Assyrian Democratic Organization ADO
Cairo- Kenneth Chan
Egypt’s President reassured followers of the Coptic Church that they were full members of Egyptian society after recent clashes between Christians and Muslims, sources reported earlier this week.
“In practice, we are a single people, we must stay bound by ties of affection at all times,” Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Sunday in a speech broadcast on state television.
“Christians are not a minority in Egypt, they are Egyptian by origin and birth.”
According to MiddleEastOnline, Mubarak played down clashes between Christians and Muslims in the run-up to last Friday’s Coptic Christmas, saying that such unrest “happens all over the world.”
Last month, hundreds of Coptic Christians–Egypt’s largest Christian denomination– staged protests in Cairo and in the west delta province of Beheira following the alleged abduction and forced conversion of Wefaa Constantine–the wife of a Coptic priest–to Islam.
Although the alleged abduction and forced conversion of Constantine sparked the protests, sources say the protest was also a response to the Egyptian government’s sanction of anti-Coptic hate crimes such as arson, torture, murder, and the abduction, rape, and forced conversion of young Coptic women.
The round-the-clock sit-ins at the Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Egypt’s capital continued until the confrontation reached its climax Dec. 9 when church authorities instructed demonstrators to disperse after receiving assurances that Constantine had been handed over to a church council.
However, by then at least 60 police were wounded in ensuing clashes and 34 demonstrators were arrested.
14-1-2005
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