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Families, in their houses are preparing popcorn for the kids. Abdallah and Amr are outside
partying with their friends, waiting for the big countdown in the Greek club by the Corniche
of Alexandria. Sarah is waiting for her boyfriend; she wants to share this special moment with
him. They may not all share the same faith; however, they are all Egyptians and at 11:59 all
happy, peaceful, and looking forward to a new prosperous year.
Midnight does not bring joy this time. Instead, it brings the deadly sounds of explosions and
blood.
The kids scream, Ahmed and Khadiga run to see what happened, Abdallah and Amr
cannot believe their eyes, Sarah is terrified. In Sidi Bishr district's Khalil Hamada Street,
where The Saints Church is facing a Mosque, a bomb has exploded. The lethal blast did not
differentiate between Muslim Amm Mohamed or Christian Amm George. There was no
difference between innocent child Samy and seventy year old Aisha, or even between
Marianne or Fawezy, husband and wife. Over twenty were killed and over seventy injured.
In chaos and pain, media all over the world stop reporting the facts and start adding
their comments. Too often they are insensitive and offensive, in a direct or indirect way
blaming all Muslims for the attack, and go too far recounting attacks on Christians in the
Middle East from past years. No one was interested in what happened just after the explosion.
Human tragedy was not big enough to stay longer, to talk to the people and visit the hospitals.
And in fact that was the moment
when perhaps the most important
aspect of this event started. For that
was when Egypt showed its true
human solidarity; and in fact, its true
face.
-„My name is Ahmed, I am a Muslim, and today I donated my blood to the victims of
the attack, I feel responsibility towards standing with my Christian friends in this terrifying
attack,‟ said a University of Alexandria student who lives in the neighborhood.
- „I have no doubt that this is an external attack from outside Egypt, I cannot imagine my
Muslim friend bombing our church, I have never seen violence from them towards me. Yes in
Egypt we have some conflicts between Christians and Muslims, we cannot deny this, but this
conflict does not -under any circumstances- reach a point of massive killing. No, please, we
are one nation under one flag‟ - told us Mary, a 37 years old Christian housewife.