Lead story - Thursday November 15, 2007

EGYPT: IN HIDING, CONVERT CONTINUES FIGHT FOR RIGHTS

Mohammed Hegazy battles for religious freedom as HRW report slams country’s abuses.

Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy

CAIRO, November 15 (Compass Direct News) – Sick of hiding in a secret apartment in Cairo, Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy risked his life to shop for groceries late one night last week, a cap pulled low over his face.

The Egyptian convert from Islam to Christianity does not normally chance being recognized in public by running errands for himself. Death threats forced Hegazy into hiding in August after he made an unprecedented legal bid to have his national ID card changed to note his conversion.

The 24-year-old belongs to a new breed of Egyptian Christian converts who see no contradiction between their faith and political activism.

“The Bible says to love your enemy and your neighbor as yourself,” Hegazy explained. “Working politically to provide food for poor people or freedom for the oppressed is one way to fulfill this command.”

That conviction in part motivated Hegazy’s court case, but that same desire to take action has also frustrated him as he has sat idle for the past three months in hiding.

The Christian acknowledged that he was finding his new life extremely difficult. He said it was impossible to hold a job because he couldn’t leave his apartment regularly for fear of being attacked by Islamists or state security police.

On a rare occasion that Hegazy took the chance of shopping in public, a Christian recognized his face from a newspaper photograph.

“If you are who I think you are, then God help you,” the Christian told Hegazy.

Hegazy’s new lawyer, Gamal Eid, noted: “In a country like Egypt, his fears are credible.”

Egypt Condemned

A report condemning Egypt’s treatment of converts away from Islam and members of the Baha’i faith this week noted that until 1990 most Christian converts did not believe they could remain in the country.

“Before [1990] it was just individual converts, and they left the country,” said an anonymous Christian convert quoted in the Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights report released Monday (November 12). “But fifteen converts … wanted to stay and stay together, this was something new.”

Joe Stork and Hossam Bahgat

Since then, some converts have worked, albeit anonymously, to become more active in Egyptian society.

“The state does not recognize conversions from Islam and refuses to allow citizens to legally change their religious affiliation,” the report stated. It noted that because family law is governed by religion, converts face difficulties in the areas of divorce, marriage, inheritance, and their children’s mandatory religious education.

“The baby is the main reason for opening the case,” said Hegazy, whose pregnant wife is due to give birth in January. “All converts’ children have something like schizophrenia because they are Christians at home but have to act like Muslims at school.”

As a member of the Egypt Liberal Party, a group of secular-minded Muslims and Christians, Hegazy often attended demonstrations, fellow group members said. The party, not yet approved by the government, openly challenges Article Two of Egypt’s constitution, which designates Islamic law as the principle source of its legislation.

Islam forbids apostasy, a justification often used by government officials and Muslim fanatics when harassing converts from Islam.

“For Hegazy, challenging the government is as normal as eating breakfast in the morning,” one party member told Compass. “He’s not a coward, but that also means he doesn’t always think through the consequences of his actions.”

Hegazy said he had expected public opposition when filing his case but had not foreseen spending the next three months confined to his apartment. Massive publicity surrounding the announcement of his move caught the convert off-guard.

When lawyer Mamdouh Nakhla called Hegazy to say that he had filed the convert’s case and arranged an important interview with Agence France-Press, the convert said he went willingly.

“They told me that they would take photos and send them outside Egypt, and that no one in Egypt would know,” Hegazy said.

The next morning, Egyptian papers carried the convert’s picture and full story.

Within days, death threats forced Hegazy into hiding and Nakhla to withdraw. Newspapers have slandered the convert’s reputation, and on October 11 fanatics chanting Islamic slogans vandalized his former home in Old Cairo.

A journalist who later went to the scene told Compass that he had seen the remains of a large fire in the street where the group had burned the Christian’s belongings.

“By publicizing the case and then withdrawing, it was like putting Hegazy in the hands of society to be killed,” said one of Hegazy’s mentors, who said he had tried to persuade Nakhla against pulling out. “Every five minutes while we were talking, the security police would call Nakhla and tell him they could not protect him if he was attacked.”

On August 7, Nakhla held a press conference to announce his withdrawal, blaming Hegazy for not providing necessary documents.

Sitting in an undisclosed location in Cairo three months later, Hegazy did not seem angry with his former lawyer.

“Maybe this is part of God’s plan, and it may help other converts,” Hegazy said.

Trail-Blazer

The case has received much less public attention at its first two hearings, on October 2 and on Tuesday (November 13), than when it was first announced.

Lawyer Gamal Eid

Returning Tuesday from a Giza administrative court where he had represented the convert, Eid said that eight Islamist lawyers had intervened against his client.

Judge Muhammad Husseini adjourned the case until January 15, giving Hegazy time to acquire proof that Egypt’s Civil Status Department had rejected his request to change the religious designation on his ID.

Several Christians close to Hegazy said they were skeptical about the chances of winning, but agreed that the case would still help the rights of converts in the long term.

Despite a smear campaign against Hegazy in Egypt’s national media, a number of newspapers and talk shows had openly supported his right to convert, Christians said.

“This case has allowed society to openly talk about the case of converts and sent the government the message people will rise up when oppressed,” one convert said.

Requesting anonymity, the Christian said, “[Hegazy’s] role should be appreciated, in that he has taken the first step in confronting society, the government and even the church and other converts.”

Cautious Churches

Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox church, several million strong, has been careful to officially distance itself from the issue of conversion.

“The matter is highly politicized, and the [Orthodox] church has taken the side of the government,” lawyer Eid said.

An Orthodox priest requesting anonymity agreed with the lawyer’s assessment.

“Church leadership tells priests who are involved in baptizing Muslims to keep doing what they are doing, but that they are not responsible,” the priest said. “In other words, ‘God bless you but stay away.’”

Christians from all three major groupings, Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant, told Compass that fanatics could easily attack and destroy a church if word got out that it was converting Muslims.

“When a Muslim converts to Christianity here, the problem doesn’t stem from the government or security apparatus, it comes from society,” a spokesman for the Egyptian Catholic Church commented.

Father Rafic Greiche, a Greek Melkite priest, said that many Christians, not just Muslims, had difficulty accepting converts to Christianity.

“I am ashamed because our church is not ready to accept converts,” Greiche told Compass. “More cases like that of Hegazy’s on the long term will help people to change their minds, but the government has to help.”

Speaking to reporters Monday (November 12), HRW Midde East Deputy Director Joe Stork called on the government to cease forcing non-Muslims to designate Islam as their official religion.

