Murder in German court sparks Egyptian fury
JMD Morgan
� Woman was stabbed 18 times during hijab trial
� Outrage at lack of media coverage fuels protests
* Kate Connolly in Berlin and Jack Shenker in Cairo
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 7 July 2009 21.21 BST
It was while Marwa el-Sherbini was in the dock recalling how the accused
had insulted her for wearing the hijab after she asked him to let her
son sit on a swing last summer, that the very same man strode across the
Dresden courtroom and plunged a knife into her 18 times.
Her three-year-old son Mustafa was forced to watch as his mother slumped
to the courtroom floor.
Even her husband Elvi Ali Okaz could do nothing as the 28-year-old
Russian stock controller who was being sued for insult and abuse took
the life of his pregnant wife. As Okaz ran to save her, he too was
brought down, shot by a police officer who mistook him for the attacker.
He is now in intensive care in a Dresden hospital.
Kate Connolly on the death of Marwa el-Sherbini Link to this audio
While the horrific incident that took place a week ago tomorrow has
attracted little publicity in Europe, and in Germany has focused more on
issues of court security than the racist motivation behind the attack,
2,000 miles away in her native Egypt, the 32-year-old pharmacist has
been named the "headscarf martyr".
She has become a national symbol of persecution for a growing number of
demonstrators, who have taken to the streets in protest at the perceived
growth in Islamophobia in the west. Sherbini's funeral took place in her
native Alexandria on Monday in the presence of thousands of mourners and
leading government figures. There are plans to name a street after her.
Sherbini, a former national handball champion, and Okaz, a genetic
engineer who was just about to submit his PhD, had reportedly lived in
Germany since 2003, and were believed to be planning to return to Egypt
at the end of the year. They were expecting a second child in January.
Unemployed Alex W. from Perm in Russia was found guilty last November of
insulting and abusing Sherbini, screaming "terrorist" and "Islamist
whore" at her, during the Dresden park encounter. He was fined �780 but
had appealed the verdict, which is why he and Sherbini appeared face to
face in court again.
Even though he had made his anti-Muslim sentiments clear, there was no
heightened security and questions remain as to why he was allowed to
bring a knife into the courtroom.
Angry mourners at the funeral in Alexandria accused Germany of racism,
shouting slogans such as "Germans are the enemies of God" and Egypt's
head mufti Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy called on the German judiciary to
severely punish Alex W.
"Anger is high", said Joseph Mayton, editor of the English-language news
website Bikya Masr. "Not since Egypt won the African [football] Cup have
Egyptians come together under a common banner."
In Germany the government of Angela Merkel has been sharply criticised
for its sluggish response to the country's first murderous anti-Islamic
attack. The general secretaries of both the Central Council of Jews and
the Central Council of Muslims, Stephen Kramer and Aiman Mazyek, who on
Monday made a joint visit to the bedside of Sherbini's husband, spoke of
the "inexplicably sparse" reactions from both media and politicians.
They said that although there was no question that the attack was
racially motivated, the debate in Germany had concentrated more on the
issue of the lack of courtroom security. "I think the facts speak for
themselves," Kramer said.
The government's vice spokesman Thomas Steg rebuffed the criticism,
saying not enough was yet known about the details of the incident.
"In this concrete case we've held back from making a statement because
the circumstances are not sufficiently clear enough to allow a broad
political response," he said, adding: "Should it be the case that this
was anti-foreigner [and] racially motivated [the government] would
condemn it in the strongest possible terms".
As hundreds of Arab and Muslim protesters demonstrated in Germany, and
observers drew comparisons with the Danish cartoon row, Egyptian
government representatives in Berlin said it was important to keep the
incident in perspective.
"It was a criminal incident, and doesn't mean that a popular persecution
of Muslims is taking place," Magdi el-Sayed, the spokesman for the
Egyptian embassy in Berlin said.
But because it occurred just days after Nicolas Sarkozy gave a major
policy speech denouncing the burka, many Egyptians believe the death of
Sherbini is part of a broader trend of European intolerance towards Muslims.
The German embassy in Cairo has sought to calm the situation, organising
a visit of condolence by the ambassador to the victim's family and
issuing a statement insisting that the attack did not reflect general
German sentiment towards Egyptians.
There have been repeated calls by protesters for the German embassy to
be picketed. The Egyptian pharmacists' syndicate said it is considering
a week-long boycott of German medicines.
The victim's brother, Tarek el-Sherbini, labelled Germany as a "cold"
country when interviewed by a popular talk show host. Media pundits such
as Abdel Azeem Hamad, editor of the daily al-Shorouk newspaper, have
attributed the western media's disinterest in the story to racism,
arguing that if Sherbini had been Jewish the incident would have
received much greater attention.
Politicians in Egypt have been scrambling to ride the groundswell of
popular feeling. But some commentators have criticised reaction to the
murder as a convenient distraction for the unpopular regime of President
Hosni Mubarak, which is currently being challenged by a nationwide
series of strikes and sit-ins.
"The tragedy of Marwa el-Sherbini is real, as is anti-Arab racism in
Europe and elsewhere, but ... her death has been recruited to channel
resentment of the west, Danish-cartoon style," the popular blogger The
Arabist said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/07/german-trial-hijab-murder-egypt