Egyptian Police Guard Coptic Church Attacked by Muslims
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, Oct. 22 - Riot police forces armed with shotguns guarded a Coptic Christian church here on Saturday, a day after Muslim protesters tried to storm the building in a demonstration that was broken up when security forces
d tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd.
Three people were killed and many more injured in what officials called the worst case of sectarian violence to strike this Mediterranean city in recent memory. The streets remained tense Saturday, and many people warned that foreigners were not welcome. The mood in the city was sour and explosive.
People are very, very provoked," said Ahmed Ali Mahmoud, 25, a pharmacist whose shop is opposite St. George's Coptic Church. "They are boiling."
While relations between faiths are often tolerant, if tense, in Egypt, there have been signs recently of growing strain between Egypt's Coptic Christians and Muslims.
On Friday, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in this city, apparently angry over a play that was performed two years ago in the church, and was recently distributed on video disc. Though few people interviewed Saturday said they actually saw the play or the DVD, the word on the street was it was anti-Islamic.
It was unclear who was giving out the DVD, and church officials, as well as local residents, speculated its distribution may somehow be connected to the upcoming parliamentary elections, where aggravating sectarian tensions could help certain candidates win votes.
"Raising this now, is to be looking for a problem to break national unity," the church said in a statement issued Saturday. "We believe that this problem was raised in light of the coming parliamentary elections."
Alexandria, an ancient city founded by Alexander the Great, two hours north of Cairo, is home to one of the country's larger Coptic Christian communities. Of Egypt's 74 million people, more than 90 percent are Muslim, mostly Sunnis, and about 8 to 10 percent are Christian, mostly Copts. Islam is the official state religion, and all legislation is supposed to be based on the Islamic code.
Technically, Christianity is tolerated because it does not conflict with the Islamic code.
The government bristles at any criticism regarding the status of Christians in this country, insisting they are treated as equals, though there has been some evidence of institutional discrimination. Few Christians hold high positions in the military and security forces, for example, and efforts to build or repair churches are often blocked.
But there also is a very clear sense of division that comes across when talking to people here.
Many Christians tattoo a cross on the inside of the their children's wrist when they are born, a mark that permanently affirms their identity. In Alexandria, several shopkeepers and pedestrians spoke of their waning patience for their Christian neighbors, and of a sense that their tolerance has been taken for granted and abused.
"Did we make plays that insult the Christians?" said the pharmacist, Mr. Ali Mahmoud. "They will pay the price in terms of their security, comfort, and now no priest will be able to walk in the streets."
Tensions began to spill over earlier in the week over the play, titled "I Was Blind But Now I Can See." The play supposedly tells the story of a young Christian who converts to Islam and becomes disillusioned. It was performed at the church one day only two years ago, according to the church statement. Somehow it touched a nerve, aggravating what Milad Hanna, a Coptic writer based in Cairo, said was evidence of a "sickness" in society.
The play apparently came to the public's attention after two local newspapers wrote about it. Then last week a young man stabbed a nun inside a church. People began demonstrating outside the church, which is located between two mosques in the center of Alexandria, after attending Friday Prayer services.
A shoemaker, who said his name was Muhammad Abdo, said that police first
d tear gas into the crowd, which only served to anger those in the streets. The crowd, he said, then went wild with people turning over cars and lighting them on
, smashing storefronts and looting a gold shop.
"No one will stop until they give a formal apology," Mr. Abdo said, adding that he heard the play denied a central tenet of the Islamic faith - that Muhammad was God's prophet.
Ibrahim Atta, a Christian who was selling fruit on a street corner not far from the church, said his Muslim neighbors must be mistaken about the play. "We would never do something like that," he said. "It must be someone who is trying to incite some sort of schism."
As he was speaking, a customer named Saad came up and agreed. "I am Muslim, he is Christian, we are like brothers," said Saad, who would not give his last name because of the tense situation. "This is ignorant and irresponsible behavior that must have something to do with the upcoming elections."