1/07/2011

Loving Your Enemy Embodied

The new year started off with a blog that mentioned a bombing at a church in Egypt and the resulting anger between Christians and Muslims, Christians and police, and Muslims and government. The fall-out wasn't pretty.

The good news out of Egypt today is that yesterday, as Coptic Christians attended Christmas services in Egypt, Muslims were there protecting them as "human shields." Though there was momentary fighting in Alexandria on New Year's Eve (and I admit I painted a negative picture because of that news), apparently Christians and Muslims throughout Egypt have "united," for lack of a better word. They're taking a stand together against the extremists. Crosses and crescents started appearing together to show solidarity.

The Muslim community was there to protect their Christian neighbors as they went to church yesterday (January 6 is the day many Eastern Christians celebrate the birth of the Christ). They weren't even going to let extremist members of their religion harm "the infidel." It's a wonderful picture of loving your "enemies."

I wonder how many of us would be willing to do the same for our neighbors at a mosque or synagogue or other place of worship?

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