Thursday, Oct 29, 2009
Gulf News
Cairo Organisers cancelled two concerts, which were scheduled later this week featuring a leading German orchestra, after it came under public pressure and due to security concerns.
Three months after the slaying of an Egyptian woman in Dresden by a perceived German racist, the Dresden Orchestra was due to perform in Cairo and Alexandria to "promote tolerance".
Officials at the Cairo Opera House cancelled a scheduled press conference on Tuesday evening. They released a brief statement, saying the concerts would be "delayed" without setting a new date or giving reasons.
Respect
Days before the concerts, which were scheduled for October 31 and November 2, the family of Marwa Al Sherbini, who was fatally stabbed in a Dresden courtroom last July, appealed to Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni, to cancel the performances "out of respect of our feelings and those of the Egyptian people".
Marwa, a 31-year-old pharmacist, was stabbed at least 18 times by Alex Wiens, a Russian-born German in a courthouse where a legal dispute between them was being heard. Marwa, a mother of a three-year-old child, was pregnant when she was killed, according to her family. The victim was dubbed as the martyr of the hijab (a Muslim woman's veil). Wiens also stabbed Marwa's husband Elwi Okaz, who was shot by responding policemen after he was mistaken for the assailant.
The murder outraged Muslims inside and outside Egypt, and raised fears of a new wave of anti-Islamism in the West. The plan for the concerts was published in Egyptian newspapers as a Dresden court, the same one where the killing was committed, started the trial of Wiens amid heavy security.
"Egypt has hired a highly qualified team of legal experts for this case and the government will incur the expenses," Hossam Zaki, spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, said on Sunday. Local people in Alexandria, the hometown of Marwa, threatened to stage protests if the concerts went ahead. Officials of 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 the safety and security of the musicians.
By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
Gulf News 2009. All rights reserved.
