Wrongly Accused

Nader Fawzy, a Canadian of Egyptian origin and a Coptic Christian is beside himself with rage.  And apprehension.  Since he fears for his family's well-being, let alone his own.

He has been offered police protection, where he lives, in Toronto.  Not that he and his family are under constant guarded surveillance to ensure no harm comes to them.  More like the police having him on their radar, circling the block on which he lives from time to time, knocking on his door, asking whether everything is all right.

All right?  Not quite. 

This vocal critic of official Egypt who takes grave umbrage over the repression of Christianity in a majority Muslim country, along with threats and acts of violence against Coptic Christians, an ancient community in his country of birth, is well known for his activities that infuriate Egyptian authority.  So he has been placed on a kind of 'hit' list.  He has been hit with the privilege of having his name listed.

Listed among those Coptic Christians living elsewhere, who were intimately involved in the planning production, and filming of an amateur screenplay purporting to demonstrate the awkward peccadilloes of the founder of Islam.  That the historic record attributes most of those proclivities in reflection of the time in which he lived and the tribal society it represented as truth, is another matter; the record does not portray Mohammed as a buffoon.

Just as the Crusaders were 'warriors for Christ', so was Mohammed and his tribe warriors for Islam.  They spread the word of surrender to the almighty influence of Islam, and bloodily demonstrated the fate that befell all those who preferred to submit to their own historical religious base.  But complete submission to make a world-wide web of Muslim faithful consumed the Prophet and became his mantra.

Mr. Fawzy has committed a cardinal sin on several counts; he worships Christianity, spurning Islam, and he is a critic of Islam.  The list that was compiled linking expatriate Coptic Christians to this mockingly disrespectful film and the video posted online has a distinct purpose; to blacklist, as in the issuance of fatwas, those who criticize Islam. 

That they may not have been involved in the making of the Innocence of Muslims appears quite beside the point.

Revenge on old activists outside Egypt, is the reason Mr. Fawzy states he and another Toronto man, Jacques Atalla, have been placed on that list.  To enable fanatical Islamists to identify them, to know where they can be found, and if harm comes to them, why, that's the way things go, after all.  Quiet, unobtrusive people, nursing their grievances quietly do not get listed.

Which is not how Mr. Fawzy registers his disgust with the Egyptian government which has violated the human rights of his fellow Copts.  He has been vocal, loudly verbal, and a scribbler of blame.  He takes offence that even while the Government of Canada declares itself to be fully and unequivocally in support of free speech, they recommend that Mr. Nawzy not be fussy, remain quiet.

"No one has contacted me from the government.  They said I had to be quiet, and seal my lips.  That was through the media.  The most important thing is that my name be removed from this list.  This kind of action, no one can do it more than the Canadian government.  Especially when I have nothing to do with it.

"Unless they give the Canadian government evidence that I am involved in this movie, they have to remove my name.  Mostly for my family in Egypt's safety, and for my kids here."

Governments are like that; discreet, diplomatic, generally speaking.  They do from time to time display some moral heft, but not always.  Take, for example, the British authorities who when Salmon Rushdie had the Iranian fatwa issued against him, being urged by them to "lower the temperature", even while they were fully prepared to give him full protection.

He did succumb to their blandishments, issued a statement that was half-apology, and to no avail.  He wrote that he "had taken the weak position and was therefore treated as a weakling".  Issuing anything remotely resembling an apology to fanatics simply serves as an affirmation to them that they were right all along, and that spurs them to substantially increase the level of their paranoid attacks.

Appeasement is useless.