CAIRO: Armed Forces trucks loaded with building material and accompanied by engineers arrived at the Sol village in Etfeeh Sunday morning to rebuild a church that was burnt down in a sectarian attack last week.
Lawyer of the Orthodox Church Ramsis El-Naggar told Daily News Egypt that the military trucks, soldiers and engineers that arrive will rebuild the church on its original site.
“The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces honored us by its decision to rebuild the church” and shouldering construction costs, which proves the state’s full responsibility of its citizens, said El-Naggar.
“The armed forces’ promise to put whoever responsible for the crime on trial is a promise to face whoever intends to attack Coptic or Muslim holy places, which means justice is to rise again in Egypt, and Copts will respect this justice as they always did.”
The family of a Muslim woman, allegedly in a relationship with a Christian man, had pressured her father to use violence against the man. A fight broke out between the father and his cousins, which lead to his and another man’s death. After the funeral, mourners headed to the church, claiming it to be a center for sorcery, and burnt it down.
The decision to rebuild the church in its original place came after a reconciliation agreement between Muslims and Copts of the village on Saturday facilitated by well-known Muslim preacher Mohammed Hassan and a number of Islamic religious scholars.
The parties involved agreed to end the turmoil, based on the eight points the comprise a statement presented by Muslim scholars.
The statement called for practical – not cosmetic – solutions for the recurrent problems between the two sides; rejecting any outside intervention in the problem; abiding by the law and the court rulings, rejecting political pressures on the government in these critical times; and bringing back the Copts who fled the village.
The statement was signed by 20 Muslim scholars including Dr. Safwat Hegazy, Sheikh Mohamed Hussien Yaacob, Dr. Abdullah Barakat and many others.
Many priests prayed at the site of the burnt church after the reconciliation meeting was met with relief from both Muslims and Copts, who chanted “the people want national unity” and “Muslims and Copts are one hand.”
Eyewitnesses said that Hassan met first with Muslim youth in the presence of Army General Hassan El-Rewiny, where he asked them to commit to Sharia, and then recited the fatwas of the 20 Muslim scholars listed in the statement.
The youth accepted the religious edicts but raised the issue of sorcery with Hassan. The sheikh explained that sorcery is forbidden in Islam and said that even if the practice was proven, it would be the fault of one person, not the entire church.
In a later meeting with priests, youth raised the issue of finding the names of Muslim women on the walls of the church, which they said was proof of sorcery. The priest explained that writing names was a common practice to seek blessings for loved ones. They stressed that sorcery doesn’t comply with Biblical teachings.
“Let’s put our disagreement aside and look at the future of Egypt,” Hassan said, calling for the reconciliation.