“We are talking about a government policy that is requiring people to lie and punishing people for telling the truth,” Stork said. “There is something very wrong with that.”

"Breaking the News for Compassionate Professionals"

Egypt's US Ambassador Condemns Detention Christian Rights Activists

Monday, 03 September 2007

By BosNewsLife News Center

CAIRO, EGYPT (BosNewsLife)-- The United States Ambassador to Egypt, Francis J. Ricciardone, has expressed concern about the detention of two Christian rights activists who could face up to 15 years imprisonment on charges including "insulting Islam, jeopardizing state security," and preaching Christianity, BosNewsLife established Monday September 3.

In a letter, seen by BosNewsLife, Ricciardone said he would raise with Egyptian officials the cases of Adel Fawzy Faltas and Peter Ezzat Mounir, (also known as Peter Ezzat) of the Middle East Christian Association (MECA), a Canadian-based human-rights group promoting Christian equality in the Middle East.

"We will certainly cite the cases of Mr. Faltas and Mr. Mounir, among many others, in upcoming [annual human and religious rights] reports," he wrote. "We are also engaging the Egyptian government and civil society to advance the cause of religious freedom in Egypt...," the ambassador added.

Faltas, 61, and Ezzat, 23, who have been involved in several human rights cases, were arrested by Egypt's feared State Security Investigations (SSI) on August 8, while investigating the death of a Coptic Christian worker from Cairo who was allegedly thrown off his balcony, after refusing to pay police officers extortion money.

TAKING PICTURES

The MECA employees took pictures of the crime scene and filmed statements from family and
friends who witnessed the death of Nasser Sediq Gadallah, apparently inciting the rage of SSI officials who wanted to report the death as a suicide.

In addition Faltas had conducted a controversial Internet interview with Mohammed Hegazy, who made a public bid to have his conversion to Christianity legally recognized. Top Egyptian religious scholars reportedly called for the convert’s death.

MECA said in a statement obtained by BosNewsLife that the second hearing of the case is scheduled on September 6. "In the previous hearing the court was adjourned to give the defense lawyers time to study the case files," MECA added.

CONVERTS' AGONY

News of the latest developments come shortly after on Saturday, September 1, an appeal by 12 Egyptian converts to Islam who wish to return to the Coptic Christian Church was adjourned to November 17. In April, a lower court ruled that reversion to Christianity by the 12 converts would amount to apostasy under Islamic law and constitute a "manipulation of Islam and Muslims."

Christians in Egypt who convert to Islam often do so to circumvent the Coptic Church's strict rules for divorce, or to marry a Muslim. In addition Christian women and girls have been kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam, several church sources and rights groups have said.

Despite the difficulties, MECA said it will take up the case of at least one Christian woman, Feeby Saleeb, also known as Nahed Mahmoud Mitwally, "one of the most famous out of many converts to Christianity from Islam," in Egypt.

LEGAL ASSISTANCE

"Mrs. Mitwally requested our Association to take her case to the Egyptian Courts to confirm her name [and religion] change [in official documents and her passport] from Nahed Mitwally to Feeby Saleeb." and extract new official documents under this name leading to extracting a new passport under the name this name. Mrs. Feeby Saleeb, also demands from the Egyptian regime her indemnity after many years of serving her beloved country, Egypt.

"We raise this case before the Egyptian courts acknowledging the integrity of the Egyptian judiciary system. [However] if for any reason our delegates do not receive their rights, we will then refer our case to Dutch courts [in the Netherlands] where Mrs. Feeby Saleeb currently resides."

Copts comprise between six to 10 percent of Egypt's 76 million people and are the largest Christian community in the Middle East, according to estimates. Human rights groups and church leaders claim that a recent wave of state-sponsored persecution of Christians underscores the growing influence of Muslim militants in Egypt's society, despite pledges from officials to crackdown on Islamic extremism. (With BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos and reporting from Egypt).

October 21, 2006

Egypt: Christian convert from Islam jailed

Conversion from Islam to Christianity is an insult to Islam, according to the Egyptian authorities. Islamic Tolerance Alert from Compass Direct:

Bahaa el-Din el-Akkad

A Muslim sheikh jailed in Egypt for 18 months has declared from his prison cell that he is under arrest for “insulting Islam” by becoming a Christian.

Egypt’s secret police transferred Bahaa el-Din Ahmed Hussein el-Akkad, 57, to the Wadi el-Natroun Prison last month. He was told he would remain there indefinitely unless he agreed to work as a government informer against other converts to Christianity.

According to the prisoner’s Cairo attorney, Athanasius William, his client remains incarcerated in this desert prison “only because he has chosen a different belief, to be a Christian.”

El-Akkad was imprisoned without charges for more than a year after officials of the State Security Investigation (SSI) arrested him in Cairo on April 6, 2005.

Although subjected to repeated interrogations, the former Muslim was never told the specific accusations against him. But several of his cellmates spread rumors that he was converting and baptizing people into Christianity, sparking verbal abuse and at least one severe beating from a fellow prisoner.

When the courts finally ordered El-Akkad’s release from provisional detention 10 weeks ago, SSI authorities deliberately ignored the ruling. Instead, they held him in their Gaber Ibn Hayyan office in Giza and then transferred him to the Wadi el-Natroun Prison, located 60 miles north of Cairo along the highway to Alexandria.

William told Compass it was strictly illegal for the SSI to have re-arrested El-Akkad and jailed him indefinitely “without the orders of a legally authorized official,” as required under Article 280 of the Egyptian penalty laws.

Disillusioned with Islam

In a series of handwritten notes smuggled out of prison in recent months and obtained by Compass, El-Akkad declared that he had “chosen the Christian faith” after years of research on Islam.

For more than 20 years, the former sheikh was a member of the fundamentalist Islamic group Tabligh and Da’wa, which actively proselytized non-Muslims but strictly opposed violence. He also led a mosque community in Al-Haram, in the Giza area adjacent to Cairo. In 1994 he had published, Islam: the Religion, a 500-page book reviewing the traditional beliefs of the Islamic faith.

But he became disillusioned, and five years ago the sheikh said he began to pray that he could somehow know God personally. It was not until January 2005 that he talked for the first time with someone who explained the tenets of the Christian faith to him. He began intensive study of Christian Scripture, and within weeks he became a follower of Jesus.

“This is a proof to all Muslims,” El-Akkad wrote, “that the person who studies the two religions from an objective and serious perspective will choose the Christian approach.”...

Although Egypt’s Christian citizens are free to embrace Islam and obtain legal Muslim identities, Muslim citizens are not allowed to change their religious identity. Those who become Christians are subjected to severe harassment by the SSI, which often arrests converts for either insulting Islam or “threatening national security.”

