Why Christians should stick up for atheists

Christians and Muslims in Egypt are joining forces to address the challenge of atheism, according to this news report. (It reminds me of the old headline from Northern Ireland: ‘Catholics and Protestants unite to fight ecumenism’.)

Christian churches in Egypt say they are joining forces with Egypt’s Al-Azhar, a prominent centre of Sunni Muslim learning, to fight the spread of atheism in the country.

‘The Church and the Al-Azhar are drafting a constructive mechanism to address atheism,’ Poules Halim, a spokesman for Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, told Anadolu Agency.

His statements came following a two-day conference, organised jointly between the Al-Azhar and the church, aimed at forging a ‘scholarly response’ to atheism, which, Halim said, had been ‘spreading increasingly’ in Egypt over the past three years …

‘We aim to address the phenomenon [of atheism] in general and those who have bought into its tenets,’ he said.

‘Both the [Coptic Orthodox] Church and the Al-Azhar have the right to raise awareness about atheism,’ Halim said.