Christian Copts in Egypt Protest Muslim Attacks

[nalnn]

Source: AINA

Thousands of Christians, joined by many Muslims, have been staging sit-in since March 5 in front of the Egyptian TV building on the Nile Corniche in Cairo, protesting the attack on the church in the village of Soul and the inaction of the Egyptian armed forces in preventing the Muslims from torching and demolishing the church and terrorizing the Christian Copts and forcing them to evacuate the village.

The church, which has been completely demolished, has been used by Muslims to pray there to humiliate the Copts said the protesters.

The protesters were joined by 15 priests, including priests from the demolished St. Mina and St. George's church in Soul, Atfif in Hewan, 30 kilometers from Cairo, blocked the path to the main October and May 15 bridges. Some of the Coptic youth lay in the middle of the roads to prevent cars from passing, which brought traffic in this busy area of Cairo to a stand still for hours.

The demonstrators accused government officials of complicity and silence to the exposure of Copts to violence and looting and demanded the recovery of their church, which was razed and taken over Muslims while under the sight of the Egyptian army. They held banners and chanted "We want our rights" and "Demolish our churches or our homes, the Coptic voice will not abate."

Read more: http://www.aina.org/news/20110307205517.htm

[emilyg]

1. Thank you. I posted similar last

week and was told I was a liar and had an agenda.

[sabrina 1]

2. That might have been because the documents found in the

offices of the Secret Police have revealed that Mubarak's Interior Minister was responsible for the January attack on Coptic Christians. Iow, he MIHOP to keep the illusion of Al Queda and the GWOT alive making the oppression of the country 'necessary'.

Both Christians and Muslims in Egypt now are aware of how both groups were kept terrorized by the brutal regime?

I wonder what will be revealed in those documents about the U.S. 'extraordinary rendition' program eg, or other staged 'muslim extremist' attacks to keep the very profitable WOT going.

[joshcryer]

6. those docs weren't out then

[sabrina 1]

7. If the op I'm thinking of is the one emilyg is talking about

then, yes, the docs were out. I might have even commented on it. So far I have only found Google translations of the evidence that the Interior minister orchestrated that January bombing, but I can well understand why they tried to destroy those documents. I'm sure what is in them will make the Wikileaks revelations pale when we finally see what they were all up to. No wonder Gates flew to Egypt last week.

The whole WOT is being exposed as the fraud it is. The very foundations of the rationale for the criminal wars and the torture, the Patriot Ac, the MCA, the loss of OUR rights, the body scanners, everything, has been shaken and we are only beginning to see what they were hiding.

I'm sure Qaddafi has some papers he's threatening to release also not to mention what will be found in the Tunisian files now that they too have disbanded their secret police.

[riderinthestorm]

8. You don't think the Copts have been persecuted before the WOT?

I have news for you, they have been persecuted for much, much longer than that in Egypt. Whatever the attack in January was or was not, there's no question this group has faced harassment, punishment, secondary status, persecution, and yes even death for decades.

[sabrina 1]

9. I didn't say that, did I?

What I said was that we now know that the last attack was orchestrated by the Egyptian Interior Minister, using known extremists to carry it out.

We know there are extremists in every society, including here in the U.S. Exploiting that kind of extremism, which was not apparent at all once the Egyptian people took over and Christians and Muslims were united in demanding an end to the Mubarak regime, was apparently the purpose of that attack sponsored by the Interior minister.

So now the question is, how often have these oppressive regimes, while pretending to be 'cracking down on extremism' actually been supporting it?

Eg, how often in this coutnry was the KKK's activities supported by elected officials, until finally the Civil Rights movement ended it?

Hopefull now, since both Muslims and Christians are united in Egypt in support of a democracy that protects the rights of all Egytians, the same thing will happen here and the fringe elements will not have the backing of the government anymore.

Blaming an entire nation for what was going on, particularly one living under such an oppressive regime, would be like saying that every American was supportive of the KKK. There WILL be those who will still use violence against those they have irrational hatred for, we have them here too. But hopefully now Christians will not be marginalized in Egypt anymore and will be supported by a majority of those who fought so hard to remove the regime and all its evils.

[Uncle Joe]

10. Thanks for your enlightening posts, sabrina.

:thumbsup:

[sabrina 1]

19. Thank you Uncle Joe,

I always appreciate yours also.

[riderinthestorm]

11. Coptic Christian persecution predates Mubarak.

You seem to be implying that the Copts were only persecuted because of Mubarak ("Blaming an entire nation for what was going on, particularly one living under such an oppressive regime...").

That is simply false.

I too would like to see greater religious tolerance and freedom for religious minorities emerge after the revolutions in the Arab states but please don't try to minimize the very real problems religious minorities have historically faced (which is NOT a recent occurrence that has sprouted up under the current crop of thugs).

