According to World Bulletin, Muslim and Christian scholars in Egypt have teamed up to forge “a ‘scholarly response’ to atheism.”
According to Halim, a spokesman for Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, over the past three years, atheism has been “spreading increasingly”.
The article explains that:
Atheism is strictly taboo in Egypt’s mainstream public discourse.
But since the 2011 youth-driven uprising, which led to the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, many young Egyptians have begun to openly proclaim their atheist convictions – mainly on social media – which has alarmed the country’s religious institutions.
Normally, I would take this as a good sign that atheists are worrying established religious institutions, but I’m concerned that Egyptian atheists will be prosecuted for “defaming religion” as they have been in the past.
I wonder if Canada’s Office of Religious Freedom will stand up for Egypt’s atheists.
Interfaith simply means that the believers don’t really believe their own dogma. They pretend to know dogmas to be true, but they also know, this is just ‘make believe’. They are simply ganging up on those who don’t want to follow along with their little charade. There they are, all decked out in holy regalia, and then these hecklers come along and spoiling all their fun.
If only they could call down thunderbolts, then they wouldn’t have to rely on thuggery.
This is a big problem. According to Pew, 74% of Egyptians want Sharia to be the law of the land and of those, 56% want apostates to he executed. The a-holes have plenty of support. Declaring yourself atheist in Egypt is to put your life at risk.
I wouldn’t be so quick to take this as a nod to Canadian supremacy.
It may very well be the case that this apparent interfaith concern at the rise of atheism in Egypt may actually be a reaction to a popular movement within Egypt aimed at a more social and “proletariat” outlook, that takes aim at the establishments that Canada is actually sided with.
It may be that the best help we can give them is very far from asking our government to help them, but rather preventing our government from helping to destroy them.