Egyptians Mark Revolution

Many Egyptians will fill Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, Egypt, this week to mark the one-year anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution that broke out on Jan. 25, 2011, and eventually drove long-time Egyptian dictator, Hosni Mubarak, from office, said Anne Zaki, Middle East coordinator for the Christian Reformed Church’s Office of Social Justice (OSJ).

“It has been quite a year in Egypt, full of many bad things and good things. But I think this next year will be even more important. It will be huge,” said Zaki, who now lives in Egypt with her family.

A newly elected parliament has just taken office and Zaki is hopeful that Christians, as they become more and more engaged in the public arena, will benefit from greater freedom.

A portion of those marking the anniversary in Tahrir Square, where the revolution began, are celebrating the political changes that have brought a fledgling democracy to the country.

But another portion, said Zaki, believe the political changes have been minimal and have come at a terrible cost. Hundreds of Egyptians who were seeking change were killed and thousands injured.

Zaki and her husband, Naji Umran, are graduates of Calvin Theological Seminary. They left the CRC congregation they were serving in British Columbia lastSeptember to move with their four children to Zaki’s homeland of Egypt.

Zaki spoke this week to a lunch group in the Grand Rapids, Mich., office of the Christian Reformed Church. The lunch was sponsored by OSJ and Christian Reformed World Missions. She is in Grand Rapids to participate in the Calvin Symposium on Worship, which opens Thursday on the campus of Calvin College.

“I come to talk to tell you about the situation in Egypt so that you can pray informed prayers for Egypt. Prayer is what will bring us closer,” she said.

Zaki teaches at a seminary in Cairo. She also speaks regularly to churches, explaining why she and her family have returned and calling on Christians to be aware of and to participate in the new political process.

Her husband attends a university where he is studying both classical Arabic and how to help create dialogue between Christians and Muslims. He also is preaching at churches. Together, they hold a Bible study, work with refugees and counsel with couples.

But one of their primary ministries so far, said Zaki, “has been to answer the question ‘why’ we have gone back. At a time when many others are leaving, it seems to make no sense why we would return,” she said.

Their answer is another question, given to many people in different words. Zaki says they ask, “If you knew that God was going to show up in a place and perform wonders and miracles, wouldn’t you want to be there? We’ve returned to be witnesses, observers.”

They want to be in Egypt as God opens people’s hearts and minds, making them more receptive to hear the Christian faith’s message of hope, reconciliation and salvation.

Although no one knows for sure, Zaki says there are rough estimates that Christians make up about 10-12 percent of Egypt’s 85 million people.

About 30 percent of those just elected to the new Egyptian parliament are liberals and moderate Muslims, while the rest belong to the Muslim Brotherhood and The Salafis, an ultra-conservative Muslim group.

“We have great hope for the 30 percent” that they will help bring about “freedom, human dignity and social justice, the three primary demands of the Revolution,” said Zaki.

The revolution provided an opening, said Zaki, for the rise of The Salafis, who have been very vocal in the last year, demanding that the country become a strict Islamic state. But there are many other Muslims who are more moderate and do not agree that Egypt should move in this direction.

Members of churches and mosques have, in fact, begun to build bridges between one another. Muslims have attended meetings at Christian churches to help explain the basics of democracy in a nation where many people, especially Christians, have had no real voice over their own affairs.

Even more striking: Muslims helped to protect a large group of Christians from threats of violence, while Christians had gathered for a service of prayer and worship in Tahrir Square on New Year’s Eve.

Zaki says she appreciates seeing the work Christians and Muslims have done together. This has helped to further relations between members of the two faiths.

At the same time, she said, she is hopeful Christians will increasingly be able to share “a message that is much bigger and much more hopeful” than that of any other religion.

“We as Christians have a true chance to be the salt and light like we were intended to be,” she said.

Already, Zaki and her husband have seen the grace and power of God at work among churches in Egypt.

In a blog posted on the CRC’s Network that connects people about doing ministry, Naji Umran wrote about what he and his wife have observed.

“For the first time in living memory, and recent history, the church in Egypt seems to be waking with a renewed vision, with hunger for prayer, thirst for justice . . . , to intercede for neighbors, and to stand up for their faith, with confidence, even in the face of threats and violence. And what is blossoming from this development is amazing.”