wfn.org | Makari describes terrorist attack reaction in Cairo

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Note #6878 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

02-October-2001
01362

Makari describes terrorist attack reaction in Cairo

WMD official, stranded in Egypt, describes "unanimous shock"

by Bill Lancaster

PHOENIX - Victor Makari told the General Assembly Council meeting here of
his experience being in Cairo, Egypt, at the time of the Sept. 11 attack.

Makari, who is area coordinator for the Middle East and for interfaith
relations in the Worldwide Ministries Division of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.), was in Cairo for the General Assembly meeting of the Synod of the
Nile, which is the church in which he grew up.

Makari said he was gratified at the expressions of support from the Egyptian
church. "They read in the Assembly this passage of scripture: "God is our
refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble," he said, "and sang a
Reformation hymn in Arabic based on that psalm."

Still, Makari added, he would rather have been home in Louisville. "I was
thinking about our congregations, our pastors and church staffs, our campus
pastors and their ecumenical colleagues, chaplains in hospitals in prisons
in our armed forces, about American Muslims and Arab Americans, people of
Middle East appearance, about my own reentry into the United States with my
passport marked with my birth place in Egypt and with visa stamps in
Pakistan and other places," he said. "I also thought about the changing
nature of our work, about our colleagues in a crisis mode, unprecedented in
recent years."

"The nature of our worldwide mission, both in the Middle East and in
interfaith relations, will never be the same," Makari noted. "It was a day
of international tragedy whose full dimensions we may never be able to
grasp. We may have long term and possibly permanent implications."

Makari's return to the United States was delayed by 10 days after the
attack. He described a normally hyperactive city that was brought to a
nearly complete halt by the horror of the attacks in Washington and New
York. "There was unanimous shock.  People were stunned," he recounted. "The
bustle of Cairo traffic came to a complete stop.
The city was more of a ghost town. People stayed home to watch television.
Shops were closed. There was enormous outpouring of sympathy and support for
the President.  There was anger toward the perpetrators and strong
condemnation of terrorism.
 Also there was some disbelief about the helplessness of America. How could
this have happened with all the intelligent services not knowing about it."

Makari said there was also much fear. "There were expressions of fear of
war, of conflict between the Christian west and the Muslim east. There was
fear on part of the Christian community for themselves.

"There was concern that war that can never solve anything might be the order
of the day.
Concern that solutions are needed for the conflict in Palestine. Concern
about what are the root causes of the emotions that lead to fundamentalism
and extremism and terrorism. This calls for close cooperation so that evil
does not have the final word, that the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
has the final say in history."

Makari returned to Louisville from Cairo via New York. "I went to the site
of the World Trade Center, and I can not describe what I saw," he said, his
voice quavering.  "There is a great difference between seeing the site on
television and walking around the rubble, with crowds of people walking in
silence, shaking their heads.  Muslims were there, too.  There was a pall of
silence in the midst of all the dust and smell. I could only think of the
words of the hymn, 'God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in
time of trouble ...'"
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