Egypt v. ISIL

An Update from Egypt,
and a few things our friends in the West should know...

Once again, Egypt is making headlines and some of our friends may be worried for our safety, and want a little more information than the repetitive soundbites and "expert analyst" commentary that you get on the American "news" networks.

As always, it's important for us to stress that we are NOT experts: three years of living and learning in the Middle East is like completing Pre-K when it comes to this complex, historically & culturally rich part of the world.

Secondly, and equally as important, what we share is not in anyway a critique of any culture, religion, political leader or policy.  We are guests and observers here, and we attempt to pass along the news as we read it through various links and updates to those who may want a personal take and additional information.

What's happened recently:

• sporadic, continuing random acts of violence disrupt daily life, largely targeting police or military, but also transportation infrastructure

as presented by British risk analytics firm Verisk Maplecroft

• January 25, 2011 Revolution anniversary led to some demonstrations and marches in which people were harmed and even killed as police attempted to keep the peace (see excellent photo gallery and captions here)
• February 11, 2015, disgruntled, eager fans attempting to enter a narrow passageway into a football (soccer) match got into verbal and possibly physical altercations with police; the use of teargas and other attempts to keep the fans in order led to disorder and panic.  As people attempted to flee, the steel structure that had been raised to funnel fans into the stadium also collapsed, leading to more than 20 deaths from the stampede and collapse.
• Since January 2015, more than 20 Egyptians working in Libya have been kidnapped.  One group of Christians were kidnapped from where they worked, separated from their Muslim co-workers by ISIL terrorists.  In a similar incident, but not perpetuated by ISIS, a group 21 Egyptian fishermen were kidnapped in Libya and, as I write this, are reportedly to have been released in Libya.

• February 15, 2015, on a video released by ISIL, 21 Christian Egyptians are seen being marched out along a Libyan shore where they were gruesomely executed.  The kidnapped individuals were all from the same community in Upper (southern Egypt), working in Libya because there was little economic opportunity for them here in Egypt.  As many as seven Christian Egyptians may be still held hostage by ISIL (see tweet below).  Within hours of confirming the deaths, the Egyptian military responded with a bombing raid into Libya by their Air Force, as well as making appeals for international intervention into Libya.

• February 17, 2015, the Egypt military deploys throughout Egypt as a precaution to aid police should any retaliatory effort be made by extremists associated to the Libyan group targeted by Egyptian air raids.

Things our friends in the West should keep in mind:

• The difference between ISIS and ISIL - you have likely seen the two sets of acronyms thrown

  

  differing ideas of the "levant" region
  - from Wikipedia

  around synonymously, and may wonder what (if anything) is the difference.  ISIS stands for "Islamic State of Iraq & Syria" and really was the first organized extremist threat we were all watching spring out of the Syrian conflict and into Iraq.  ISIL stands for "Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant" - the "levant" is a much broader territory that can reach (depending on depiction and definition) to include Syria to the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, as well as Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan.  The switch to this term ISIL from ISIS indicates the recognized political agenda of the extremists to "conquer" and control a much larger region than just Iraq & Syria.
• The Egyptian Christians were NOT kidnapped out of Egypt.  The worry of seeing "Egyptian Christians" in the headlines is that some are assuming these were taken from or even killed in Egypt, which is not the case.  As mentioned above, these individuals had sought opportunity, despite warnings to stay away from Libya.
• Yes, Libya borders Egypt to the west, but both nations are huge - Egypt is closer in land mass to Alaska than Texas--it's so much bigger than our western paradigm of a "little corner" of the continent of Africa.  There is legitimate threat on the border between Egypt and Libya, but it's a long way from the population centers along the Nile which is eastern/central Egypt.
• The vast population of Muslims in the Middle East are appalled at ISIS and ISIL.  Some of you may need to read that again.  Egypt is about 90% Muslim in population, with about 9% Christian; the Muslim community mourned with the Christian community at the executions on the Libyan shore.  Muslim clerics went to share condolences with families of the victims in the village, as well as to Christian leaders there (see photo gallery here).  Muslim political leaders personally went to the Coptic Pope in Cairo to express sympathy and solidarity.  Thousands of friends, co-workers, and neighbors grieved together.  In the same way, Jordan, which has a higher percentage of Muslim population to Christian population (about 93% 6% respectively), was appalled at the execution of their pilot--a Muslim pilot--by ISIL, a group identifying themselves under the same religious name.  Both of these nations have millions of citizens living, working, studying, and even playing on teams together--Muslim and Christian, side by side.  The idea of universal hatred and ill-intent of Muslims toward Christians is a farce, often sensationalized to sell some story or agenda.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit down and have one of our regular dialogues with Dr. Latif, a pastor who serves as the national leader of the Church of God in Egypt.  Despite the difficulties in the country today, there was no worry, no apprehension for the future, no gloom and doom over the conflicts east, west, and internally.  There was peace.  Church of God congregations stretch from the population centers of Alexandria and Cairo down into villages in Upper (southern) Egypt, villages like those mourning the loss of 21 of their own.  All of them are reporting that things are well.  We filmed this brief video update as a way to encourage our friends and supporters in the West to see and hear that peace, and to know how to pray for the opportunity in witnessing the peace and hope of Jesus Christ our Savior, in in a time like this.

Egypt Update 2015_02_16 from Ken Keli Oldham on Vimeo.

As always, if you have specific questions about the ministries we are serving here in the Middle East, feel free to contact us.  We are blessed to be among such strong, wonderful believers and to learn from them, as well as to live in this land of history and centrality to the Biblical narrative; our faith continues to grow here, and we count it a blessing to call Egypt home.

Thanks for your continuing interest, thoughts, prayers, and encouragement.

#PrayForEgypt