Egypt IFOR delegation report: A visit to MasterPeace

This past weekend, near the end of a week of meetings in Egypt held by our group of International Fellowship of Reconciliation representatives, we visited the offices of MasterPeace in Cairo. We met there with Raghda El-Halawany and Mohamed Helmy, two staff at the organization.

Raghda is a journalist and activist, and was first to meet with us. She told about her experiences during the last 12 months. She said: “Beginning from school, we had to respect the army because, as were were told, they defended Egypt against Israel. So we were realy glad when they were visible on the streets. Now we know that the army and most branches of the economy and the present government are the same.”

She continued by telling us that some weeks ago the organization hosted a lecture by speakers from South Africa about their experience with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in their country. They discusssed the idea of implementing something like this in Egypt as a part of working for reconciliation. However, in Egypt there is a preference for a model of a reconciliation process which is being currently used in Morocco.

Raghda asked us about our impressions of our tour. We mentioned one of the most important questions: how to deal with corruption. Immediately we had a deep discussion about this concern.

We were joined then by Mohamed Helmy, who didn’t notice that we were in a discussion — this seems to me as part of the gender discussion, since he then set the agenda of the conversation. Later on we were able to return to the discussion we were previously holding.

Helmy asked about our group and then he described the program of MasterPeace:

1. In 2014, on the International Day of Peace, September 21st, there will be a big peace concert at the Giza pyramids by musicians from all conflict regions of the world, reflecting both inter- and intra-national conflicts. For instance, from (North) Sudan and South Sudan, North Korean (DPRK) and South Korea (ROK), Pakistan and India, etc. He started this project two years ago together with a Dutch person; together they raised money to start this project from a bank in the Netherlands, which is working in the ecological and disarmament field.
2. They want to implement at least 200 MasterPeace groups all over the world. My fellow delegate Cornelia de Graaf, from the Netherlands, was told that Pax Christi has already started such a group in the Netherlands. They are working for peace in their own country and giving concerts and apparently working to raise the money to travel to Egypt 2014. As I understand it, they will also give a report of their work to the MasterPeace office, so that they get the invitation and also support and supplies.
3. According the the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, they invite to realize dreams and hopes. Two persons are already on the road by feet or his own car to travel to Egypt, financing this tour by singing and making music, informing about by Twitter, the Internet, and so on.

They are financing their work with the support of the bank in the Netherlands as well as donations, fundraising concerts, etc.

We then resumed the conversation with Raghda speaking about our impressions of our tour, and discussed the state of interfaith relations. It was noted that there are many Christians who are very frightened of the rise in power of Islamist groups. Raghda told us that she believes that the Muslim Brotherhood is not going to cooperate with the Salafist movement but instead with some of the liberal parties.

We suggested that the intention to create a better understanding of the Muslim Brotherhood might benefit from a common concert organized by Christian and Muslims, perhaps at Tahrir Square. Raghda then told us that some Muslim leaders attended a worship service held by the Coptic Christians in Cairo on the 6th of January, which is the Coptic Christmas feast day, and gave a message to the Coptic Pope Shenouda. Muslims all over the country were also protecting Coptic churches during their services.

While we finished our meeting, I asked if I could give them a poem as a present, and they agreed. It is a poem which was completed during our talk; it also had as its background some reflection about Christmas and a discussion about the monotheistic religions and their demands for truth:

God is the whole
we are a part
while we participate
we are whole

In German:

gott ist das ganze
wir sind ein teil
so wir teilen
sind wir ganz

We said goodbye to each other.

Rev. Dr. Matthias Engelke is the chairperson of the Internationaler Versöhnungsbund (Fellowship of Reconciliation - Germany).