VOA标准英语2011--Egyptian Islamist Calls for Tolerance of

（单词翻译）

Egyptian Islamist Calls for Tolerance¹ of Coptic Christians²

Violence between Egypt's Coptic Christians and conservative Muslims has led to calls for tolerance from some unlikely sources.

The allegiance of the men gathered outside a mosque³ in central Assyut is clear. But the man addressing the rally implores⁴ them to embrace those of other religions.
Aboud el-Zomour warns against interfaith violence that just days before in Cairo left 12 people dead.
An ex-army officer, former leader of Islamic Jihad, and prisoner for nearly 30 years for his role in killing⁵ the perceived infidel President Anwar Sadat, al-Zomour now presents himself as a messenger of peace.
He tells the crowd his group has "turned the page of violence, forever and with no return."
Islamic Jihad, along with militant⁶ group Gamaa Islamiyah, were formed in response to the Muslim Brotherhood's rejection⁷ of violence in the 1970s. Their aim was to topple the Egyptian government who they say failed to improve the lives of Egyptian people, and betrayed the country by signing a peace treaty with Israel, the latter the justification⁸ for Mr. Sadat's killing.
In 1995, the two groups failed in their attempt to kill President Hosni Mubarak. Mr. Mubarak escaped unharmed and retaliated⁹ with a massive and ruthless crackdown on the groups' members and their families.
The movement had become paralyzed as thousands of Islamists were in custody¹⁰, and thousands more had been cut down by the security forces. Mohamed Essam el din¹¹ Derbala, a leader of Gamaa Islamiyah and colleague of al-Zomour, explains the militants¹²' about face at this point.
Derbala says the government was able to justify¹³ its brutal¹⁴ crackdown on all Islamists because of the violence.
In March of this year, when the new military government released al-Zomour, his anger toward the former president was still evident.? When he went on television to apologize for the Sadat assassination¹⁵, his regret was not for taking a life, rather that it ushered¹⁶ in the Mubarak era.
As for now, both Derbala and al-Zomour stress there are no barriers to Islamists taking an open, peaceful part in Egypt's political life. Al-Zomour says he has no political aspirations¹⁷, though the crowd in Assyut, once a bastion of Islamic extremism, hail him as a natural leader.
And the evening has definite political overtones. Al-Zomour blames interfaith violence on remnants of the old government, an effort to make good on the chaos¹⁸ that Mr. Mubarak warned would ensue should he resign.
The Islamist says that alleged¹⁹ plot won't work.
He says the uprising that led Mr. Mubarak to step down was the work of all elements of society, Muslims and Christians, "even women."
The last is a rare concession²⁰ to the role of women in political life. His conservative outlook is seemingly countered by the number of women who turn out to hear him speak, a few dozen compared to several thousand men.
The woman sit separately, on a balcony largely out of sight, with only an obscured view of the stage. What is visible across the rows of men below is a banner of Osama bin²¹ Laden²². Asked why a personification of religious intolerance is being honored at the rally, Gamaa Islamiya's Derbala says it is a coincidence of timing²³.
Derbala says the group disagreed with bin Laden's methods, but praised him for his fight against the Soviets²⁴ and later the Americans in Afghanistan. His legacy²⁵, he says, must be taken as a whole.
How deeply this brand of Islamism runs is hard to gauge²⁶.
Al-Zomour was imprisoned²⁷ in 1981. Assyut, for one, has changed. Mr. Mubarak sought to counter the poverty that helped breed militancy²⁸ with infrastructure²⁹ and industry. And to some extent it seems to have worked. More importantly, Egypt has evolved, with this year's popular uprising showing, as al-Zomour acknowledges, other paths to change.
Some dismiss al-Zomour as a remnant of Egypt's past, unwilling³⁰ to forget the murder of President Sadat. Others are more forgiving. Meena Hanna, the deputy of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchy in Assyut acknowledges al-Zomour's message and principles.
He says we respect the principles of every human being, adding, so long as that person respects our principles and our beliefs.
As for whether al-Zomour's professed³¹ devotion to tolerance can be taken at face value, the priest is more cautious.
Change is proven by action and reality, he says, not talk and words.