EGYPT’S CHRISTIANS FEAR MORE DEADLY ATTACKS
▶ As the embattled Coptic community prepares to celebrate Christmas today, many ask why security forces have not done more to protect them
Egypt’s Coptic Christians are fearful of more sectarian attacks as they celebrate Orthodox Christmas today, after a policeman was killed trying to defuse a bomb near a Cairo church on Saturday.
The explosion was the latest in a series of attacks against Egypt’s Christian population and came only a week after President Abdel Fattah El Sisi ordered a new agency to combat sectarian violence.
On Saturday, explosive devices were planted around the Church of the Virgin Mary and St Mercurius in the Ezbet Al Haggana district of Nasr City, a security source said.
Several were removed safely but the last, concealed in a bag, exploded when police bomb disposal technicians tried to deactivate it. Maj Mostafa Ebeid was killed in the blast, which wounded two other officers and a bystander.
Yesterday, the church doors remained decked in celebratory red and white cloth but dozens of riot police blocked nearby roads.
Local Christians in the working-class neighbourhood said they felt aggrieved by the belated increase in security.
“Where was the protection?” asked Fady, a government employee.
“Before the attack there were only three middle-aged policemen who were drinking tea outside the door. Nothing else.”
Samuel, a Christian tuk-tuk driver, said his community felt increasingly targeted.
“Every year, they do this to us. Every year, they make us live in fear,” Samuel said. “At times I feel safer during Ramadan than at Christmas.”
Umm Nabil, 56, said that while she was grateful to security forces, more needed to be done to protect Egypt’s beleaguered religious minorities.
“Thank God for the officer who dismantled the bombs. He is a hero,” the dressmaker said. “But the question remains, where were the police when the bombs were planted?”
As she prepared food for Christmas celebrations under posters of Jesus and the late Coptic Pope Shenouda III, Umm Nabil recalled a more peaceful past.
“It was never like this when I was young,” she said. “Muslims and Christians were one and people used to congratulate each other on holy days.
“Now you can hear the sheikhs on the TV saying, ‘Whoever is not Muslim is an apostate’. And if you object, you are accused of stirring sectarianism.”
A security source said police were working to identify the perpetrators of Saturday’s bombing.
“We are currently listening to testimonies of eyewitnesses and the imam of the mosque who said he saw the perpetrator planting the bombs,” the source said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
We keep thinking that if we don’t go to Mass, God will understand. Throughout the years, Copts have suffered HAMDY ABDEL MESSEH Egyptian student
Copts make up about 10 per cent of Egypt’s population of 97 million but complain of discrimination. In the past two years, extremist attacks have killed more than 100 Egyptian Christians.
In November, an ambush on three buses carrying pilgrims from a remote desert monastery south of Cairo killed seven people, including six from one family, and wounded 19.
On Palm Sunday in 2017, attacks on churches in Alexandria and Tanta killed 47 and injured more than 120.
Since the start of this month, Egypt has stationed thousands of troops, including special forces, outside churches across the country.
At times, security forces have been accused of discriminating against Copts.
In December, a policeman assigned to protect a church shot to death a Coptic man and his son after a verbal dispute in Minya, a governorate in Upper Egypt with a large Christian population.
A Christian master’s degree student in Minya told The National his family was debating whether to attend midnight
Mass or not. “We keep thinking that if we don’t go, God will understand,” Hamdy Abdel Messeh said.
“Throughout the years, Copts have suffered and have been discriminated against but we have continued to live and survive.”
But these days, Mr Abdel Messeh said, a quote by the Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz kept coming to mind: “Fear doesn’t prevent death. It prevents life.”
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump congratulated Mr El Sisi for his plan to inaugurate what Egypt says is the largest cathedral in the Middle East yesterday.
The US president wrote on Twitter that Mr Sisi was “moving his country to a more inclusive future”.