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Egyptian woman killed in German court for being veiled

Categories: Middle East & North Africa, Egypt, Germany, Ethnicity & Race, Freedom of Speech, Governance, Human Rights, International Relations, Migration & Immigration, Religion

It's been too long since Egyptian bloggers came together under the same opinion. But the new hate crime [1] that took place in Germany against a Muslim Egyptian woman, Marwa El Sherbini, was one good reason for them to unite again, condemning international media for ignoring such incidents against Muslims in the West.

The story goes back to August 2008, when Marwa filed a defamation case against her killer, Axel, a 28-year unemployed German, after he called her a “terrorist” because she wears the hijab (Islamic veil).

However last Wednesday, Alex stabbed her 18 times to death in a German courtroom after the judges announced she won the case against him, and that he had to pay 2,800 Euros as a fine for his previous insults.

Marwa, 32-year-old Egyptian, was the wife of an Egyptian academic, who was on a scholarship in Germany. Her husband was also hurt in the incident and is now in critical condition in hospital, between life and death.

Zeinobia expressed her anger in a post titled “What If She Were A Lesbian [2]“, and said:

The woman is 32 years Marwa El-Sherbini , she was a pregnant in her second child when she was was stabbed.
[…]
This is for sure a hate crime but unlike other hate crimes like homophobic crimes or anti-Semitic crimes, it did not make the headlines abroad and I do not know why !! This is a racism crime , a woman is shot down stabbed like that so simple in the court room for God sake and it is not important to be covered in the media as it should !! She was a mother who was a pregnant for God sake !!
May Allah bless her soul , she is a martyr of racism and hate.

ahmed [3]

Ahmed esmat questioned on Twitter

The same thought was echoed by Hisham Maged [4] on his blog, playing the What if game:

Let us play the What IF game, just imagine if the situation was reversed and the victim was a westerner who was stabbed anywhere in the world or -God Heaven- in any Middle Eastern country by Muslim extremists, or even what the media used to call ‘minorities’ in Egypt! You definitely would have heard the world’s buzzing and the internet goes down too!

Bikya Masr, who was closely following the incident, asked if Marwa can be the symbol to bring people together [5]. He demanded an immediate action on the diplomatic and national levels:

Across the Middle East, anger is high. This anger, however, cannot fall into random diatribes against Germans, or Germany. It must maintain some semblance of coherence for any campaign that should be established to succeed. And it will if Sherbini truly is a symbol that can bring people together much like Neda in Iran did.
[…]
Do people believe Sherbini is a symbol? […] Egyptians should be outraged that a woman was verbally abused for wearing the veil and being Egyptian in the first place. The government should be sending a strong signal to Europe that this behavior is unacceptable, but they remain silent. That leaves it to the Egyptian population to take action.
[…]
Let us walk the streets in front of the German Embassy and demand a full investigation and report. Because if Germany cannot do this, then it once more proves that European hate for Muslims and Arabs is stronger than their so-called “freedom.” Yes, Marwa is a symbol, but she should be a symbol to bring people together, not divide them.

Another blogger Sadafat wrote [6]:

لو أن يهوديا أصيب بكلمة أو مزحة ثقيلة في ألمانيا لأقامت رئيسة الوزراء الدنيا ولم تقعدها ولتنادت فوكس نيوز وسكاي نيوز بالدفاع عن العنصر السامي واعلان الحرب على اعداء السامية، وأما الأخت المصرية هذه فلا بواكي لها.
يجب ان تعلن الحكومة الألمانية ان هذا التصرف يمس المسلمين، يجب ان تضع في دستورها للغالبية الثانية من الديانيات وهم المسلمين حقوقا تحفظهم من العداء ضد الإسلام.
If a Jew was hurt, in Germany, even with a word or a joke, the prime minister would have done everything, and called Fox News and Sky News to defend Semitism and would have even declared war on anti-Semites. But no one will cry over the Egyptian woman who died there.

The German government should know that this act affects Muslims, and should put in its constitution for the second majority of its religions, who are Muslims, that their rights protect them from hatred towards Islam.

Egyptian bloggers comenting or venting out their frustrations on Twitter.

Egyptian bloggers commenting or venting out their frustrations on Twitter.

As for myself, I found myself writing these lines on my blog Lasto Adri [7]:

بعد أن قال الغرب أن قاتل مروة الشربينى لا يمثل ألمانيا، وأن الحادث مجرد عمل فردى،
لا أتوقع من الغرب -ذاته- أقل من أى يلغى من كل معاجمه فكرة أن المسلمين إرهابيين، ويؤمن أن بن لادن وأعوانه -مثلا- لا يمثلون العرب أو المسلمين فى شئ، وأفعالهم كلها فردية!

وعلى رأى المثل.. لا تعايرنى ولا أعايرك.. دا التعصب طايلنى وطايلك!

After the West said that Marwa's murderer doesn't represent Germany, and that it is an individual act.. I expect no less from -the same- West than erasing the idea that Muslims are terrorists from all its dictionaries, and to believe that Ben laden and his friends -for example- do not represent Arabs or Muslims in anything, and all what they do is individual actions!

As the proverb says: Don't blame me for something you do too. We both have the same “extremism”.