Meeting hatred with love

The Easter Sunday sermon centered around the terror attacks in Stockholm and the two Coptic churches bombed in the Egyptian cities of Alexandria and Tanta. Sadly, terror attacks are no longer new in Europe. Nevertheless, it is wrenching every time it happens. The city of Stockholm was the latest European city to suffer a terrorist attack as a 39-year-old construction worker from Uzbekistan hijacked a delivery truck and rammed it into pedestrians on Queen street. Four people died and more than 15 were injured, some seriously. The city swung into action tightening border controls and upping vigilance levels. The suggestion that vehicles be banned from coming into the city centre was raised citing the vehicle terror attacks in London, Nice, Berlin, Jerusalem and now Stockholm.  

People started gathering and leaving floral tributes along Queen street and outside Ahlens department store which had been rammed by the truck. Burning candles or leaving a floral tribute, people triedto show sympathy for the bereaved and the dead.  

The moral response of the city was unexpected and admirable. It resolved to meet hatred with the power of love, and not be overcome by fear and evil. The hashtag #openstockholm was coined after the dreadful attack in downtown Stockholm. People opened their homes and invited people inside or offered them a ride because many could not get home as the underground and all public transport was shut down. So #openstockholm was a response with love to the attack. People showed care for each other, and they showed it on social media. Some groceries even twittered free food to citizens unable to get home.  

The Sunday before that was Palm Sunday when the two Coptic churches in Alexandria and Tanta suffered bomb blasts where many worshippers were killed and injured. At least 47 were killed and 100 injured in the blasts that ripped the churches from the interior. In one church, the Islamist suicide bomber had aimed for the most crowded part of the day during the church’s life and he blew himself up during the Palm Sunday worship. In the other church, the suicide bomber exploded himself at the gate to the church.  

In Egypt, the Copts are a minority even though they number over 5 million. They make up between 6 to 18 percent of the Egyptian population. The Coptic Christians trace their origins back to the apostle St Mark, whose travels led him to Alexandria. After he healed a shoemaker Anianus, the man converted along with his whole family to Christianity. Anianus later became the first bishop of the Coptic church in Alexandria which has come to be known as St Mark’s church. The present site of St Mark’s Cathedral where the bomb blast occurred on Palm Sunday is said to be the site of the house of Anianus. In 68 AD, St Mark was martyred in Alexandria. The Christians built a church at Bacaulis, a section in Alexandra, which was the site of his martyrdom. The church at Bacaulis was known as the oldest church in the city. Christianity spread across Egypt after the first church was set up, but it also faced much persecution starting from the Roman rulers. Even as late as 311 AD Pope Peter was martyred at the same spot where the martyrdom of St Mark took place.  

The church in Alexandria is the spiritual centre in Egypt. It has seen several periods of persecution. The Arab invasion in 611 AD destroyed the church in Bacaulis but it was rebuilt. The church was important because the relics of St Mark were preserved there. However, the relics had to be smuggled to safe hiding places during life under the Muslim Caliphs and Governors, and even the Crusaders. More than once the church was destroyed and built again. Once more the Coptic church is facing persecution. Its members have been quoted as saying, “We will not meet fear with fear.” The press describes them as resigned but resolute. But there are many of them sending out the message that they will not react in fear and hate as their enemies want them to. It is as though the spirit of martyrdom that St Mark, Pope Peter and countless others have set up as a sign of Christian faith, has found its home deep in the veins of the Coptic churches. The resoluteness comes from that. Local security is weak and half-hearted in their protection of the Copts. It is clear that the Copts have only their faith in God to lean on.  

The words of the Archbishop of Pakistan can be applied to the Copts. Archbishop Sebastian Shaw was earlier quoted as saying that the Christian martyrs of Pakistan illustrate ‘what the purpose of being really is.’ Persecuted Christian minorities are trying to live out their faith and their love in times such as these. That was the powerful Easter lesson this year; that Christianity is not so much a religion as a choice to live out love in the face of hatred and destruction.