Egypt, Arab world anxious for Marwa killer’s verdict
Nov 9th, 2009 | By Joseph Mayton | Category: Egypt, Featured, News, Women
CAIRO: Egyptians are waiting anxiously for a verdict to be delivered by a Dresden court in the killing of a pregnant Egyptian woman in July. Marwa el-Sherbini’s killing sparked massive outrage across Egypt and the Arab world after Western media failed to report on the killing until anti-German statements were yelled at an Alexandria demonstration days after the pregnant woman was knifed down inside the German courtroom.
Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for Alex Wiens, 28, who murdered the woman after a judge had fined him 750 euros for racist comments on a playground where she had been watching her three-year-old son.
The German man – he is a German citizen of Russian ethnicity – has confessed to killing the woman, who has been dubbed the “veiled martyr” by Arabic media.
“It is true that I am hostile to foreigners but that was not the motive,” Wiens said in a statement read by one of his lawyers on November 4.
Prosecutors, including an Egyptian delegation from Cairo’s Lawyers Syndicate, have said that the man was driven “by a pronounced hatred of non-Europeans and Muslims.”
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 togetherâ€)
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 racismâ€)
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.â€
(see also “German student reacts to Marwa’s murder: Racist murder in Dresdenâ€)
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 biasâ€)
“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
Keep advertising off Bikya Masr - donate $1 to allow this to be possible
I’d like to thank Bikya for their coverage of an important story that has sadly been under reported elsewhere.
I’d like to thank Bikya Masr for covering an important issue that has sadly been under reported elsewhere.
[...] via Egypt, Arab world anxious for Marwa killer’s verdict | Bikya Masr. [...]
[...] Not only Egyptians but also the Arab world  are waiting for the announced  judgement  by Dresden court in the killing of a pregnant Egyptian woman in July this year. Marwa el-Sherbini’s killing sparked massive outrage across Egypt and the Arab world after German media failed to report on the killing until anti-German statements were yelled at an Alexandria demonstration days after she was killed  inside the courtroom (more) [...]
786 92 110
Salaams
&
Peace to all.
Thanx 4 the indepth coverage to a very sad tragic story.
I’ve cried repeatedly several times when reading this story !
Being born & bred in the United Kingdom, I understand & feel the pain of the Muslims who suffer racism in Europe.
InnAllah Masabereen !
(God is the patient ones)
Duas
Shuja
ali_maula6666@yahoo.co.uk
I am very surprised that so far I have nowhere read about the request by activists, NGO’s, opposition folks – all those who usually are active in cases where it concerns Christians and/or Jews – to demand a full investigation in the incomprehensible behaviour of the police. Nor have I read anything significant by journalists about the inexplicable.
The above article too fails to address this issue (again). Nothing about the fact that the judge of the first court had to concede that the court had death threats against Marwa Sherbini but choose to ignore them. Nothing about the fact that the police stood by as she was stabbed multiple times, that instead of defending her they shoot her husband who himself was stabbed several times by the attacker. Stabbing is not like shooting which takes fractions of seconds.
So … why???? Why was it allowed to happen and why is this excluded?
This is interesting and if you would give some more details as to how you know these facts and how we can get some more information that would be great. thanks!
you should also check our archives about this, as we bring up a number of these questions.
To admin, comment #7
I came back from Germany 2 weeks ago (after 4 wks stay) and got quite some info there. To my knowledge the fact with the judge of the first trial was also mentioned in a report of Al Jazeera – let me check this out. Let me also check out some credible German sites and I’ll come back to you latest tomorrow morning with some more info or at least links.
To admin, comment #7, cont.
I did some checking as promised (;-)) and can give you the following links and info to check out:
- Yesterday’s Arabic issue of Al Masri al Youm. It states that the defence team has started legal procedures against the court, mainly because the death threat against Dr. Marwa (in writing during the 1st trial) was ignored and pushed aside.
- A quite comprehensive summary is to be found on Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Marwa_El-Sherbini
- Furthermore there are some articles in the English version of Spiegel online (search the archive for the latest)
- Unfortunately I could not find out how far (if at all) the investigations have proceeded into the fact that there was no security
Significant though is the fact that at the trial of Alex Wien – the murderer – there was a security force of 200 police men … for fear that there might be revenche attacks. Is it that “animal farms syndrom” applies here too: some are more equal than others respectively some are more worthy to be protected than others?! Just an “innocent” thought …