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ratified by the 192 member states of the U.N. ten years ago. The goals aim to halve global poverty by 2015. The G8 nations – including Canada – pledged assistance in achieving the goals, but are well behind in meeting the promised deadline.

Faith leaders are also challenging each other to “not remain silent” on the MDGs, said Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton, Chair of the Interfaith Partnership and General Secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches.

“Society is growing ever more ambivalent about the role and influence of the world’s faiths and their leaders. This is ultimately an exercise in proclaiming what we believe together, and acting on it together,” added Hamilton.

CALL FOR LEADERSHIP

Virtually all of the world’s major faith traditions hold to some form of the Golden Rule: treat your neighbour as yourself. Together, the world’s faith traditions will issue a “Call for inspired leadership and action,” said Hamilton.

The interfaith summit will feature some high profile speakers: Canadian Senator Romeo Dallaire, whose global warning about an impending Rwandan genocide was largely ignored; Rev. Jim Wallis (USA) of Sojourners magazine and long time activist for social justice; Rwandan Dr. Andre Karamaga, President of the All Africa Conference of Churches, H.E. Sheikh Shaban Mubaje, Grand Mufti of Uganda, and John McArthur (USA), CEO of Millennium Promise, an international non-profit organization solely committed to supporting the achievement of the MDGs.

There will be two concurrent events on opening day: religious communicators will meet to hear speakers and discuss how current issues of faith are represented in the popular media; a human rights and religious freedom themed event will address these issues from the perspective of poverty, the environment and peace and security.

First Nations representatives will welcome guests to the host facility at the University of Winnipeg, which sits on Treaty 1 land, and by University of Winnipeg President Dr. Lloyd Axworthy. Numerous side events including music and musical theatre are planned to represent the theme with added culture and color.

(Note prepared by Mussie Hailu, Chairman of the Board, Interfaith Peace Building Initiative, Ethiopia, Coalition member organization)

Some of IPEC’s partners become involved by signing memoranda of understanding (MOUs), while others participate without formal agreements. Among the first group we find CARE USA, Miss Dorothy.Com (a UK organization to educate people under age 16), Peace Waves, The Province of Pisa in Italy, Susuky Academy Talent Centre, Taking IT Global (an international charitable org.) and the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), which brings together the scout organizations from around the world.

Among the second group we find Carnevalspettacolo, Education International, Firenze Festival, Le respect, ça change la vie, Pro-ballet San Remo, etc. http://


www.ilo.org/ipec/lang-en/index.htm Click on Campaign and Advocacy
Click on Scream Paragraph, and/or
Click on 12 to 12 Partnership Initiative


Within the above framework, WOSM has provided information about their implementation of the SCREAM Programme in Egypt, Zambia, El Salvador, Jordan and Lebanon. This is an on-going project since 2002 with the aim of helping educators (scouts) worldwide to cultivate young people’s understanding of causes and consequences of child labour.

The SNAMMM addressed the existing, new and emerging challenges to the promotion of a culture of peace and development.  It also reaffirmed that the common fundamental values contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration of freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature, and shared responsibility are essential to international relations.

Of special interest for the DECADE Initiative is paragraph 27 of SNAMMM’s Declaration, which acknowledges “the important and significant role civil society, faith-based non-governmental organizations and media could play in promoting interfaith and intercultural dialogue and understanding towards fostering social justice, and, in particular, the attainment of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals”. Furthermore, in its Progamme of Action, SNAMMM “Encourage faith-based non-governmental organizations and civil society to support the efforts of governments as well as to develop partnerships among each other, in order to cooperate for social and economic justice, for all within the society”.

118 countries are associated to NAM, having Mr. Hosi Mubarak, President of Egypt, as its Secretary-General.

Read the Declaration and Progamme of Action

In its last paragraph the resolution …

“Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its sixty-fifth session on the implementation of the present resolution and, at its sixtysixth session, in coordination with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, to further solicit views of Member States on the possibility of proclaiming a United Nations decade for interreligious and intercultural dialogue and cooperation for peace, building on the information contained in the reports of the Secretary-General at the sixty-fourth and sixty-fifth sessions and the relevant initiatives to be taken in the course of 2010.”

Although the possibility of proclaiming a UN Decade of Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue and Cooperation remains in the GA agenda, a decision on this matter is now likely to be postponed until 2011.

(See the full text of the revised project of resolution; the final text has not yet been published by the UN UNGA resolution A.64.L15.rev1)