US-based religious group challenges Coptic church

By Aziz El-Kaissouni
Reuters
Tuesday, July 11, 2006; 12:49 PM

CAIRO (Reuters) - A Greek Orthodox fringe group based in the United States has angered Egypt's largest and oldest church by sending an Egyptian bishop with liberal ideas to Cairo to win followers among Egyptian Christians.

Bishop Maximus played down theological differences with other orthodox churches at a news conference on Tuesday, but spoke in favor of allowing bishops to marry and allowing divorce on grounds other than adultery -- positions rejected by the head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox church, Pope Shenouda.

Shenouda, speaking to the Ala al-Hawa television program, said on Monday no one recognized Maxiumus's credentials but simple people might mistake him for a mainstream church leader.

Maximus's church has also been organizing pilgrimages to places in the Holy Land, which the Coptic Orthodox church does not allow out of solidarity with Palestinians.

Most of Egypt's Christians, who account for between five and 10 percent of the country's 73 million people, are members of the Coptic Orthodox church. Most Egyptians are Muslim.

Foreign denominations including protestants have set up Coptic branches and attracted Egyptian followers, but Maximus's group appears to be the first direct competitor from within the Orthodox family of churches.

EXPELLED FROM CHURCH

Although Egyptian born and Coptic Orthodox raised, Maximus was ordained bishop for Egypt and the Middle East in 2005 by a group of Greek Old Calendarists based in Seward, Nebraska.

The Old Calendarists are ultratraditionalists who rejected the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1924. They have not previously had an organized following in Egypt.

The Egyptian media have portrayed Maximus's small movement as a schism within the Coptic Orthodox church, which derives its authority from the congregation led by the apostle St Mark in Alexandria in the earliest days of Christianity.

Maximus denied his movement was schismatic, saying his relationship with the Coptic Orthodox church ended more than a quarter of a century ago, alluding to his expulsion in 1976 while serving as a deacon of a Cairo church.

Coptic church representatives say he was expelled for teaching unorthodox theology. "I don't know what upset them," Maximus said.

Maximus has accused Shenouda of promoting sectarian strife in Egypt, where relations between Christians and the majority Muslims are sometimes fraught.

In an interview with the newspaper Al Masry Al Youm this month, Maximus said Shenouda had purged the church of anyone who disagreed with him. "The church throughout its history has never seen an era like the Pope Shenouda era. It has been absolutely the worst for the Coptic people," he said.

Shenouda, 82, returned from medical treatment in Germany on Sunday. He told reporters he had spoken to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak but not about Bishop Maximus's church.

Mubarak, whose government has the power to decide which religious sects can operate in Egypt, said in an interview published on Tuesday he does not intervene in church matters. "The Copts are able to solve their problems by themselves without intervention," he told el-Masa newspaper.

Lone Attacker Report Doubted in Stabbings of Christians in Egypt

Posted GMT 5-28-2006 17:57:32

CAIRO (IPS/GIN) -- Seemingly random attacks on Coptic churches in the port city of Alexandria recently, followed by violent clashes between Coptic Christians and Muslims have again raised the specter of sectarian conflict.

""We're living in a critical period now in terms of Muslim-Christian relations," Emad Gad, analyst at the state-run al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, told IPS. "Each side is prepared for clashes."

Trouble began April 13 when a number of Coptic Christians preparing for Easter celebrations were attacked by a knife-wielding assailant in three different churches in Alexandria, some 225 kilometers north of Cairo. According to state media accounts, one churchgoer was fatally stabbed, and five others were injured before the attacker was caught trying to enter a fourth church building.

Coptic Christianity is an indigenous form of the religion in Egypt.

The story was quickly put out that the culprit was a lone, mentally disturbed man.

"The accused, Mahmoud Salah al-Din Hussein, confessed to committing the crime by himself," the April 17 edition of the independent daily al-Masry al-Youm reported. Hussein was reported to have been taken to a mental hospital for examination after being charged with murder and carrying weapons. Egypt's Copts have long complained of discrimination, pointing to the under-representation of Christians in the government, army and police.

"Copts have suffered from many things, including government policy on church building, attacks on Christianity in the state media, and educational curricula that pushes religious (Muslim) content," said Gad. "And certain government institutions are closed to Copts, such as the state security apparatus, military intelligence and the Presidential Guard."

In an effort to dispel perceptions of institutional prejudice, the government nominated five Copts among the 10 executive appointments to the People's Assembly after last year's parliamentary elections. A presidential decree was issued in December giving local governors the authority to grant permission for church building. Previously, Christian communities seeking to build new churches had to obtain permission directly from the president.

Gad said the attacks, whatever their origin, represent a disturbing trend.

"What happened in Alexandria is just one example, and it can be expected to happen more in the future," he said. "After the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. in 2001, along with the recent controversy over the Danish cartoons, the situation has become critical."

Officials, fearing a flare-up of sectarian tension, were quick to denounce the crime and call for national unity.

"The Copts aren't a minority and they aren't a different class- they're part of Egypt's national fabric," said parliament speaker Fathi Sorour. "We'll never accept any threats against them or anyone trying to create differences between Muslims and Copts."

But despite official reassurances, the situation deteriorated April 15. Violence broke out at the funeral of the man who had died of stab wounds. The next three days saw clashes between scores of Christians and Muslims, mostly in the Montazza district of Alexandria. One Muslim activist died in the clashes, and many were injured on both sides.

While the violence has since subsided amid stepped-up security, observers have come to question the official story regarding the church attacks, with some witnesses reportedly saying that the culprit was neither alone nor mentally imbalanced.

"It remains to be proven that (the crimes) were committed by one man and that he was insane," Youssef Sidhoum, editor-in-chief of Coptic weekly al-Watani, told IPS. "Some witnesses said (the perpetrator) broke into one of the churches along with several followers."

Sidhoum said the official "lone attacker" story was unlikely.

"The amounts of time between the attacks at the churches- between 45 minutes and an hour in some cases-make the official line hard to believe," Sidhoum said. "And, we were amazed how quickly the official story was released right after the arrest."

According to some eyewitnesses there were "multiple attackers."

Interfaith relations have traditionally been peaceful in this majority-Muslim country in which Christians are an estimated 10 percent to 20 percent of the population. But, there have been periodic outbreaks of violence, especially in Upper Egypt.

