Christians take over cathedral (Cairo, Egypt)

The Australian ^ | December 09, 2004 | Maggie Michael

[nickcarraway]

SEVERAL thousand Christians took over the compound of the Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Egypt's capital today, hurling stones at riot police in a protest over a woman who was allegedly forced to convert to Islam.

The stones injured at least 30 people, including 21 police. Some policemen were seen wiping blood from their heads in the streets outside the compound in the city's Abbasiya district.

Police sealed off the compound, parking 40 trucks around its walls, and closed adjacent roads.

Protests began at the cathedral on Sunday as word spread that the wife of a Coptic priest in Abou al-Matameer, a town 135km north of Cairo, had been forced by her civil service boss, a Muslim, to convert.

A security official has said the 47-year-old woman, Wafaa Constantine, was found living in a Muslim household in Cairo and had become a Muslim of her own free will.

Some Copts, as Egypt's Christians are known, said Constantine had been kidnapped and taken to Cairo with the complicity of local authorities.

The facts of the case are not clear, but have highlighted the potential for friction between Egypt's Muslim majority and Christian minority. The Copts account for an estimated 10 per cent of the population of 70 million.

Last night a brother-in-law of Constantine entered the compound and told the protesters through a loudspeaker that the woman had returned home.

"My brothers and sisters, my brother just told me that she arrived in a safe place and she is in good condition," Meshiha Maawad said.

The protesters clapped and whistled, but refused to leave. They demanded that Pope Shenouda III, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, speak to them. The Pope has offices in the compound.

An assistant to the Pope, Bishop Yoanas, told the crowd that the Pope had left the compound because he was "upset" that the authorities delayed Constantine's return.

Some protesters said that they would not leave the until they saw Constantine herself. But, as the night wore on, many did leave.

Among the injured was Matyas Abdel Maseh, a young priest with a bandage around his head. Leaning against a wall for support, he said he was hit by a stone thrown by the police as he tried to stop the demonstrators from getting too close to the compound's gates.

"The Government is attacking Christians," he said. "The army outside the gates is attacking us with stones."

The protesters got the "stones" by chipping pieces of masonry from steps and other pavings in the compound.

Accusations of forced conversion surface every year in Egypt.

The editor of the Coptic newspaper Watani, Youssef Sidhom, accused the government and local authorities of being reluctant to investigate and prosecute cases of forced conversion.

[Cronos]

Show solidarity for our Christian brethern. And to all of those amongst you who thinkIslam can be tolerated -- Open your eyes and see what's happening in the slamic countries.

[cyborg]

bttt

[Betis70]

ping

[redgolum]

I think we may be seeing the beginning of something that the Middle East hasn't seen in a thousand years.

The Christians are starting to stand up for themselves.

Copts don't have "catholic" Christology, but I will pray for them and for all of our brothers and sisters in the Middle East.

We in America need to realize what our brethren are going through behind the dark curtain of Islam.

[MarMema]

God Bless our Coptic brethren.

[NYer]

SEVERAL thousand Christians took over the compound of the Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Egypt's capital today, hurling stones at riot police in a protest over a woman who was allegedly forced to convert to Islam.

Good for them! When the authorities turn a blind eye in your direction and ignore your pleas for help, it's time to take matters into your own hands.

An Egyptian Coptic priest, center, negotiates with policemen outside the cathedral in the city's Abbasiya district, Cairo, Egypt, late Wednesday, Dec.8, 2004. More than a thousand Christians took over the Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Egypt's capital Wednesday, hurling stones at riot police in a protest over a woman who was allegedly forced to convert to Islam.

Meanwhile, in nearby Iraq, gunmen blew up two churches.

A man views fire and smoke pouring from a Chaldean church after gunmen attacked two churches in the latest violence directed against one of Iraq (news - web sites)'s several religious and ethnic groups in the tense northern Iraqi city of Mosul, December 7, 2004. Members of the churches, one Armenian, the other Chaldean, said gunmen burst in, forced people to leave and set off explosions inside the buildings, damaging them but hurting no one.

The Armenians and Chaldeans can take a lesson from the Copts.

[MegaSilver]

They stated that Coptic Christians were the "real and original" Egyptians and that the "others who live in Egypt are all Arabs, not Egyptians." The couple seemed to convey a sense that they were of a higher class and better ethnicity than "other Egyptians."

It stems from a feeling of having their country stolen from them by Muslim conquerors and squatters, which is in fact what happened.

[Kolokotronis]

Just last Sunday an Eygptian Christian came to our Divine Liturgy. He is a doctor here and I believe recently arrived in America. I don't know if he is Orthodox or a Copt. If he's there this Sunday I'll see what G2 he can give me and post it.

[Betis70]

I'd be interested in hearing what he has to say, so if you post something could you give me a ping?

It's sad that our Christian brothers and sisters have to endure this kind of persecution in their own countries. Makes me realize just how free we really are here in the US.

[Kolokotronis]

"I'd be interested in hearing what he has to say, so if you post something could you give me a ping? "

I'll do it.

[nuke rocketeer]

"It stems from a feeling of having their country stolen from them by Muslim conquerors and squatters, which is in fact what happened."

Actually, the Coptics themselves facilitated the Muslim conquest of Egypt when the Arabs promised that they could practice their religion openly (after the poll tax), whereas the Greek Catholics from the Byzantine empire tried suppressing the Coptics. The small Byzantine army in Egypt was slaughtered by rear attack from the Coptics and the Arabs invited in. Even though that was over 1400 years ago, they still are paying the price for their ancestor's decisions.