14 April 2006
A Terrfying Easter surprise gift from Mubarak : Worshippers attacked at Egyptian churches 1 dead, 17 wounded by knife-wielding assailants
CAIRO, Egypt - Worshippers at three Christian churches came under attack from knife-wielding assailants during Mass Friday.Police said one worshipper was killed NUSHI ATTA GIRGIS and more than a dozen wounded in the simultaneous attacks in the northern city of Alexandria.
Police said they had arrested three men in Friday's attacks. One was said to have attacked two churches; one assaulted a third church; and the other was arrested during a foiled attack on a fourth church.
A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press, characterized the men as "insane" and said they were carrying tranquilizing medication.
One worshipper, Nushi Atta Girgis, 78, was killed, according to the semiofficial Middle East News Agency.
The agency said three people were injured. Initial police reports said a total of 17 people were injured: 10 at the Saints Church in downtown Alexandria and three at the nearby Mar Girgis Church. Four worshippers were wounded at a church in Abu Qir, a few miles to the east.
Police said a fourth attack was foiled by policemen guarding another church in Egypt's second-largest city.
Father Augustinos, who heads a different Mar Girgis Church, said the attacks occurred just after Mass began at 9 a.m. (0700 GMT).
"They could be Islamic activists. They consider this as jihad," he said of the attackers, who broke through regularly stationed security barriers and police to enter the churches.
But Abdullah Osman, an official with the ruling National Democratic Party, questioned the sanity of the attackers.
"They are only insane people, and insane people can do anything. They are not normal," he said.
The government and church officials were trying to calm the angry crowds who gathered to protest the attacks. Witnesses said clashes erupted between Christians and Muslims in the Sidi Bishr neighborhood, near Saints Church.
"We are trying to calm the situation after many of our youth started protesting," Father Augustinos said. "We are telling them to calm down. It doesn't do any good for the country to make protests. We want to live in peace and tranquility but these are people who had their family members killed or wounded. We are doing our best."
Osman said NDP officials and legislators were also doing what they could to restore calm.
"They went to the churches to explain that the attackers are insane and that the people should not blow things (out of proportion)," he told The Associated Press by telephone from Alexandria.
The attack comes on what is Good Friday to many of the world's Christians. However, Egypt's Copts -- and other followers of the Greek Orthodox church -- celebrate the holiday a week later.
Coptic Christians account for about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 72 million and generally live in harmony with the Muslim majority, though violence flares occasionally.
Egypt's last sectarian clashes were in Alexandria last October, when Muslims attacked churches and shops over the distribution of a DVD of a play deemed offensive to their religion. Four people were killed in weeklong riots
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Hands off the Egyptian Christians, Mubarak!!!
Shame on a country that calls itself "democratic"!
Is this the price Egypt has to pay to the Muslim Brotherhood?
Posted by: enzo | 14 April 2006
THIS IS NOTHING NEW FOR THESE SCUM. THIS IS THE WAY OF THE RELIGION OF PEACE, I KNOW ONE THING FOR SURE I,M CANADIAN AND I EXPECT THIS SORT OF CRAP TO HAPPEN IN MY COUNTRY SOME DAY. WHEN IT DOES MY RIFLE WILL HAVE THE DUST CLEANED OFF OF IT!!!!!
Posted by: OSONS FOR LIBERTY | 14 April 2006
"IN MY COUNTRY SOME DAY. WHEN IT DOES MY RIFLE WILL HAVE THE DUST CLEANED OFF OF IT!!!!!'
It happened & is happening in my country. God bless the Christians in Egypt who have (for a long time) being following the Gospel and not giving into the voice of evil, the call to retaliate, and have shown they are Christian by their deeds. Orsons for Liberty ....what are you asking they be , better than or equal to their assailants ?
Happy Easter to all followers of the Gospel.
Posted by: Mary in Ireland | 15 April 2006
MARY I KNOW YOU ARE PROBALY A FINE CATHOLIC LADY, GOD BLESS U, I MEAN IT , BUT PLEASE YOU MUST WAKE UP AND REALIZE THIS IS A WAR WE ARE FIGHTING, FOR OUR VERY SURVIVAL!!! I BELIEVE GOD WON,T LET THEM WIN , BUT I ALSO BELIEVE HE DOES,NT WANT US TO LAY DOWN AND SURRENDER EITHER. YOU HAVE TO REALIZE THE ISLAMOFASISTS HATE U FOR BEING A CHRISTIAN, TO THEM U ARE NOTHING BUT AN INFIDEL TO EITHER BE CONVERTED OR SLAIN!! THEY EVEN HAD PLANS TO KILL OUR BELOVED POPE JOHN PAUL. SO AS FAR AS I,M CONCERNED MARY I WILL NOT SURRENDER, NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: OSONS FOR LIBERTY | 15 April 2006
Osons for Liberty;
I feel your anger. I understand the people there must defend themselves. I dont believe your comment about dusting off your rifle was to help those in Alexandria it was a sweeping comment that is all too easy said. We hear all sides lumping others under sweeping statements like that. Pope John Paul FORGAVE his assasain and laid the bullet at the feet of Mary in Fatima. People may hate me for being many things I can choose to hate them in turn or NOT. I feel for all the Copts in Alexandria I have attended Jean Egliese Chuech many times My son attended the Hadana there. I know the Copts suffer and bear a lot. We are better than those who mock and punish us for being nothing but 'infidels'. We must rise above them as John Paul II said 'Be not afraid'
Posted by: Mary from Ireland | 16 April 2006
THANK YOU MARY, FOR SETTING ME STRAIGHT! YOU ARE VERY RIGHT IN WHAT YOU SAY, I SUFFER FROM ANGER WHEN I SEE INNOCENT PEOPLE BEING OPPRESSED, I AM AN EX SOLDIER, I HAVE SERVED IN MANY AREAS OF THE WORLD AND SEEN MANY TERRIBLE THINGS, THAT IS WHAT MADE ME PLACE MY FAITH IN CHRIST BECAUSE I KNOW THIS EARTH AND THE PEOPLE IN IT ARE TEMPORARY, I ALWAYS FORGET THAT THE SOLUTION TO THESE PROBLEMS LIE IN CHRIST,AS YOU SAID.
