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Church bombing kills at least 25 in Egypt
Another 49 are hurt after an explosion tears through cathedral during Mass.
CAIRO — A bomb ripped through Cairo’s Coptic cathedral complex during Sunday Mass, killing at least 25 people and injuring 49 and delivering the bloodiest single attack on Egypt’s Christian minority in recent years, according to Egyptian officials and Christian community leaders.
The explosion unfolded inside the 100-year-old Botrosiya Church, also known as the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Coptic Orthodox Church, shortly after the 200 or so worshippers had stopped reading verses of the Bible and the priest was getting ready to start his sermon, witnesses said.
Then “everything turned black suddenly,” recalled Qelliny Farag.
Suspicion immediately fell on Islamic extremists, including Egypt’s Islamic State branch, which have staged numerous attacks across the country this year targeting soldiers, police and government officials. Sunday’s carnage came less than 48 hours after a bomb killed six policemen and injured another three on a road leading to Egypt’s famed Great Pyramids complex.
The bombing came on a public holiday, commemorating the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.
Egypt’s Orthodox Coptic Christian community, which makes up 10 percent of the population, has long felt discrimination at the hands of the country’s Muslims, as well as successive secular but authoritarian regimes. And attacks on Christians have intensified since the 2011 populist revolt that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. At least 26 sectarian assaults have targeted the community this year alone, according to human rights activists.
The cathedral complex bombed Sunday houses the headquarters of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt, as well as the home of its leader, Pope Tawadros II.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi condemned Sunday’s attack and declared three days of mourning.
“Vicious terrorism is being waged against the country’s Copts and Muslims,” he was quoted as saying on local television networks. “Egypt will emerge stronger and more united from this situation.”
In Washington, the State Department declared: “The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attack today on Christian worshippers.”
Analysts focusing on Egypt’s religious divides said the government has made previous promises to apprehend the perpetrators of hate crimes. But it has shown few results.
“Sectarian tensions in Egypt is ongoing and this attack, although shocking in its scope, is not an aberration,” said Amira Mikhail, a fellow at the Tahir Institute for Middle East Policy. “Despite the shift in public rhetoric by President Sissi in which he has called for religious reform and has visited the cathedral on several occasions, little has been done to actually change the institutionalized sectarianism in the government and the continued violence perpetrated by non-state actors.”
Senior Egyptian officials, including the prime minister and interior minister, arrived at the church shortly after the attack. A small group of angry protesters railed against the continuous attacks on Christians.