Sectarian hostility erupted most dramatically in 2000 in al-Kusheh village in the south, when 20 people were killed in armed clashes between Muslims and Christians. In an indication of the sensitivity of the incident, the site of the confrontation was renamed Dar alSalaam, or "City of Peace." Sporadic religious clashes have broken out since then. Last October thousands of Muslims protested outside a church building in Alexandria after reports in the local press that a play offensive to Islam had been enacted there two years earlier. The demonstrations left three dead and scores injured.

Sectarian friction surfaced again in January this year in the Upper Egyptian village of Udaysat, some 500 kilometers south of Cairo, when Muslims and Christians clashed over the historically divisive issue of church buildings. By the time security forces broke up the melee, a Christian resident died from wounds sustained in the confrontation. Fourteen people, including four policemen, were injured.

Officials from the Interior Ministry, which is responsible for maintaining domestic security, were not available for comment.

By Adam Morrow

Dozens hold protest outside Tut exhibit

Coptic Christians take aim at bias in Egypt

By Margaret Ramirez
Tribune religion reporter
Published May 26, 2006

Under the shadow of immense gold banners heralding the opening of the King Tut exhibit, dozens of Coptic Orthodox Church members from across the Chicago area gathered Thursday outside the Field Museum to protest religious discrimination against fellow Christians in Egypt.

Some demonstrators hoisted wooden staffs with crosses, while others wore crucifixes around their necks or carried American flags as they chanted: "We all stand tall, equality for all."

The crowd of about 80 included members of the three area Coptic Orthodox churches: St. Mark in Burr Ridge, St. Mary in Palatine and St. George in Monee. With heavy media attention surrounding the Tut exhibit, the Coptic community saw an opportunity to raise awareness about the plight of Christians in their homeland.

"We need to be recognized as people and we need to be heard," Atef MacKar said. "It is important to show that we are the Copts, we are sons and daughters of King Tut and we will not tolerate seeing our sisters and brothers persecuted in Egypt."

MacKar, who lives in Downers Grove and attends St. Mark, said the protest was planned to coincide with the visit of an Egyptian delegation for the exhibit opening. Protest leaders said their goal was to send a message to U.S. politicians that foreign aid to Egypt should be contingent on religious freedom and human rights.

Another protester, Cameel Halim, said the rise of Islamic fundamentalism has worsened the situation for Egypt's Coptic community.

"I get sad when I visit Egypt now," he said. "The Copts have lost their pride. Spirit is down. They are isolated from society."

The Coptic Orthodox Church was founded by St. Mark the Evangelist in the city of Alexandria around A.D. 43. The Copts make up about 12 percent of Egypt's population of 77.5 million.

Discrimination and human rights abuses against Coptic Christians remain widespread in Egypt, according to a report released this month by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Copts face societal intolerance, and Egyptian authorities have been accused of being lax in protecting their rights.

No Christians serve as governors, presidents or deans of public universities, and very few Christians hold positions in the upper ranks of the security services and the armed forces, Coptic community leaders said. A 14th Century law bars Christians not only from building new churches, they said, but also from performing necessary maintenance on structures without government approval.

Recent violence in Coptic churches in Egypt has renewed fears of escalating religious strife. In April, a Muslim man was accused of knife attacks at three Coptic Christian churches in Alexandria that left one man dead and about a dozen others wounded. The incident unleashed three days of rioting on the same weekend Christians were observing Orthodox Palm Sunday.

Anissa Essam Hassouna, an official with the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs and part of the Egyptian delegation visiting Chicago, said Thursday that the government has "neglected" the issue of how Copts are treated in Egypt but "is trying to do better."

"This will continue to be a sensitive issue until a law comes out and says everyone has real rights," she said.

Another protester at the Field, Magdy Gergis, said he was unsure what effect the protest would have but hoped it would educate the public.

"At least the problem will be exposed to people," Gergis said. "At least we will show our sadness and suffering. Some people here in America have an idea of what is happening with the Copts. But since many of us still have family there, we live it and feel it every day."

----------

maramirez@tribune.com

Religion Today Summaries - May 24, 2006
Deadline Passes for Investigating Church Attacks in Egypt

A Compass Direct release states that Egypt appears to have forgotten its promises to investigate the April 14 stabbing of Christians in Alexandria. Egyptian leaders were quick to condemn the church knife attacks that left one Christian dead and more than a dozen wounded. In an effort to quell the ensuing two days of clashes, Egypt’s parliament announced the formation of a fact-finding committee charged with investigating the cause of the attacks and reporting its findings within 30 days. More than one month later, the committee has yet to be formed. Christians are skeptical of government claims that a mentally unstable knife-wielder, Mahmoud Salahedin Abdul-Razik, single-handedly attacked three churches on opposite sides of town all on the same morning. “Even if a committee does meet, and even if they come out with a report, that report will not see the light of day,” Coptic Orthodox Metropolitan Wissa told Compass.

Egyptian Parliament renews emergency law

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Monday, May 01, 2006

Egyptian Parliament renews emergency law CAIRO: Egypt's Parliament approved the renewal of the state of emergency for two years Sunday, a controversial measure the country's premier justified with a recent wave of bombings and communal clashes.

The opposition Muslim Brotherhood condemned the government request, arguing that emergency laws were ineffective and that its justification was tantamount to "government terror."

"The sectarian incidents and terrorist operations Egypt has witnessed recently have led us to ask for the extension" as of June 1, Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif told the People's Assembly before the vote.

Three suicide bombers struck the Red Sea resort of Dahab on April 24, killing 18 other people and wounding 90. Two failed suicide attacks were carried out against security personnel two days later, further north in Sinai.

Violent clashes also broke out this month in Alexandria between Muslims and the Coptic Christian minority after a knife-wielding assailant attacked worshippers in several churches.

Nazif asked for the state of emergency to be renewed for "two years only or until a new anti-terrorist law is passed, which will require constitutional amendments."

Three quarters of the 378 lawmakers present in the 454-strong Parliament voted in favor of the two-year extension, while 91 voted against.

The renewal needed a two-thirds majority to be passed and the ruling National Democratic Party controls around three quarters of the chamber.

Brotherhood MPs shouted slogans as the vote got under way, some of them wearing scarves inscribed with the words "No to the state of emergency."

The state of emergency has been imposed almost continuously since 1967 and been renewed every three years under President Hosni Mubarak's 25-year rule.

During his campaign for the September 2005 presidential election Mubarak promised to abolish the state of emergency. But the 77-year-old president said in a recent interview that new counterterrorism legislation would be needed to replace exception laws and that it could take up to two years to draft.

"The state of emergency does not eliminate terrorism but it facilitates the work of the security forces in their attempt to protect our homeland," Nazif told lawmakers Sunday.

