AMP condemns attacks on mosques, churches

Dr. Osama Abu Irshaid, AMP national board member and editor of Al Meezan newspaper, today participated in a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., called by the Egytpian Americans for Democracy and Human Rights. The press conference was to denounce the violence against religious institutions in Egypt and the poison gas attacks on innocent Syrian civilians. Dr. Abu Irshaid's remarks are below.

AMP condemns attacks on mosques, churches

(WASHINGTON DC 08/22/2013) -- The American Muslims for Palestine is a national grassroots organization, whose mission is to educate the public about Palestine and its rich cultural and historical heritage. AMP, with our stance on global justice, stands firmly in solidarity with the people of Egypt and Syria as they endure these horrific times. 

General Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s is an interloper, having illegitimately grabbed the seat of power during a military coup and last Wednesday his military, security forces and state-financed thugs, attacked and murdered more than 1,000 peaceful protestors, plunging the Egyptian society into chaos and mayhem. Dozens of churches have been torched, while the state desecrated the sanctity of the Rabaa and Fateh mosques, killing dozens in the process.

AMP categorically rejects all attacks on places of worship, regardless of religion or sect. It violates all tenets of Islam and violates the inherent right that all people have to practice their religion in peace and security.

However, we also want to urge you, the media, to do you research and not to blindly perpetuate Egyptian propaganda that relies upon ignorance and Islamophobia to lay the blame for church attacks on the supporters of legitimacy and peaceful protesters.

To begin with, we know from documents obtained after Mubarak’s fall that previous attacks on churches were carried out by the regime itself to insight hatred and sectarian tension in Egypt. Now media reports have shown that this is the case again. In fact, Coptic Vicar Ayube Yusuf told the Egyptian 'On TV' station that during their Friday sermons, imams asked their Muslim worshipers to protect Christians and their churches. The vicar went on to say that it was state-sponsored ‘thugs’ who torched the churches while police and security forces watched and did nothing. Other media outlets have reported the same.

And just as we were trying to come to grips with the deadly turn of events in Egypt, we see Tuesday that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad turned chemical weapons on his own people, killing more than 1,000 people outside Damascus. The videos of dozens of babies and young children foaming at the mouth while gasping out their dying breaths are almost beyond comprehension.

This is not the first time Assad has used chemical weapons. In fact, President Obama’s administration declared in June that the Syrian regime already had used chemical weapons.

One year ago, President Obama had said that chemical weapons and poisonous gas would be the “red line” that would prompt unspecified American action. Nonetheless, since June we have failed to act and it seems that the administration has redrawn President Obama’s ‘red line.’

The murders of so many innocent people in Egypt and Syria is indicative of the result of failed and weak US policy in the region. The United States has lost is moral currency in the Middle East by not upholding our values of human rights, liberty and freedom, squandering our credibility instead by cow-towing to dictators and our supposed only friend in the region – Israel. Our word now is irrelevant. We are seen as weak and duplicitous in the suffering of innocent people throughout the region. Our failed policy has hurt our standing the Arab and Muslim world and threatens the well-being of our national security. 

Therefore, AMP is calling upon President Obama and Congress to hold al-Sisi and Assad accountable for their crimes against their own people. We must bring pressure to bear upon Egypt to return to the democratic process immediately and to release all political prisoners. We must compel Assad to accept that his reign has come to a bloody end and it is time for him to allow his citizens to achieve their democratic ideals. It is only in this way the US can begin to remedy and make right the rampant carnage and human rights abuses in Egypt and Syria, for which we are in large part responsible.