THERE WAS stone throwing yesterday when hundreds of Coptic Christians converged on the Egyptian state television building in central Cairo to protest against overnight sectarian violence that left 12 dead and 232 wounded in the Imbaba quarter of the capital.
The clashes followed an announcement by an emergency session of cabinet that the authorities would put down sectarian violence “with an iron fist”. Prime minister Essam Sharaf had cancelled a trip to the Gulf to deal with the situation.
The army arrested 190 people and began trials in military courts in order to deter “all those who think of toying with the potential of this nation”. The military also pledged to “restore all property and places of worship to how they were” before the clashes and dispersed 250 Copts who had gathered outside the US embassy to call for protection.
A confrontation developed on Saturday when 500 radical Muslim fundamentalists (Salafis) rallied outside the Coptic Orthodox church of St Menas, one of the oldest in Egypt, and demanded the release of a Christian woman said to be held there after marrying a Muslim. When guards denied the rumour and local Copts formed a human shield round the church, the Salafis attacked with guns and petrol bombs. St Menas, the nearby church of the Holy Virgin, shops, workshops and a multi-storey building were burned.
The Salafis have been roundly condemned by senior Muslim clerics and political figures. Sheikh al-Azhar Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the world’s leading Sunni jurisprudent, stated: “These events do not benefit either Muslims or Copts.”
Egypt’s head cleric Ali Gomaa denounced the clashes, saying they were not perpetrated by truly religious people. He urged Egyptians to unite against “those who seek to destabilise” the country.
Nobel laureate and presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei warned urgent measures were required to combat religious extremism and intolerance “before Egypt slides into the Dark Ages”.
Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Essam el-Erian said: “We should crackdown on [such] violence. We should not let those people ruin what we achieved in the January revolution” that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
Both Copts and Muslims took part in the uprising. Copts often surrounded Muslims as they prayed in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to prevent their observances from being disturbed by the throng. Coptic priests also held services in the square. Muslims and Copts chanted “Christians and Muslims are hand-in-hand” in the revolution.
However, in March, 13 people were killed in street battles in another poor area of Cairo after Muslims set fire to a church, when rumours circulated of an affair between a Christian man and Muslim woman.
Hours before the clashes erupted in Imbaba, Camilia Shehata – a Coptic woman who had, allegedly, been held by the church after converting to Islam to escape her abusive priest husband – appeared on a US evangelical television station broadcasting from Cyprus and said she had never renounced her faith.
This was her first appearance since July 2010.
Following the fall of Mr Mubarak, Salafis, suppressed during his rule, have surfaced and are operating freely. A number living abroad have returned to Egypt. Imbaba, a poor suburb, is a Salafi stronghold.
Remnants of the ousted regime have been accused of stirring up the Salafis to tarnish the uprising. Prof Ashraf el-Sharif of the American University in Cairo has accused Saudis of “trying to influence the development of post-revolutionary ideology . . . through their connection with the Salafis” and to put pressure on the moderate Brotherhood to follow the Salafi example.
The clashes coincided with a meeting in Cairo of 2,000 Egyptian activists, thinkers and political figures to discuss strategies to “protect the revolution”, ensure its objectives are met, and establish a 60-member council to form a common front to contest parliamentary elections in September.
