CAIRO: Marwa el-Sherbini’s name has become synonymous with the cultural and religious fight ongoing in Europe following her tragic death in early July of this year. The courtroom stabbing at the hands of a German extremist, neo-Nazi, radical named Alex, left much of Egypt and the Arab world crying foul, saying it revealed the turn toward anti-Islamic sentiments in Europe. Small demonstrations were organized, the most popular received international attention, as Egyptians in Alexandria chanted anti-German sentiments.

On Monday, Alex’s trial is set to begin. Prosecutors are expected to demand the death penalty in the case, which left her family stunned. The Egyptian Lawyers Syndicate in Cairo is also expected to participate in the hearings. Hamdi Khalifa, the head of the syndicate, is to present the case in 11 sessions, beginning with five days of witness testimony, he said.

(see also our scoop: Egyptian woman stabbed to death in Germany as a result of veil)

The syndicate is coordinating its case with the German Embassy in Cairo.

Still, it may not be enough to appease Egyptians, who had called for Alex to be put to death for his gruesome killing – he stabbed el-Sherbini 17 times in the middle of the Dresden courtroom – but the situation has apparently calmed somewhat. The Dresden orchestra is scheduled to perform in Cairo soon, but despite calls from the Alexandria Pharmaceutical Syndicate – of which el-Sherbini was a member – the culture ministry has said the performance will go ahead as scheduled.

“This is a cultural matter. Let us allow the rule of law to play out in the case of a personal crime,” said Culture Minister Farouk Hosni. He believes that Germany will convict the man and that “a cultural organization should not be punished for a crime they did not commit.”

For many Egyptians, especially the family of the 32-year-old woman – who was three months pregnant when she was knifed down in front of her husband and her three-year-old son – who are demanding the orchestra be barred from playing in Egypt.

Sherbini was killed only minutes after winning a court case against the man for defaming her after he had called her a “terrorist” and demanded she return home on a Dresden playground.

The murder stimulated a cultural battle between Europe and the Arab world, with a number of Arabs claiming the murder was part of a larger problem facing European society, namely, racism and hatred of Muslims and Arabs.

“We have seen that Europe is growing more and more conservative by the day, so the killing was a shocking example of what some people will do in order to try to make us go back to where they think we come from,” said 27-year-old German-born Hana Jabar. The Tunisian-German artist, who has lived her entire life in Berlin, says that there are undercurrents within society that are very hateful toward Arabs.

“They don’t realize that there are Christian Arabs, that many of us were born here and are German citizens. They fear what they don’t know,” she added.

(see also “Marwa: the symbol to gather people together”)

For el-Sherbini’s family, the tragic loss of their daughter led to a campaign against all things German. In Alexandria, local pharmacy’s called for a boycott of German products, but the movement drizzled out with little success.

In Europe, experts were quick to point to Egypt’s own problems with racism, arguing that they had no place to talk of Europeans failings while Africans and black people are “treated with such disregard it is appalling,” as one Geneva-based intellectual told Bikya Masr last summer.

(see also “Egypt: take care of own racism”)

But some Germans said that the cause behind the murder were well-founded within German, and European society. One student, who had traveled throughout the Middle East, said that it “is common in German press to downplay the existing racist and neo-fascist activities.”

(see also “German student reacts to Marwa’s murder: Racist murder in Dresden”)

One of the main factors that caused much angst among Egyptians and Arabs was the international media’s apparent lack of attention given to the murder. It was not until the anti-German chants began at the Alexandria protest days after the killing that major news networks began following the story. By then, it was too late, with Egyptians demanding a reason for what they called the “double standards” of Western news.

(see also “The West’s Marwa coverage: anti-Islam bias”)

“If it had been a Chrstian white woman killed in an Egyptian courtroom, it would have been the lead story, then there would have been a discussion of how the Middle East hates America and the West, but in this case, there was nothing until a few Egyptians chanted against Germany,” said one Egyptian activist at the time, who was participating in the protests at German government buildings in Egypt.

In the end, the back and forth war of words died down and the German judicial system took charge of the case, which left the vast majority of Arabs at ease, but the cultural friction created by the murder continues still, as media have once again put Marwa’s picture back in the limelight.

BM