By Heba Fahmy
CAIRO: Dozens of protesters staged a sit-in protest in front of the Omar Makram Mosque in Tahrir Square on Thursday, holding candles and expressing their solidarity with victims of the bombing that took place in front of Al-Qeddesine (the Church of the Two Saints) in Alexandria.
Protesters accused the government of failing to protect Copts from the explosion that killed 23 people and injured more than 90 others just outside the Church, spurring protesters to call for the resignation of Minister of Interior Habib El-Adly.
Many opposition groups participated in the protest, including political parties Al-Wafd and El-Ghad, the National Association for Change (NAC), and the April 6 Youth Movement.
“We are honoring the Christian Coptic martyrs who [were killed] in the church attack and [are] celebrating Coptic Christmas with our fellow Christians,” Wael Nawara, a prominent Al-Ghad party member, told Daily News Egypt.
“We are sending the message to [our enemies] that we are all united and we are all Egyptians, regardless of our religion,” Nawara added. “We don’t want to just unite and feel sad for a while following a sectarian crime like this, [just to] forget about it [later], like always. We have a lot of problems that increase sectarian tensions in our education [system] and the media. We want to change this and eliminate it from our lives.”
Sameh Attia, the party deputy of El-Ghad and the head of its Freedoms Committee for Civil Rights, denied claims that opposition powers were exploiting the church bombing incident to make political gains against the government.
“I’m calling on the Egyptian church not to issue statements [that separate] Copts from opposition groups,” Attia told Daily News Egypt. “We [opposition political parties] aren’t exploiting this incident for any political gains [and we are not] inciting people to [use violence]. We are merely supporting our fellow Christians and Egyptians for the sake of Egypt.
“If there’s any positive [result of] this crime, it’s the [current] unity of all Egyptians,” he added.
What initially started as a silent sit-in, was later joined by around 40 additional protesters who marched yelling anti-government chants.
Hassan Nafea, a former general coordinator of the NAC, accused the ruling National Democratic Party of being responsible for the Alexandria church attack due to its negligence and its creation of a national atmosphere that encourages sectarian strife.
Abdel Gelil Mostafa, the current general coordinator of the NAC, warned people of the danger that is surrounding Egypt after its two pillars — “national unity” and “the Nile water,” the latter referring to the fallout between Egypt and the Nile Basin countries regarding over water shares — have been threatened.
Mostafa called on Egyptian people to unite after accusing the government of failing to preserve the country’s national unity and share in the Nile River’s water.
“We [Egyptians] are one, and we don’t want anyone to separate us, because there are foreign elements that want to ignite sectarian strife in Egypt,” Walid Faris, a member of the April 6 Youth Movement, told Daily News Egypt.
The protesters also condemned the arrest and detention of eight Muslim protesters during a protest in Shubra earlier this week that was held to condemn the recent church attack.
The defendants are currently being tried for charges that include inciting sectarian strife, vandalizing public property, and attacking officers on duty.
The sit-in protesters were surrounded by a security cordon of over 150 riot police officers. After the protest ended at around 7:30 pm, security forces forced the protesters to remain inside the cordon for about an hour.
The situation was peaceful until several protesters lost their patience and tried to break through the cordon. The police resisted by tightening their cordon, which resulted in mild clashes.
Minutes after the clashes, security forces began to allow the female protesters out, followed shortly thereafter by the men.
