By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A spokesman for the Catholic Church in Egypt is claiming that the army and police “used” a mob of street fighters to carry out an attack on thousands of peaceful Christian demonstrators in Cairo this past weekend that left more than 25 dead and 200 injured.
“They were armed with swords, sticks and stones, some of them had rifles it seems,” said Father Rafic Greiche in a statement to the Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). “They did not have to use force. It was a peaceful demonstration.”
The protestors, which were made up of both Christians and Muslims, marched on the headquarters of the Egyptian State television to call for greater protection for Christians after a spate of recent attacks. Armed with nothing more than wooden crosses, bystanders began to pelt the demonstrators with rocks. Police later opened fire on the crowd and began to mow people down with armored vehicles.
Fr. Greiche said there was much “anger and hurt” after the deaths of so many people, most of them in their 20’s and 30’s.
“The army and the police are confronting the Copts. This is the problem. It is not a Christian/Muslim problem anymore,” he said.
It was easier to demonstrate under the former regime of Hosni Mubarak, he said, and criticized the new regime under Prime Minister Essam Sharaf which is opposed to freedom of speech.
“People, not just Christians but many Muslims, too, are frightened for the future of our country,” Fr. Greiche said.
In addition to being complicit in the massacre on Sunday, Fr. Greiche also accused the government of giving tacit approval to Islamists who were involved in recent arson attacks on Christian churches. He is calling for a law to be passed to make it easier to build churches in Egypt.
Since the fall of Mubarak in February, he said Islamists across Egypt who were repressed by the former president are now very active and are causing great anxiety to many Muslims as well as Christians.
“Since the fall of Mubarak, the fundamentalists have developed a very loud voice,” he said. “The government leaves them to do whatever they want.”
He said fundamentalists are using Facebook and other social media to demand that Christians emigrate to the West in order for Islamists to implement Shari‘a law throughout the country.
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Photo of Christian protestors by Nasser Nasser for The Associated Press.
