Journey into Egypt part II
The visit we made to St Katherines monastery was very interesting. It is situated directly below Mt Sinai at the top of a valley. You can almost piece together in your minds eye the way the Israelites might have lumbered up the valley (pictured 4th).
We were shown round the monastery by Father Justin, an American Greek Orthodox priest who was incredibly full of wisdom and grace. We got to have a look round their world famous library which they have within the monastery and saw some 3rd century biblical manuscripts. While flicking through the visitors book we stumbled across Tony Blair and family signatures (pictured 1st), they left some comment about it being an important spiritual source in the Christian tradition.
However, the most interesting thing in the library was the letter that had been dictated by Mohammed (pictured 3rd) to give special dispensation for the monastery to continue to operate during a time of unrest between Christians and Muslims. This agreement was altered in the 9th or 10th century to include converting one of the buildings in the monastery into a Mosque because the Muslims in the local area had no place of worship (pictured 2nd). It was used up until the middle of the last century as a place of worship by Muslims, but is now only opened when important Muslims visit the monastery. Its very strange to see a mosque in the middle of a monastery.
Father Justin explained how the mosque has been a key symbol that has helped keep the peace between Christians and Muslims within the area for centuries, and he himself spoke of the fruitful dialogue that has taken place between Christians and Muslims in the last ten years, dialogue that has resulted in many joint social projects between the two religious groups.
With all the worry in this country, and elsewhere about how Muslims and Christians can live together, and all the suspicion that goes along with that it was great to see how for centuries a remote Christian community has developed highly fruitful, and respectful relationships with their Muslim neighbours, in fact throughout Egypt this was the overall impression I had. A few Christians I met mentioned that a few ministries seem to base their fundraising around supporting ‘oppressed’ Christians in Islamic countries including Egypt, they were quite negative to their claims of Christians being persecuted in Egypt, and they severely doubted any claims of this in the last twenty years. Their thoughts were that these organisations rely on this perceived threat in order to raise funds. Having read up on the ICC site about this alleged persecution in Egypt it is odd to find people in Alexandria and Cairo saying that it does not happen, yet the ICC website carries stories from several other groups saying Christians are even tortured! It would be strange if the people we spoke to did not know this was happening. Umm what to make of it all? Anyone have any suggestions?
