Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty and representatives from Al-Azhar and the Coptic Church opened a three-month exhibition on religious tolerance in Egypt at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square last week. The exhibition, entitled “One God, Three Religions,” covers the history of religious co-existence from the earliest times to the present day. Included is a collection of 48 artefacts carefully chosen from five museums in Egypt, including the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, Islamic Museum, Alexandria National Museum, Coptic Museum and Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Eldamaty told the Weekly that the artefacts highlight the principle of religious tolerance that has characterised life in Egypt since the earliest times, showing how in every era, Egyptians of different faiths have believed in living together in peace. “This exhibition sends a very important message to the world: that Ibrahim is the father of all the prophets and a messenger of the three religions. There is one God, even if faiths, places and peoples are different,” Eldamaty said. Elham Salah, head of the Museums Department at the ministry, said the exhibition is a message to the nation to stand together against attempts to damage Arab identity and harm the Arab cultural and ethnic heritage. All the objects in the exhibition show the relationship between the three religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam through specific topics, among them architectural and decorative elements, symbols and religious texts, showing the strong connections between the three religions. The director-general of the Egyptian Museum, Mahmoud Al-Halwagy, said that among the most important artefacts on display are reliefs depicting Ibrahim, the father of all the prophets, and those showing religious tolerance in Islam. A document testifying to the Prophet Mohamed's teaching on how to deal with people from other religious faiths through the principle of religious tolerance is also on display. Metal pots and pans decorated with Fatimid-era religious designs and depicting Jesus are also on display. Videos and documentaries on religious tolerance are available for exhibition visitors. The director of the Berlin Museum, Friedrikie Seyfried, who attended the opening, told the Weekly she was delighted that the exhibition was inaugurated in Egypt. A month ago a similar exhibition was opened in Berlin, she said, which highlights cooperation between the Egyptian Museum and the Berlin Museum. “The exhibition is sending a very important message to the whole world that Egypt is, and continues to be, the cradle of civilisation, before and after Islam,” Seyfried said. She added that the exhibition shows there was peaceful coexistence among the three religions, beginning from the Roman period and continuing through the Middle Ages and beyond.
