Faith Under
Fire........
Egyptian Christians say they are 'under organised attack'
A priest whose church was at the centre of sectarian riots at the
weekend has said Egyptian Christians were 'under organised attack'
as religious authorities warned the country was at risk of civil
war.
Egyptian Coptic Christian priests perform a mass prayer for those
killed in clashes between Muslims and Christian in the Imbaba
By Richard Spencer, Cairo 12:04AM BST 10 May 2011
The Telegraph UK
Armed troops and riot police guarded the streets around St Mena's
church and nearby burned-out shops and apartment blocks in the
impoverished, crumbling Cairo suburb of Imbaba.
Inside, Father Cherubim Awad said a conspiracy was the only
possible explanation for the violence that had engulfed relations
between Christians and Muslims in recent weeks.
"Five churches were attacked on the same night," he said. "From
the beginning of this year we have had all these attacks in a
short space of time.
"There is some hidden hand behind this, whether from inside the
country or outside it."
The street battles, which began on Saturday evening outside his
church, demonstrated the breakdown in law and order in parts of
Egypt that began during the uprising that overthrew President
Hosni Mubarak in February.
The police failed to intervene, while Fr Cherubim said that, after
several hours, the army moved in to protect the church but not the
surrounding buildings, and refused to try to break up the warring
sides.
Sectarian violence has increased in Egypt. It began with a church
bombing in Alexandria before the uprising began, but has worsened
since.
A large gang of Salafi Muslims – followers of a purist sect to
which most Islamist terrorist groups are aligned – led the attack
on St Mena's, claiming a Christian woman who had converted to
Islam to marry a Muslim was being held inside against her will.
"They performed evening prayer 200 metres from the church and
after they finished they started shouting 'We want you to leave',
meaning the Copts," Fr Cherubim said.
"They were shouting 'Islamiya, Islamiya, Islamiya, with our souls
and blood we sacrifice ourselves for the crescent'.
"Are we not citizens? Are we foreigners? Should we leave this
country now and go away?"
The Christian and Muslim sides disagree about who began the
escalation of protests. Local Muslims said it was a local
Christian café owner who fired a gun into the air.
But both sides brought out guns, including rifles, and fired from
the closely packed, brick-built blocks lining the street. As the
night progressed, a stream of injured poured into the church.
Five Christians died in or around the church, including Rami
Radian, 23, who was keeping lookout from the bell tower and was
hit by a sniper.
Six Muslims died outside on Al-Mashoe Street. After the army
sealed it, the mob moved on to the nearby Church of the Virgin
Mary, burned it to the ground and beat the watchman to death.
Abdul Moneim al-Shahad, a spokesman for the Dawa Salafi movement,
said it opposed all violence.
But he said Muslims were angry at the church's refusal to hand
over women who convert to Islam so that they can divorce their
husbands, which the Coptic church makes difficult.
Salafis and even the once-banned Gamaa Islamiya, which was
responsible for terrorist attacks on tourists in the 1990s, have
been more prominent since the downfall of Mr Mubarak, announcing
they would back candidates at forthcoming elections.
A group of Salafis held a prayer vigil for Osama bin Laden last
week, despite attempts by the army to stop them. Egyptian
newspapers yesterday claimed that the riots were being
deliberately orchestrated by elements of the old regime still
loyal to Mr Mubarak, eager to make his warnings that without him
there would be chaos come true.
The Supreme Military Council, which replaced him, is promising an
"iron fist" to end the discord, but Ali Gomaa, the country's Grand
Mufti, or senior Islamic scholar, warned there was a potential for
civil war.
"Anti-Christian Outlaws want to defy the authority of the state,"
he said.