CAIRO: Consternation abounds within the Coptic community in the wake of the bombing outside the Lady Virgin Church in Helmiyat Al-Zatoun Sunday night, with some indicating that security was lax when the incident occurred.
Naguib Gobrael, a prominent Coptic lawyer and head of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organization, told Daily News Egypt, “It is a shame that the authorities have not told us the entire truth about the incident. I submitted a request to Zakariya Azmy [presidential advisor and MP for the Al-Zatoun district] to file a request for the details of what occurred.
“Where was the security at the church? The Minister of Interior (Habib Al-Adly) needs to speak out on this, he added.
Two bombs went off Sunday night and Monday morning underneath cars parked in front of the church. No one was hurt and according to the Ministry of Interior, the bombs were locally made and similar to the ones used in Al-Hussein bombings a month and a half ago.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Interior said that it’s still investigating the incident.
Writing on the Copts-United website, Fawzi Hermina said, “Security authorities are trying very hard to play down the incident despite its great security risk and political implications as well as the economic and social repercussions it could have on Copts and the rest of our beloved Egypt.
That the bombing occurred in the district of Al-Zatoun, which has in recent times seen attacks on Coptic business, has only added to the worry.
“The bombing coincides with the robbery and murder of Coptic jewelers in the same area and it also coincides with more Coptic calls for church building, so all this imbues the incident with some vagueness and it could be a sectarian issue, Gobrael said.
Hermina pointed out that the perpetrators of the attacks on the Coptic businesses had not yet been brought to justice.
Eyewitnesses told Daily News Egypt that two explosions took place in front of the church, one at 9:30 pm Sunday night and the other at 1:30 am Monday morning. The explosive canisters were placed under two cars, one of which belonged to a Coptic lawyer who was attending a meeting inside the church.
The interior ministry statement said a second container connected to a cell phone was found nearby the bomb site containing a potentially explosive substance, and it was destroyed in a controlled explosion.
Abdel-Maseeh Baseet, a priest from the church told Al-Haya television station Monday night that at the time the first bomb went off, there were some 3,000 people inside the church, attending various weddings and a church meeting.
The Lady Virgin church is a famous site in Cairo because of reported sightings of the Virgin Mary at the church in the 60s, and as a result is also a tourist attraction.
Gobrael said, “Copts and other Egyptians are concerned about this because it will affect tourism, as the church is a famous tourist site. It might have an effect on Copts in Egypt and Copts abroad will be angry, and they have every right to be because none of their requests have been fulfilled.
