Coptic Churches Attacked in Egypt

CAIRO, Egypt, APRIL 16, 2006 (Zenit.org).- One person was killed and five injured in the Egyptian city of Alexandria when three churches of the Coptic-Orthodox community were attacked.

A 25-year-old Muslim was arrested after attacking Christian faithful Friday with a knife in two Churches in the center and east of Alexandria.

The Coptic Orthodox Church rejected the report by Egyptian authorities that the attacks were simply the act of a mentally unbalanced individual.

As a result, hundreds of Coptic Christians organized protests calling for the reinforcement of security measures around Christian churches.

Since Holy Saturday, security forces have been guarding the principal churches of Alexandria, where the Coptic patriarch has its headquarters.

The aggression was condemned by the leaders of the Muslim majority, as well as by President Hosni Mubarak, who said that he would not tolerate "attempts to undermine national unity" in Egypt, reported the local press.

Moreover, 88 deputies of the Muslim Brotherhood group, the main opposition force in Parliament, which has 454 seats, condemned the aggression in a communiqué issued in Cairo, the EFE agency reported.

The note states that aggression "benefits those who want to justify, the still enforced emergency law," implemented in the country since Mubarak's advent to power in 1981, and which the opposition hopes to abolish.

Friday's attack was the latest incident of violence between Muslims and members of the Coptic minority, since the disturbances that occurred last October in Alexandria, in the wake of a rumor that the church of Mar Girgis had issued a DVD ridiculing Islam and its prophet.