Luxor – Ramzi Ajaybi is a Christian business man. He is a trader of poultry and frozen foods. The daily banquet offered by the Coptic Orthodox entrepreneur is prepared by chefs who work in the hotels of Luxor, and is set up in a central street of the Egyptian city. A similar initiative is supported by Mahareb Ajaybi, Ramzi’s brother, in the tourist city of Hurghada.
The sites linked to the Coptic communities, such as CoptsToday, describe similar initiatives of parishes and Christian associations that distribute food and drinks to their Muslim neighbors during Ramadan.
In recent years, the custom of offering “banquets of unity” to their Muslim fellow citizens by Christian communities seemed to have weakened a bit, replaced by the choice of distributing targeted goods to poorer Muslims. The evening banquets of unity, in recent times, had turned into formal moments, and participation began to decline. Thus many Christian communities have begun to use the funds previously earmarked for such dinners for interventions in favor of poor Muslims. A choice made also in the light of the economic crisis that is affecting ever larger segments of the Egyptian population.
“Let us work together to replace despair with HOPE, fear with human SECURITY and humiliation with DIGNITY”