"President Mubarak wants stability for the Egyptian people and this will only be possible when total security is achieved in the country, which will require the extension of the state of emergency until anti-terrorist legislation is adopted," he added.

The abolition of the emergency laws - which grant security forces sweeping powers of arrest and restrict non-government political activity - have been the focal point of opposition parties in Egypt over the past year.

Rights groups and political opponents had warned that the government would seek to use the latest unrest in Egypt to justify extending the state of emergency.

"They are backtracking on promises of removing the law. Now members of Parliament are experiencing a government terror after the Dahab terror," Brotherhood spokesman Issam al-Aryan said. - AFP

Egypt's Copts Speak Up

By YOUSSEF IBRAHIM
April 24, 2006

This morning, in front of the United Nations, demonstrators will gather in support of the Coptic Christians of Egypt, and the action is coming none too soon, if you ask me. For the better part of 20 centuries, Alexandria, the grand port built by Alexander the Great, stood as a bastion of culture, a melting pot of Roman, Macedonian, Greek, Italian, Egyptian, Muslim, and Christian Levantine tolerance. As recently as 1958, the English author Lawrence Durrell celebrated the city's luminous diversity in his enchanting "Alexandria Quartet" books.

Last week, however, Alexandria's churches and Christian neighborhoods burned with fires of sectarian strife as the dark shadows of ignorant, fundamentalist frenzy reached a pearl of the Mediterranean.

On Good Friday, when the violence began, three churches were attacked by knife-wielding mobs during services, leaving seven Christians and one Muslim dead, with scores wounded and hospitalized, according to Coptic Web sites. During a Christian funeral for a 72-year-old man the following day, the procession was attacked, its mourners pursued in the streets.

"Large numbers of young Muslims armed with sticks, stones, glass bottles, and swords, shouting Islamic slogans, followed the mourners," an Egyptian Coptic weekly, Watani, which translates to My Nation, said in its online edition yesterday (noting that not all the facts are yet in). Hordes of crazed fundamentalists continued to attack Christian neighborhoods for three days, through Easter. When it was done, Muslim fundamentalist rioters had destroyed scores of cars and looted and torched 39 Christian-owned stores, Watani reported.

Particularly infuriating to Copts and journalists who covered the mayhem was the government's insistence that one "mentally deranged" Muslim was responsible. His was the only arrest.

While the Alexandria clashes represented the most significant Christian-Muslim conflict in a decade, they are but a snapshot of the persecution, violence, and exclusion Copts increasingly face. "Copt" is an ancient designation for Egyptian Christians going back to the first century after Jesus Christ's birth. Today they represent about 10% of the country's population of 78 million, making Copts the single largest Christian minority of the Arab world.

In the last 50 years, their plight has steadily worsened. No governor among Egypt's 26 is Christian. Military schools and police academies virtually have stopped admitting Copts, making the army, security services, and police forces entirely composed of Muslims. The same process has been under way at Egypt's universities and institutes of higher education - for the most part, the only Christian professors predate President Mubarak's tenure. A mind-bending humiliation remains from the days of the Ottoman Empire, 400 years ago, in the form of a law that bans the construction of or even a simple repair in a church without presidential permission. Known as "Al Kanoun Al Hamayouni," the law proves the second-class status of Copts, who build houses of worship in secret, running the risk of arrest. Builders of mosques suffer no such restrictions.

Three decades of strife have become the hallmark of Christian life along the Nile Valley, starting in the deep south of Egypt, where Coptic Christians have been machine-gunned in their churches and cotton fields. Under Mr. Mubarak's watch, between five and seven such incidents occur a year. Few perpetrators are ever apprehended, and when they are, they are seldom punished. Those jailed are generally granted early release.

Unlike Lebanon's Maronite Christians, who took up arms, Egypt's Christians are a nonviolent lot. To resist marginalization, they complain, pray, and emigrate - if they can.

Since the mid-1960s, a half-million of Egypt's best and brightest have packed up and moved to America, Canada, or Australia. Most of these Coptic emigres have done extremely well in their new homes. In America, Coptic baby boomers are becoming defenders of their brethren in Egypt. Slowly, they are organizing and learning to use the tools of lobbying.

The demonstration in front of the United Nations today is likely to be but the coming out, so to speak, of a community that needs to be heard. Having seen the power exercised in America by millions of Christian Lebanese emigres whose lobbying played a role in America pressuring Syria to leave Lebanon, Copts are beginning to put their money where their prayers are. And they have interlocutors inside the administration, such as Dina Powell, the assistant of the undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, Karen Hughes. Ms. Powell is Egyptian Christian. She knows of the Copt plight and she can get word of it directly to President Bush's ear. Stay tuned.

The Washington Times www.washingtontimes.com

Sectarian violence seen on the march in Egypt

By
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 21, 2006

CAIRO -- Egypt's latest bloodletting between Christians and Muslims has many fearing an explosion of sectarian violence in the Arab world's most populous country, fueled by frustration with plummeting living standards.
    Increasingly radicalized Muslims, facing growing unemployment, have found it easier to take out their anger on the small Christian minority than confront the government of President Hosni Mubarak, social commentators say.
    "It's a war with ourselves, with fanaticism and hatred among the sons of this nation," said Muhammad El-Sayed Said, an Egyptian political analyst. "What makes things more dangerous is that it is the poor and marginalized who have become part of these clashes, which gives it a popular depth that is hard to control."
    The latest clashes erupted last Friday with knife attacks at three Coptic Christian churches in the port city of Alexandria. Three days of rioting by Christians and Muslims followed. Two persons -- a Christian and a Muslim -- died, at least 40 were wounded and more than 100 were detained.
    Observers elsewhere in the Arab world blame the same religious extremism that fueled violence between Christians and Muslims during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war and the sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims that plagues Iraq today.
    "The strife didn't start yesterday in Egypt, or a quarter of a century ago in Lebanon, or three years ago in Iraq," columnist Khairy Mansour wrote in United Arab Emirates' al-Khaleej daily. "The worm has been growing inside the apple, eating up most of its fabric."
    Mr. Mubarak's government contends that conflict between Egypt's Christians and Muslims is rare and called the Muslim man arrested in last Friday's stabbing of Coptic worshippers "deranged."
    "Egyptian people don't distinguish between Muslims and Copts, and no force can affect its national unity," Mr. Mubarak said Tuesday.
    Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the grand sheik at Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's most important seat of learning, also had a dismissive reaction. "We can't say that all Muslims or all Christians are angels," he said, insisting religious differences were part of life.
    Coptic Pope Shenouda III kept quiet about the riots and, as in past clashes, retreated to Wadi al-Natroun Monastery.
    Strife between Egypt's Muslims and Christians is nothing new. The Copts, whose liturgy follows Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions, were a majority in Egypt when the Muslim Arabs conquered it 1,400 years ago.
    They now comprise about 10 percent of Egypt's 73 million people. Modern tensions are fueled in part by a perception among some Egyptian Muslims that Coptic Christians control an inordinate amount of wealth compared to their population.
    In reality, most Copts are not wealthy and many contend they have too little say in Egypt's political and social life. They complain especially of job discrimination in the high ranks of the civil service where positions such as general, provincial governor and faculty head are almost invariably held by Muslims.

