rondi adamson.ca

Many Egyptian Muslims did something Thursday they'd never done before: celebrated Christmas. A week after a terrorist bombing killed 21 Christians in Alexandria, thousands of Muslims attended Coptic Christmas Eve services or stood at candlelight vigils outside churches in a (successful) effort to prevent further attacks on Christians. According to Ahram Online, at least two Muslim movie stars, a popular preacher, and two sons of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were among those who acted as human shields, saying they considered last week's bombing an attack "on Egypt as a whole." The effort was the brainchild of Mohamed El-Sawy, described as a "Muslim arts tycoon" who distributed information about the project from his cultural center in Cairo. "We either live together, or we die together," El-Sawy said. Ahram says "solidarity between Muslims and Copts has seen an unprecedented peak" since the bombing. "Millions of Egyptians changed their Facebook profile pictures to the image of a cross within a crescent – the symbol of an 'Egypt for All.' Around the city, banners went up calling for unity, and depicting mosques and churches, crosses and crescents, together as one."

This is lovely, of course. And far be it from me to ruin this with a question, but...I wonder, would Egyptian Muslims do this for Jews? Maybe they would -- certainly my Egyptian blogging/Twitter/media friends would. What about the broader population? I wish I could be sure.