A sad start to the year

Early this morning, shortly after the new year began, a car bomb went off outside a church in Alexandria, targeting Christian worshippers leaving a service to celebrate the new year. The death toll so far stands at 21, with another 83 wounded – including both Christians and Muslims.

Any loss of human life in such a way is a tragedy, but what makes this event even sadder in my eyes is that it is at such odds with the tolerant and welcoming attitudes we have experienced from everyone we have met in Egypt.

In Cairo last week, we took a taxi from our hotel to the Khan el-Khalili - a journey of less than 3km which took almost an hour due to horrific traffic jams. Our taxi driver was rather taken with the oddity of two Arabic-speaking foreigners in his taxi, so we chatted quite happily through the whole journey. The subject turned, as it often does, to religion.

"We welcome any religion," he said. "There are two Christian families in my building. They are like my brothers. In fact closer than my brothers. They are my good friends." We went on to discuss differences in marriage, relationships, alcohol, friendships - differences between Egypt and England, Muslim and Christian, and other combinations of these 4 variables.

We have had so many similar conversations with people - open-minded, tolerant, and wanting to learn more about what is different, and what is the same.

The newspapers this morning report that official sources believe foreign groups were behind the attack. But whoever perpetrated this horrible crime, I can’t help but feel that any such sectarian violence is not just an attack on one group, but on all of Egypt; on the beautiful city of Alexandria; on the tolerant and intelligent Egyptian people, whom we have come to love and respect so much over the last few months. It is a sad start to the new year.