CAIRO: The Cairo Opera House and the German Embassy in Cairo announced their decision to postpone two concerts, which were scheduled to feature a leading German orchestra later this week, after it came under public pressure and security concerns. The cancellation comes as Marwa el-Sherbini’s family – the Egyptian woman murdered in a Dresden, Germany, courtroom in July – pressured the Egyptian culture ministry to bar the German orchestra from playing in the country.

The Dresden Orchestra was due to perform in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt’s largest two cities, to ‘promote tolerance’ three months after the slaying of the Egyptian woman in Dresden by a German-Russian man after he had been convicted of hate speech and required to pay a fine of some 700 euros. The Dresden Orchestra, which is the oldest orchestra in Europe, had hoped their performance would help heal wounds between Egypt and German.

It was established over 500 years ago.

Egypt’s Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said the “postponement of [the] German Dresden orchestral concerts in Sayyed Darwish Theater in Alexandria and the Grand Theater in Egyptian Opera House was built on the agreement and consent of the Egyptian Opera House and Dresden Orchestra troupe.”

He added that the reasons for the postponement came on the grounds that “the German conductor was going to speak on the relationship between the Egyptian and German people and confirm that this crime [the killing of Sherbini] should not affect the relationship between the two countries and peoples, and requested a moment of silence on the soul.”

Hosni continued, saying that “but at the insistence of the family of Marwa over the refusal of the concert, especially with the start of the trial in Dresden, prompted an agreement on the delay taking into account the feelings of the family. He added that “we must distinguish between a crime that claimed the life of Marwa and between the relationship with the German people and their arts.”

Sources from the Egyptian Ministry of Culture said that the ministry sent a request late last week asking for the postponement of the orchestra’s concerts for fear of clashes because of the anger in the street raised by the murder of Marwa. This revelation comes despite the ministry’s continued claims last week that the concerts would go forward without a glitch.

Reports suggested that Marwa’s family opposed the creation of such cultural events, especially despite the German Embassy arguing in an earlier statement that the celebration “comes to signal that the death of their daughter is an individual case [and] does not represent the German people and that relations between Egyptians and Germans are more important than this incident.”

The Egyptian Opera House and Dresden Orchestra had agreed last year on the performances and Herbert Mitscht was scheduled to lead the musicians in the concerts scheduled for October 31 and November 2.

Sherbini’s family appealed to Hosni to cancel the performances “out of respect of our feelings and those of the Egyptian people.” He acquiesced.

Sherbini, a 31-year-old pharmacist, was stabbed 18 times by Alex Wiens, a Russian-born German in a courthouse where a legal dispute between them was being heard. Sherbini, a mother of a three-year-old child, was pregnant when she was killed, according to her family.

(see also “Marwa el-Sherbini trial to begin, Arabs watch and wait”)

The murder outraged Muslims inside and outside Egypt, and raised fears of a new wave of anti-Islamism in the West. The victim was dubbed “the martyr of the hijab.” The killer also stabbed Sherbini’s husband as German police reacted slowly, shooting Sherbini’s husband in the leg, allegedly having mistaken him for the assailant.

The plan for the concerts was unveiled in Egyptian newspapers as a Dresden court, the same one where the murder was committed, started the trial of Wiens amid heavy security. Prosecutors are demanding the maximum sentence, life in prison.

Officials at both the Cairo Opera House and the German Embassy in Egypt declined to comment on the cancellation of the concerts. Egyptian sources, however, said that the move was prompted by rising public opposition to the event and concerns about potential attacks on the German musicians.

BM