Posted by: OSONS FOR LIBERTY | 17 April 2006
"...They went to the churches to explain that the attackers are insane and that the people should not blow things (out of proportion)," he told The Associated Press by telephone from Alexandria...."
People knifed and bleeding AND DEAD? And they 'shouldn't blow it out of proportion'? Excuse me?
It IS out of proportion. NOW WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO THESE FANATIC ISLAMISTS, MUBAREK?
Posted by: foreign devil | 18 April 2006
This type of thing has become too common a thing from the Islamists. Whether in Pakistan, Egypt, and even some non-Islamic countries. I believe that Muslims have been destroying not only Christian lives but their own faith as well. In the West, Muslims continue to insist that Islam is a peaceful religion and that only a few bad apples are giving Islam a bad name globally.
But if they are giving Islam a bad name globally, are they not giving their God a bad name as well? Isn't this punishable by death according to their laws? Or is hypocracy also a tenent of their faith. Is their a 6th pillar that justifies this?
If Islam has such a bad name due to a few bad apples, where are the good seeds of Islam? Have a few bad ones hijacked this religion of a billion followers? Why don't the moderate Muslims or the "peaceful ones" take their religion back? Why are they not protesting in there countries or outside to condemn these perpetrators who they insist have adulterated and bastardized their faith? Why are they taking such a passive stance agaist their own? Shall I dare to speculate that even moderate and "peaceloving Muslims" support these murderers' actions yet argue to the contrary?
I am not here to incite hate, although I do embelish in sarcasm, but very simply to ask why Muslims--good Muslims--are not doing something to change the face of their faith by challenging their own brothers and sisters?
Imagine if a Muslim was attacked by "an Infidel" inside a mosque let alone three. Muslims talk to your brothers and sisters. What are you fighting us for?
Posted by: christopher | 18 April 2006
christopher:
You said: "...Or is hypocracy also a tenent of their faith?"
In fact, there IS a form of Islam-sanctioned hypocrisy known as 'taqqiya' or 'kitman'. They are two versions of the same thing. It's permitted for a Muslim to lie to an infidel of kafr, 'when it is for the benefit or to protect Islam' [paraphrasing]. The 'when' part is dependant upon who is deciding whether or not it's in the interest of Islam to tell a lie at a particular time. Since the only one who'd know this is the person about to tell the lie, I leave it to your imagination which decision is usually made.
But that's not what's operating here. By repeating the comfortable meme 'it's only a few bad apples' the can can be kicked further down the road without any decisions being made, especially decisions likely to cause bloodshed such as cracking down on the 'bad apples' in a serious way. So the comfortable phrase gets trotted out. It's a sort of social lie, not only to the listener but also for the teller. The person repeating this fable is comforting themselves as much as their listener because they don't want to face the problem. Who would?
There are other issues as well that are so complex that the very thought of tackling them to tackle the problem of the rioters, is daunting. For instance, since the problem exists lately wherever lots of young, unemployed Islamic men happen to be, cracking down in one country can cause sympathetic riots in other countries. What needs to happen is for a unified command and unified approach to be taken by the EU and the UK toward the threats they face. It needs to be coordinated. If trouble breaks out in Egypt and Egypt has to bring down the hammer hard, then all the countries of Europe should be prepared for trouble on their doorsteps and be ready to meet that. The Islamists within their communities will try to leverage what's happening in, say, Egypt, as happened with the Danish cartoons. They'll try to say it's 'in sympathy' and if they get away with it they can then use the tactic when it's 'in sympathy' with the Palestinians or Iran or whoever. So a unified command and approach is KEY. But right now countries like France can't even keep it together to discuss it with each other, never mind seek a non-political unified approach in order to survive. And now that no one stepped forward to take control, it looks like Norway and Sweden are doing deals with Hamas on the side.
Posted by: foreign devil | 18 April 2006
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