TESTIMONY

A PRACTICABLE
UNITY
After the Alexandria massacre, persons involved in the Cairo Meeting decided to organize a concert of Sufi Islamic songs and Christian hymns. An eyewitness tells what this event generated in the audience.

BY HOSSAM MIKAWY*

On a blessed night at 12:00 in the early morning, a bomb of ignorance, terrorism, and extremism exploded to kill men, women, elders, old women, and children–Muslims and Christians. Their bodies were torn apart, the walls of a saints' church in Alexandria, Egypt, were colored by their blood and the dismembered bodies were scattered as far as a nearby mosque that was built after the church was, thirty years ago.
"We have been neighbors for thirty years," said the church custodian. "We were taking water from the church when we were building the mosque," said the mosque custodian. This attack may be a blessing in disguise, as it made the Egyptians think and ask: Why our Christian brothers? Why? What is the purpose? Why is the distance between us so wide? We had a lot of requests from all of the Cairo Meeting volunteers, asking us the same question: What can we do after the Alexandria explosion? The decision was to reconvene the orchestra that sang the songs of both the Islamic and Christian heritages–Sufi Islamic songs and other church hymns–at the Cairo Meeting. The place we chose, Qubbat Al Ghori, is an old place full of fragrant history that witnesses the co-existence of both the Muslims and Christians as neighbors over a long period of time. The Muslim audience merged with the Christians. The orchestra entered. Twelve Sufi Islamic chanters sat in the first row, twelve Christian chanters sat in the middle row, then another twelve chanters of the Byzantine heritage sat in the third and last row.
The concert started and immediately the Muslim and Christian orchestra members seemed to be very moved. We sat in the first row, just a few feet in front of the orchestra. One of the chanters in the first row started to cry, then the Christian group started to sing, only to find another three chanters in the middle row crying. These cried while singing, with one of them looking toward the sky, singing just like the Muslim chanters do.
Both groups were crying and looking to Allah. None of the audience members could stop shedding tears, including even the photographers, security guards, and journalists. In the intermission, we heard comments like: "Since when were we separated by religion?", "Koran with the Bible", "Churches beside mosques–we have always been together", and "Why say 'your religion' and 'my religion' when our God is one?"
During the concert, tears of the Muslim chanter in the middle of the first row did not stop, as also happened with the Christian chanter in the second row. Both of them did not see each other. I was a witness to their hearts and tears. Before the end of the concert, the director delivered a poem, "The Heroes," by Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, for the martyrs, and it was sung by the orchestra, causing everyone to cry from the outset. At the end, the director sang for humanity and we participated with him. He repeated the song twice, inspiring one of the volunteers to shout: "Long live Egypt!" He said it strongly and loudly–this is noteworthy because this volunteer had not completely recovered from a surgery and he could not speak loudly or tighten his muscles.
We hurried to greet the orchestra, especially the Christian members, to console them. After the concert, we all said it was "a blessing in disguise," as this attack made us think about each other and about the humanity of dialogue. The beauty of the orchestral voices and lyrics served to break the constraints in dealing with our Christian partner.
Those Italian friends who attended the Cairo Meeting can understand my words, and they have a great role to take up in the opportunity to start off with us toward the salvation of the world.
* Judge of South Cairo Court and Cairo Meeting Executive Manager.