Muslims and Christians of Egypt finally find common ground

Both Muslim and Christian institutions have agreed to fight atheism as an enemy and a real threat to their role and conservative religious views. The official Muslim institutions, namely al-Azhar, the Ministry of Endowments, and Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta have been actively organizing different events against atheism. Minister of Endowments Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa has stated that there is a plan “to immunize, confront, treat, and prevent” the spread of atheism. He also added during a parliamentary discussion on the spread of the “phenomenon of atheism”: “The ideas of atheists, gays, and extremists are ticking time bombs similar to those of extremism and terrorism. We cannot eliminate extremist and terrorist ideologies unless we firmly face laxity and deviation.”

In a similar vein, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Ahmed El-Tayyeb affirmed in many television interviews: “New Atheism now has institutions, societies, and funds, and youth are now encouraged to attack religion. This reminds me of Marxist Atheism, which targeted religions at the time, describing them as ‘opium.’” Furthermore, Al-Azhar established a “Bayan” Unit to face atheism, which held face-to-face meetings with atheists to convince them of the “moderation of Islam.” In addition, the Observatory of Takfiri Fatwas affiliated with Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta issued a report, in which it monitors the reasons for the increase of the phenomenon of atheism among youth in Islamic nations, claiming that the country has 866 atheists.

Egyptian churches have followed the line of fighting atheism. Moreover, the words of their leaders have become regularly present in the official discourse to the extent that they cited atheism—for the first time—as a reason for the invalidation of marriage contracts in the Christian Family Bill that is being proposed by the Egyptian churches to the Ministry of Justice. The response plan included various activities, such as the organization of events.

The Egypt Council for Churches has held a conference to address atheism, many booklets have been published, such as A Conversation with an Atheist by priest and famous preacher Daoud Lamei and The Illusion of Atheism by Father Ibrahim Azer, a teaching assistant at the Theological Seminary of Al-Muharraq Monastery, who believes the 25 January Revolution of 2011 to be one of the most important reasons for atheism. Meanwhile, Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, dedicated a number of his weekly sermons to the topic of atheism, underscoring the grave danger it poses to Egyptian society, even if percentage of atheists is small.