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April 14, 2006

Egypt: Muslims Attack Coptic Christians - One Dead, Three Hurt

News from Al Jazeera, the Times, the Sydney Morning Herald, the BBC and Reuters' AlertNet reports that earlier today, in three separate incidents, Muslims attacked Coptic Christians in three churches in Alexandria. One Coptic Christian has been killed, and three have been hurt. Obviously the BBC refuses to use the word "Muslim" when describing the attackers.

A security official claimed that the Muslim assailants were working in conjunction with each other. Three men were captured after the assaults. At a fourth church, a man was captured before he could commit a similar assault, at an area known as Sporting.

At Saint George's Church in Hadra, Alexandria, a 67-year old Coptic Christian was today stabbed to death. His assailant has been identified as Mahmoud Abdul Galil. Galil is a former employee of the Egyptian government. He lost his job after he developed mental illness.

The 67 year old man who died has been identified as Noshi Atta Girgis. The Sydney Morning Herald states that he was among three people attacked outside the Al-Quidissin church east of Alexandria.

At the Saints Church in the Sidi Bish area of Alexandria, three worshippers were wounded by Mohammed Salah Eddin, a recent university graduate.

At the Virgin Mary (Mar Girgis) Church in the Fleming area, an unknown man attacked worshippers, but no-one was hurt.

Agence France Presse claimed that at one of the churches, Coptic Christians fought back with sticks against the man sent to attack them.

"The attacker stormed the church armed with a knife and shouted 'There is no God but Allah' and 'Allah is the greatest' before stabbing the worshippers", said an employee of the Mar Girgis church. "We closed the doors of the church as soon as he started attacking the worshippers and we fought back with sticks but he tried to flee through one of the church's underground passages."

The attacks today are designed to provoke offence to the Coptic community. Like Muslims, who value Friday prayers as the high point of their week, the Coptic Christians celebrate their main Masses on a Friday.

The Coptic Christian community split from the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Church of Rome in 451 AD, because of a theological dispute., but now they share many doctrinal positions with the Eastern Orthodox.

Coptic Christians are led by Pope Shenouda III. The Christian community represents about 10% of Egypt's total population of 73 million. Conflicts and persecutions are not unknown. In 1999, 22 people were killed in a sectarian battle in the village of Koshesh in the south.

There were previous Muslim riots and attacks against Coptic Christians in October last year, where a nun had been stabbed and had fingers amputated by a Muslim knifeman. She survived the attack. The stabbing had taken place inside St George's Church. In February, her 19-year old attacker received a three year jail sentence.

In riots held outside the St George's church, which had been deliberately whipped up by Muslim clerics at Friday prayers, complaining about a DVD of a play, three people had died in the streets outside the church earlier that month. St George's church is the main center of Coptic worship in Egypt.

We reported on January 20 that a Christian died when Muslims burned down a community centre in the town of el-Udaysaat, near Luxor, which was being used as a church.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at April 14, 2006 9:37 AM

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