Egyptian Copts and Muslims Clash over Church Attacks

By Erick Stakelbeck
Washington Terror Analyst

Egyptian Coptics CBN.com – WASHINGTON - Last week, a Muslim man wielding a knife stormed three Coptic churches in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. He killed one Christian and wounded 16 more.

The incident has galvanized Egyptian Christians, including those in the United States, and has sparked angry protests from the city's Coptic Christian community. Muslims -- and, according to some accounts, the Egyptian police -- have responded with violence against the Copts.

This anti-Christian mayhem is nothing new in Alexandria. In October, Muslims attacked churches there for allegedly distributing a DVD that they said offended Islam.

Today in Washington, a group of Egyptian Christians said they have had enough.

Egypt's Copts are the largest Christian community in the Middle East. But for years, they have faced persecution from Muslims and even the Egyptian government. They are here at the White House today to draw attention to their plight.

“We're trying to get out a message that we're just sick and tired of the inaction by the Egyptian government, as far as dealing with these terrorists…Churches have been burned, people have been killed, and homes and businesses destroyed, so we are just here to say that we've had enough,” said Michael Meunier, president of the U.S. Copts Association in Washington.

Muslims at the rally said they too are fed up with the treatment of Egyptian Christians--and hope their brothers in the Middle East are listening.

***

But a number of protestors told CBN News that in the end, pressure on Egypt's government from the Bush administration and the U.N. may be the only way to truly empower Egypt's Christians.

Last Update: Thursday, April 20, 2006. 5:06am (AEST)

Egypt arrests group planning attacks

The Interior Ministry in Egypt says 22 people who had set up an Islamist terrorist group have been arrested.

According to a Ministry statement, the group had intended to carry out attacks on a number of Coptic Christian leaders and tourist targets.

The statement also says the group had planned to blow up a gas pipeline and was trying to buy land south of Cairo to use as a training base.

- BBC

Wednesday, 19 April 2006, 12:32 GMT 13:32 UK

Egypt 'breaks up terrorist ring'

Unrest in Alexandria between Muslims and Coptic Christians

The announcement comes at a time of increased tension in Egypt

Egypt's interior ministry says it has broken up what it describes as a underground terrorist group.

Officials say the group intended to carry out attacks on a number of Coptic Christian leaders and tourist targets, as well as a gas pipeline.

There was no immediate word on the number or identity of those arrested.

The interior ministry said the group was called al-Taefa al-Mansura, or Victorious Faction, and had 22 members based mainly in Cairo suburbs.

It was led by Ahmed Muhmmad Ali Gabr, alias Abu Musab, it added.

"Information, documents and interviews confirmed they had studied carrying out terrorist operations," it said.

It said the group was investigating the manufacture of bombs and poisons and planned to buy land near Cairo for training.

The announcement comes several days after clashes between Muslims and Copts in the city of Alexandria in which at least two people died.

Copts, who form about 10% of the Egyptian population, have accused the government of failing to protect them.

Stabbings spark sectarian storm in Alexandria

By Daniel Howden

Published: 17 April 2006

Tensions between Egypt's Muslims and Christians turned into rioting in Alexandria after the funeral of a Coptic worshipper who was stabbed to death, apparently in a sectarian attack.

Nushi Atta Girgis, 78, was killed during knife attacks on three Coptic churches on Friday that left another 15 people wounded. Egyptian authorities have blamed the attack on a madman, but Copts have accused the government of making excuses for an increase in attacks on them by Muslim extremists.

Two days of violence culminated in large-scale clashes yesterday as police tried to set up a security cordon around the Saints Church in the city centre. Witnesses said they saw groups of young Christians waving machetes and long knives as they faced police lines near the church. Some carried crosses made of wooden poles lashed together.

Police reportedly responded with live rounds and tear gas. A mob of Muslims then attacked the police and the Copts from the other direction but later dispersed, while a third group campaigning for communal peace paraded in the same area. Other demonstrators tossed Molotov cocktails from nearby balconies.

Police could be seen beating a boy of about 12, who was separated from the crowd of Coptic youths who fled into the church, slamming the doors behind them, or dashed down the narrow streets surrounding it.

On Saturday, police arrested what they said was a "deranged man" who is alleged to have carried out the three knife attacks. However, the Coptic community and a number of rights' groups have cast doubt on the authorities' explanation and claimed that the attack was a premeditated act by Muslim extremists. A judge has remanded the suspect, Mahmoud Salah-Eddin Abdel-Raziq, 25, in custody. Interior ministry sources say he wanted revenge on Christians after the Danish cartoons row.

Police said that 43 people had been wounded in clashes near the church and 50 others had been arrested.

About 2,000 riot police had cordoned off the front of the Saints Church, but were unable to prevent the late-afternoon melee by some 200 young men.

A Muslim man died early in the day from wounds received in the violence, a hospital source said. Mustafa Said Meshal, in his forties, had been clubbed on the head.

Police said Alexandria's Governor, Mohammad Abdel Salam Mahgoub, other politicians and members of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood were trying calm the situation.

Coptic Christians account for one-tenth of Egypt's 73 million people and generally live in peace with the Muslim majority. But occasional sectarian clashes have broken out. Four people were killed recently in week-long riots sparked by Muslim militants who attacked churches in Alexandria in protest against the distribution of a DVD that they deemed offensive to Islam.

Who are the Copts?

* Nearly all of Egypt's 10 million Christians are Copts - Christians descended from ancient Egyptians. The word "Copt" is derived from the Greek word Aigyptos, which means Egyptian. Headed by Pope Shenouda III since 1971, their Church split from the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches in AD451 after a dispute about the nature of Christ. Copts remain doctrinally similar to their counterparts in the Eastern Orthodox Church but in some services use their own language, derived from ancient Egyptian but written mainly in the Greek alphabet. The Coptic Church also runs on its own calendar, said to be the world's oldest. Originating 3,000 years before Christ, it starts on 11 September and includes a 13th month of five or six days. According to the Coptic calendar, Easter falls next weekend and Christmas on 7 January, which is an official national holiday in Egypt.


