21 - 27 June 2001
Issue No.539
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 June 2001 Issue No.539 |
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Unprecedented show of Coptic anger
Thousands of Copts, for the first time ever, have staged angry protest demonstrations at the Coptic Cathedral in Abbasiya, disrupting traffic for three consecutive days. Nadia Abou El-Magd was there
Hundreds of anti-riot police cordoned off the Abbasiya Cathedral on Tuesday for the third day in a row as thousands of furious Copts assembled inside the building, chanting angry slogans.
The protests began on Sunday night when thousands of Coptic demonstrators took to the street, some hurling stones at shops in the neighbourhood of the cathedral and later at police who arrived at the scene. At least six policemen, including three officers, and some protesters, were injured on Sunday. There were no reports of any arrests. At least three ambulances and a few fire engines were stationed outside the cathedral.
The unprecedented demonstrations came as a reaction to three pages of text and pictures of a defrocked monk having sex with women at what Al-Nabaa weekly claimed on Sunday to be Deir Al- Muharraq monastery, near the southern city of Assiut. The monastery, which was built in the 4th century, is revered by Copts, who believe it was one of the sites visited by Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus during the Holy Family's flight to Egypt.
Brandishing large wooden crosses and pictures of Mary and Jesus, the crowds chanted: "With our blood and soul we sacrifice ourselves for the cross!" and "We are not afraid, we are the sons of saints!"
About 1,000 people staged protests at Deir Al-Muharraq monastery on Monday morning.
Despite Pope Shenouda's pleas for Copts to remain calm, protesters were still gathering in Abbasiya Cathedral until Tuesday evening.
Some protesters tore up copies of Al- Nabaa newspaper.
"This is part of an ongoing campaign to defame the church," shouted Salib Abdel-Malak, a 21-year-old student. "What do they want from us and from our church?"
Abdel-Malak cited incidents of sectarian strife in the southern village of El- Kosheh at the dawn of last year, in which 21 people were killed, 20 of them Copts. He also complained about Awan El-Ward (Time of Roses), a controversial television series about an inter-marriage between a Christian woman and a Muslim, which was screened in the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
Many protesters were puzzled that the pictures found their way to the press. They were also shocked by the indecency of the photographs and language of the article, which failed to mention that the monk had been ex-communicated.
"We have no voice. If our government doesn't protect us, who will?" screamed an angry woman.
"When the honour of our religion is violated, and when our most revered monastery is portrayed as drenched in sin, this sort of reaction is even less than was to be expected," Bishop Youaness, an aide to the Pope, told the Weekly. Youaness was with the protesters at the Cathedral. A young man, screaming and crying, interrupted by saying: "Mahran (Al-Nabaa's chief editor) should be executed."
Milad Hanna, a renowned Coptic intellectual and the author of several books on the Copts, said that what happened was an individual and exceptional case and not a general phenomenon. "Copts shouldn't be so angry," he said.
Samir Morcos, an expert on Coptic affairs, said that the Copts' reaction was "an unusual and novel phenomenon, which will impact, for a while, the sensitive Muslim-Christian relations." According to Morcos, such protests were the first to be staged by Copts in their history. "Throughout history, the Church has been the Copts' safe haven at times of tension and pressure. This time the unexpected stab targeted and defamed the church itself. This is the message that hurt Copts, even the secularists among them," he argued.
Morcos said the timing was also bad because, since the El-Kosheh incident, relations between Muslims and Christians have been less strained, with both sides addressing sectarian issues openly and frankly. "Thanks to the government's speedy and decisive action, and judging by previous experience, this affair will be soon behind us," he said.
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