Egypt’s cathedral could be tempting target for terrorists
Biggest Christian church in region opens on weekend
CAIRO – The biggest church in the Middle East opens Saturday night, a landmark date in the 2,000-year-old history of Egypt’s Coptic Christians. It also could be a huge target for Islamic State militants.
Egyptian leaders will dedicate the cathedral, called the Nativity of Christ, at a midnight Mass on Coptic Christmas in the new capital under construction 28 miles east of Cairo. The cathedral will seat 8,200 worshipers who may be vulnerable to attacks from Muslim extremists.
Coptic Christians comprise about 10% of Egypt’s population, which is mostly Muslim. A spate of attacks last year against Coptic Christians claimed more than 100 lives. Early last year, the Islamic State, or ISIS, said the community was among its “favorite prey.” Friday, eight Coptic Christians were gunned down in an attack at a Cairo church, and ISIS claimed responsibility.
“From bombing to indiscriminate firing to direct targeting by extremists, there is a state of anxiety in the community,” said Ramy Kamil, 32, who runs the Christian Maspero Youth Foundation, which was created after 27 Coptic activists protesting the demolition of a church in northern Egypt were killed in
2011.
Poules Halim, a pastor and spokesman for the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros II, said the new cathedral shows how Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is reaffirming the Coptic Christans’ standing in the country. El-Sissi seized power in
2013 after the military he headed ousted President Mohammed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected leader, and banned Morsi’s radical Muslim Brotherhood political organization. Morsi was imprisoned. In 2016, Egypt’s parliament eased restrictions on building churches and adopted other policies to allow Christianity.
“Our new cathedral is not just a great place for Christian worship,” Halim said. “It is an expression of the fact that Egypt seeks to consolidate citizenship for all Egyptians.”
Egypt’s Interior Ministry deployed
230,000 security personnel to protect the country’s 2,626 churches from terrorist incidents. “But it doesn’t feel like that when you live next door to a church that has been attacked,” said Sayed Riad, 48, a car salesman in Helwan.
Riad feared ISIS could strike as Cop- tic Christians celebrated Christmas, which for them is every Jan. 7, instead of Dec. 25. “We do not know what will happen on the holiday,” he said.
Maged George, 56, a cosmetics manufacturer who sits on several executive Coptic church committees, was not deterred by ISIS threats. “I will go to the Mass at the cathedral and send my children to pray there,” George said, adding that the new building will “convey a positive message about our citizenship and partnership with fellow Egyptians.”
Church officials didn’t disclose the cathedral’s cost, but state media reported that the Egyptian government is spending more than $12 million.