INTERNATIONAL EDITION
	Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Tense Palm Sunday in Alexandria after communal unrest

By AFP
Published April 17, 2006

Tempers were boiling in Alexandria as Egypt's Coptic Christians marked Palm Sunday two days after attacks on churches that threatened to ignite communal strife.

CLASHES: An Egyptian Copt carries a cross in front of the Egyptian police in Alexandria, Egypt, on April 16. Muslims clashed for a second day with Christians angered by the murder of a Copt in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, witnesses said.
(REUTERS)

   Security officials reported clashes outside some churches in the country's second largest city on Sunday but they stopped short of spilling over in to the violence that left one person dead and 21 wounded a day earlier.

    Mustafa Meshaal, who was wounded during clashes between Muslims and the Christian Coptic minority in the port city on Saturday, died of his wounds in hospital, medical sources said.

    The violence erupted after an attack on Coptic worshipers in three churches in Alexandria on Friday.

    Security sources said that 45 people had been arrested following the violence that flared after the Saturday funeral for Friday's 78-year-old victim.

    The interior ministry said that it had arrested the suspected knife-wielding assailant - a 25-year-old man named Mahmoud Salaheddin Abdel Razek - and described him as "mentally unstable", a claim that sparked anger among the Coptic community.

    The Egyptian Coptic church on Saturday blamed a "terrorist plot" for attacks on the three churches and rejected government claims that they were the work of one "mentally unstable" man.

    On Sunday, edgy Christian worshipers asked strangers wishing to enter churches to flash their identity cards and checked their wrists for a tattoo of the cross.

    Security sources said that scuffles broke out outside the Quidissin church - one of the three attacked on Friday - following prayers marking Palm Sunday.

    But the leaders of both communities appealed for calm and no major incidents were reported.

    "The atmosphere was calm in the church where I went to pray for Palm Sunday," Samuel Said Mansour said. "The tension violence is dying out ... but it's normal if Christians react angrily to what happened."

    "We can't look on idly when our churches are being attacked and the government is insulting us by claiming the man who perpetrated the attacks is mad," he argued.

    Meanwhile, a group of about 40 human rights and pro-democracy activists gathered in front of the prosecutor general's office in Cairo on Sunday to denounce the Alexandria attacks and demand justice.

    George Ishaq, a leader of the pro-reform Kifaya (Enough) movement, blamed the government and the police forces for failing to prevent Friday's attacks and warned of an escalation in sectarian violence.

    "The continuation of the situation as it is could ignite a fire that will consume us all," he said.

    The activists also carried placards criticizing the government.

    "Who will bring to account the instigators of sectarian strife?", read one of them. "Job opening: Mentally deranged person wanted to cooperate with the interior ministry," read another.

    The Egyptian parliament condemned the church attacks and announced that it was forming a committee to investigate the incident.

    It came as prosecutors renewed for 45 days the detention of Abdel Razek, whom judicial sources said would be placed under observation to determine his mental health.

    Following the incident, the interior ministry said that the rampage was carried out by a single attacker within the span of an hour, revising an earlier account by police officials who claimed that three people had been involved.

    Friday's attacks were the most serious incidents of sectarian violence since a protest by Muslims accusing an Alexandria church of hosting a play offensive to Islam left three dead in October.

    Egypt's Copts - the largest Christian community in the Middle East - account for an estimated 10 percent of the country's 73 million inhabitants and complain of systematic discrimination and harassment.

    Egypt's Copts will mark Easter on April 23.

Posted on Mon, Apr. 17, 2006

Egypt detains more than 100 after violence

OMAR SINAN
Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt - More than 100 people have been detained for questioning over Muslim-Christian clashes in Egypt's second biggest city, where violence subsided Monday but sectarian feelings remained high.

The riots were touched off by knife attacks at three Coptic Christian churches on Friday. A mentally ill man was being held in the stabbings, which killed one man and wounded up to 16 other people.

Altogether, two people were killed and at least 40 were wounded in the clashes, which began Friday and continued through Sunday.

Calm returned to Alexandria's el-Asafrah district on Monday. Shops reopened and the central Street 45 was full of people going about their daily business. But a dozen security force members and plainclothes police stood guard outside the church of Saint Maximus, where worshippers were heard singing hymns.

"There was a sort of a truce, but this is not the end of the crisis," Bishop Bemwah Ghali told The Associated Press. "We really need a radical solution that can quell this anger."

Ghali accused certain Muslims of harassing Copts. "Some mosque imams keep calling us infidels. They should stop that," he alleged.

A local imam denied the accusation.

"This is irresponsible talk," said Sheik Ahmed Ibrahim of al-Bukhari mosque, which stands about 150 yards from Saint Maximus.

"The priest should be seeking peace instead of making statements that could lead to a massacre, especially at this time," Ibrahim told the AP.

Prosecutor Sami Brek said 52 detainees were suspected of rioting, incitement, damage to property, and transgression of places of worship over the weekend. In a statement carried by the semiofficial Middle East News Agency, he said another 50 people were being questioned over the riots.

Late Monday, Brek ordered the detention of the 50 for 15 days, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to issue press statements.

Monday, April 17, 2006

(AP Photo)
An Egyptian Coptic woman mourns the death of her relative during the funeral procession of 78-year-old Nushi Atta Girgis in the city of Alexandria, Egypt, Saturday April 15, 2006. About 3,000 Christians gathered Saturday at Saints Church to mourn Girgis, slain there the day before, as church leaders blasted the government for its failure to protect Egypt's Christian minority.

Sectarian riots in Egypt persist for third day

Christians, Muslims clash in Alexandria; police fire live rounds; 40 injured

An injured Egyptian Coptic protester runs to an ambulance outside the St. Maximus Church in Alexandria, Egypt, on Sunday.

Ben Curtis / AP

Egyptian Coptic Christians demonstrate in Alexandria 14 April 2006, after one Egyptian Christian was killed and at least 12 others wounded in knife attacks at three Coptic churches in the city. The interior ministry said the rampage was carried out by a single attacker within the span of an hour, revising an earlier account by police that claimed three people had been involved. The simultaneous attacks on Egypt's minority Coptic Christian community marred the run-up to the Orthodox Easter celebrations starting in a week's time and were the worst outbreak of sectarian violence in Egypt in six months.
4:56 a.m. ET, 4/14/06

Updated: 8:37 p.m. ET April 16, 2006

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt - Police fired live ammunition into the air and lobbed tear gas into rioting crowds of Christians and Muslims on Sunday in a third day of sectarian violence in Egypt’s second-largest city.

