WASHINGTON (ABP) — Christian and Muslim leaders in the United States joined forces to condemn a New Year's Day bombing of a Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt, that killed more than 20 people and wounded nearly 100.
The Islamic Society of North America issued a statement Jan. 3 condemning both the Egyptian attack and violence the last two weeks stemming from tensions between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria. The society said such acts "go against the very essence of every godly teaching across religions."
"It is a sad day for all people when a simple act of worship or community celebration is marked by violence and innocent deaths," said Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America. Magid asked Muslim Americans to lend support to families who lost loved ones in the attack and to "join them in prayer for God to ease the suffering of all those affected by this terrible tragedy."
Joined by a wide range of faith leaders including both Jews and Muslims, the National Council of Churches denounced the bombing in Egypt. "Attacks on Christians anywhere in the world are attacks on Christians everywhere," NCC General Secretary Michael Kinnamon wrote in a Jan. 3 letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"The perpetrators of this outrage are apparently so blinded by hatred that they have lost touch with the tenets of any known faith," Kinnamon added in a press release. "It is simply agonizing to think that many around the world will mistake this horror as the attack of one religious community on another."
"This is not a struggle between religions but between those who value the life of every neighbor and those who clearly do not," Kinnamon said. He said Christians, Jews and Muslims around the world are "united by their outrage and condemnation of this soul-less act."
Churches for Middle East Peace, a coalition of 24 denominational groups including the Alliance of Baptists, raised concern about whether anti-Christian violence in Egypt is connected to months of attacks and intimidation against the Christian community of Iraq.
"We condemn these acts of violence perpetrated by extremists in the name of religion," said Warren Clark, executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace.
Clark, a former U.S. ambassador who served in the Middle East, Europe, Canada, Africa, and at the United Nations, called on both religious and political leaders to "take all appropriate measures to urgently protect religious minorities."
"These incidents call for our immediate attention to the continuing and desperate need for strong national and international leadership to help find peaceful and political solutions to ongoing tensions in the region," Clark said.
The attack on worshipers attending midnight Mass at Saints Church in Alexandria prompted protests around the world on behalf of the country's Coptic Christian community, a minority making up about 10 percent of the population. The Coptic Church claims apostolic succession to St. Mark in the first century A.D.
Pope Benedict XVI said the bombing "offends God and all of humanity."
President Obama strongly condemned the attack, as well as a New Year's Eve bombing near a military base in Abuja, Nigeria that killed more than 20. That attack followed Christmas weekend violence across the country that killed 38 people, including a Baptist pastor.
Bulus Marwa, 37, pastor of Victory Baptist Church in Maiduguri, Nigeria, was dragged from his home and shot to death after two choir members rehearsing for a carol service inside the church were hacked to death. Gunmen responsible for Marwa's death are thought to be members of Boko Haram, an outlawed radical Islamic sect.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.