The Mercury

Pope is trying to repair the damage

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ACCORDING to Robert de Neef (The Mercury, May 2), “Pope Francis’s Egypt visit was ill-conceived”. In fact Francis is keen on building close ties with the Abrahamic faith followers, i.e. Jews, Muslims and Christians.

The pope was trying to repair the damage of his predecesso­r, Pope Benedict’s ill-founded nasty comments against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, which he later regretted and apologised for.

Francis recognises that the presence of 10 million Christians in Egypt, who have lived peacefully and in harmony with Muslims for 14 centuries, has only been disturbed by recent anti-Muslim events after the creation of Israel (supported by Christians), invasion of Afghanista­n, Iraq, Libya, Yemen by the West (Christians) etc. Muslims regard Christians as people of the Book and therefore after 1400 years of Islam in a 90% Muslim country, Christiani­ty thrived by virtue of the tolerance of Islam towards Christiani­ty. Historical­ly, for 14 centuries, Egypt was a great example of a multi-cultural, multifaith country. Christians, Jews, Muslims lived side by side in an Islamic state.

There is no recorded persecutio­n of Jews or Christians until the catastroph­ic creation of Israel, wholly supported by the Christians and the West. This was the game changer. Regrettabl­y, like most Christians in the world, Egyptian Christians supported the creation of Israel.

In the wake of 9/11 and the growing attacks on Muslims in the West, the invasion of Afghanista­n, Somalia, Libya, Yemen and Iraq, followed by the disastrous anti-Islamic pronouncem­ents, this has collated a hatred for the West throughout the Muslim world.

The pope understand­s the carnage caused by the invasions of Muslim countries which are now coming back to haunt those they consider caused such destructio­n in Muslim lands. Unlike Robert De Neef who does not see the bigger picture, Pope Francis is clear about the harm done to Muslims and should be commended for taking brave steps to do the healing. EM JADWAT

Briardene

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