[sabrina 1]

12. No, I didn't say that either. I am well aware of the extremists

who have targeted Coptic Christians.

Note the word 'extremists'. The same way that extremists in THIS country targeted African Americans. And the same way that extremists in this country are now targeting Muslims.

I used the word 'exploiting' these extremists, as this country has done to start two wars, eg. We actually have people, a majority at one point, who believed that ALL Muslims were extremists.

Mubarak's Interior Minister 'exploited' rather than squash, these 'extremists' for the purpose of continuing the oppressive policies against certain segments of the Egyptian population. He will be prosecuted for those crimes now.

In a democratic society these kinds of attacks are NOT exploited by government officials.

In Sadddam Hussein's Iraq, eg, Christians were protected but since the U.S. invaded the country, extremists have all but driven them out.

Egypt has now toppled its regime and from all the evidence we have seen during the Revolution, a majority of Egyptians are NOT extremists and made it clear that Christians and Muslims have the same goals for their country.

However, the revolution did not rid the country of extremists, or of Mubarak supporters, so it is more than likely that there will still be attacks on Christians by those elements in order to divide the country if they can get away with it.

Which is why rational people do not accept the implication in these 'reports' that all Muslims are extremists, they look at the facts and judge the situation according to those facts.

[riderinthestorm]

15. Your posts have made several points

You brought up the WOT being the reason for extremist behavior against minorities, and then you also made a virtually direct statement about the Mubarak regime as the soul culprit in past persecution.

I hear and understand your points, but am addressing parts that I believe are too simplistic - persecution issues in the Arab societies are not a recent phenomenon solely linked to either dictatorships or US actions. Just as persecution of African Americans in the US has a centuries long, ugly history and cannot be boiled down to a few decades of terrible behavior during the Civil Rights era.

Did this interior minister exploit the January event? I have no way of knowing. Of course it's absolutely possible and actually, I'll take your statement as fact. That doesn't mean the Copts are "equal" or even safe, just as blacks weren't after Johnson signed a piece of paper.

I've got to get back to work and won't be back on again until late tonight or tomorrow.

[sabrina 1]

18. Correction, I stated that the Mubarak Interior minister was

involved in ONE persecution, the one that occurred in January. That is because there is now evidence of that one attack. We don't know if the government was involved in any previous attacks, yet.


Past and historical persecutions of Coptic Christians in Egypt are similar to the persecutions of African Americans in this country.

Most Arab and Muslim nations have been the victims of Colonialism for a very long time and all of its evils, including the divide and conquer tactics used so effectively throughout those years.

Now we will see if those nations finally free from the influences of Western Colonialism backed dictatorship, how the PEOPLE actually feel about this kind of vile discrimination.

I do not believe that it is possible to judge these countries' persecutions of different groups, women eg, so long as they were not free countries.

Now will be test and from what I've seen in both Tunisia and Egypt I feel hopeful that the future for Coptic Christians in at least those countries, will be far better than it has been in the past.

Anyhow, thank you for a civil discussion ~

[EFerrari]

17. Some of the folks I've been following for a few weeks now

on Twitter in Egypt like monasosh and alaa and Elazul and Zenobia and so on are wondering about the timing and organization of some of these events, like the hassling of women at Tahrir out of "nowhere" on International Women's Day.

Not to deny that there is a problem to be solved but more, that splintering a movement that tried to protect all of its members pretty carefully would be a tactic to expect.

[nalnn]

3. Sadly

It is happening for real. Off the top of my head I can't think of an agenda to go along with this other than human rights.

Unfortunately, this minority (about 10% of Egyptian pop.) has suffered for a very, very long time and the recent revolution does not seem to have alleviated the oppression.

[EFerrari]

13. Mubarak's dead enders may be exploiting old/ongoing conflicts

to divide the revolutionary coalition. So, yes, there is an agenda and it is active.

That is not to minimize that Copts, women, others have real issues to be addressed.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. You posted something that was sourced back to an Islamophobic hate-site...

And I didn't see anyone call *you* a liar. Just curious, but after being told who Pamela Geller is and that there was no credible source for the story you posted, why are you still acting as though it was a legitimate story?

on edit: I was wondering if you were talking about another thread you posted about Muslims, not the one I saw, but I've just gone and done a search and this is the thread yr talking about.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=567887

[emilyg]

16. I'm not going to call anyone out - got

a orivate message calling me a liar and having an agenda. That message was forwarded to Skinner.

[CreekDog]

14. you said you didn't know if it was true

right after you kept posting it as if it were (3 times!)

what's up?

[nalnn]

5. A different story from a local source

Source may be iffy. Quotes from Egyptian State owned media etc.

47 state security officers arrested, Copts protest in Cairo

Found another from AFP:

Egypt Christians protest church burning