One Muslim man reportedly died Sunday of his wounds. Police said 40 people had been wounded in clashes and 80 had been arrested over the weekend.

The riots were touched off Friday by knife attacks at three Coptic Christian churches, which killed one man and wounded up to 16 other people. A mentally ill man is being held in the stabbings.

Saturday, 15 April 2006, 23:18 GMT 00:18 UK

Clashes follow Egypt Copt funeral

Clashes broke out between Muslims and Coptic Christians in Alexandria in Egypt after the funeral of a Coptic worshipper killed in church on Friday.

Funeral procession for Nushi Atta Girgis in Alexandria
The funeral procession turned into a protest Police fired tear gas and tried to separate the groups, who threw stones and attacked each other with sticks. Fifteen people were arrested.

The unrest followed the funeral of Nushi Atta Girgis, 78, who died in one of three knife attacks in Alexandria.

Christians have accused the government of failing to protect them.

Mourners shouted anti-government slogans as the funeral procession - attended by an estimated 3,000 people - turned into a protest outside the church where the funeral was held.

At least 15 people were injured and four vehicles were burned out, an interior ministry source said.

The ministry said those arrested were both Copts and Muslims and included "some fanatic extremist elements".

'Crushed by Muslims'

The government has said a "deranged" man was arrested for carrying out all the attacks at the three churches, but some Copts believe they were carried out simultaneously as part of an anti-Christian plot by extremist Muslims.

A judge has remanded the arrested man, Mahmoud Salah-Eddin Abdel-Raziq, 25, in custody.

"Certain papers speak of a madman. I don't believe a word. It is propaganda to silence us and to make us believe it is an individual incident," said Karim, a 78-year-old Copt at the funeral.

"We have always been peaceful, but we are always crushed by the Muslims," said 30-year-old Girgis Mina. "If the state does not protect us, we will do it ourselves."

Christians make up 10% of the Egyptian population and have complained of harassment and discrimination.

Some Copts argue that previous attacks on them have gone unpunished or have drawn light sentences.

Most Christians in Egypt are Copts - Christians descended from the ancient Egyptians.

Worshipper stabbed to death in Egyptian church

Last Updated Fri, 14 Apr 2006 13:00:20 EDT

CBC News

A mentally ill Egyptian man killed a Christian worshipper and wounded five others on Friday at two Coptic Christian churches in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

The assailant was arrested as he entered a third church waving two knives in the air, according to Egypt's Ministry of the Interior.

A government spokesman said the man's mental illness was the cause of the attacks and there was no political motivation.

The official identified the assailant as Mahmoud Abdul Razik Salah Eddin Hussein, a supermarket employee.

Copts tend to follow the Orthodox Christian calendar. They celebrate Good Friday next Friday.

Hussein allegedly walked to three Coptic churches in the city's old Sidi Bishr neighbourhood, where he insulted parishioners and waved his knives at them.

He wounded three people at the first church, St. George's, before walking to nearby Saints Church where he wounded three others. He was arrested as he tried to enter a third church, yelling insults with his knives in his hands.

A 67-year-old parishioner later died of his injuries.

"The attacks ... led to six being wounded, one of whom died from his wounds," the ministry said, adding that Hussein suffered from mental illness and the prosecutor was investigating the incident.

Coptic Christians account for up to 10 per cent of Egypt's population of 73 million.

Reuters said Egyptian authorities have in the past blamed mental illness for attacks against European or Western tourists.

Relations between Muslims and Christians in Egypt are generally peaceful but there are occasional outbreaks of sectarian violence.

An Egyptian man wounded two Hungarian tourists in Cairo in March 2005, saying he was exacting revenge for Western policies towards Iraqis and Palestinians. The prosecutor general ordered him to be placed in a psychiatric hospital.

Alexandria was the scene of violent protests in October over a church play demonstrators said was offensive to Islam. Three people died when the protesters clashed with police.

Man With Knife Attacks Egypt Worshippers

April 14, 2006, 10:40AM

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — A man with a knife attacked worshippers at two Coptic churches in the northern Mediterranean city of Alexandria during Mass on Friday, killing one person and wounding five before he was arrested, the government said.

The Interior Ministry identified the attacker as Mahmoud Salah-Eddin Abdel-Raziq and said he suffered from "psychological disturbances."

The attacks came on what is Good Friday to many of the world's Christians, although Egypt's Copts _ and other followers of the Greek Orthodox church _ mark the holiday a week later.

Earlier, police officials said three men had been arrested in four simultaneous church assaults, one of them foiled by police. They said 17 people were wounded, and one later died.

There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancies between the reports. In the past, the government has tried to play down incidents that can be perceived as sectarian in nature so as not to inflame tensions between the Coptic minority and Muslim majority.

"This morning, a citizen attacked three worshippers inside the Mar Girgis Church in al-Hadhra with a knife and then fled and went into the Saints Church, where he attacked three other worshippers and again fled," the ministry statement said.

While he was trying to enter a third church, he was stopped and arrested by police, the statement said.

It said one of the worshippers died of his wounds. The semiofficial Middle East News Agency identified the victim as Nushi Atta Girgis, 78.

Abdel-Raziq "suffers from psychological disturbances," the Interior Ministry said.

About 600 angry Copts, mostly young men, gathered to protest the attacks in the Sidi Bishr neighborhood, outside Saints Church. The area was ringed by about 200 riot police, and truckloads more were nearby.

"Stop the persecution of Copts in Egypt," read one banner.

Coptic Christians, who account for about 10 percent of Egypt's 72 million people, complain of discrimination in getting jobs, particularly in senior levels of government. They generally live in harmony with the Muslim majority, although violence flares occasionally.

"Hosni Mubarak, where are you? State security is between us and you!" some chanted.

Nearby, bloodstains could be seen on the top step of the church.

Government and church officials were trying to restore calm.

"We are trying to calm the situation after many of our youth started protesting," said Father Augustinos, who heads the church where the attack was foiled. "We are telling them to calm down. It doesn't do any good for the country to make protests. We want to live in peace and tranquility but these are people who had their family members killed or wounded. We are doing our best."

Abdullah Osman of the ruling National Democratic Party said party officials and legislators were also doing what they could to ease the situation.

Coptic Christians account for about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 72 million and generally live in harmony with the Muslim majority, though violence flares occasionally.

Egypt's last sectarian clashes were in Alexandria in October, when Muslims attacked churches and shops over the distribution of a DVD of a play deemed offensive to their religion. Four people were killed in weeklong riots.

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