I wrote about President al-Sisi of Egypt just a few days ago and now, with immaculate timing, he has re-appeared in the headlines. So, before we allow a wave of ferocious anti-Muslim feeling to engulf us after the massacre in Paris, please pay some attention to this very brave and intelligent man. I urge you to do so because I have a nasty feeling he may not live too long!
According to Michele Antaki at The American Thinker, President al-Sisi cut short a trip to Kuwait to hurry back to Egypt in order to attend the Christmas mass on January 7th at Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo. The Copts work to a Julian calender and hence their Christmas is later. His unexpected arrival caused a sensation because he was the first modern ruler of Egypt to attend a mass:
With his recent statement in favor of a renewed vision of Islam, made on 1 January 2015 before an important Al-Azhar gathering of Islamic clerics and ulema and in the presence of the Minister of Awqaf (Religious Endowments), Sisi has taken the lead on one of the most divisive and sensitive issues facing the world today.
In direct opposition to the radicalism now terrorizing nations across the globe, Sisi told the assembled congregation: “Egypt has brought humanism and civilization to the world for millennia and we are all here today to confirm that we are capable of doing so again... Allah willing, we shall build our nation together, accommodate each other, make room for each other, and we shall like each other...love each other...in earnest, so that people may see….” He asserted that Egyptians were one people and had to think of themselves not as Christians or Muslims, but “as Egyptians, just Egyptians.”
I don't know to what extent his words are appreciated across the Muslim world, only time will tell. However, there can be no doubting his intelligence and his bravery. If the Americans can find the few brain cells left lying around in the State Department they should use them to devise ways of supporting this extraordinary man.
