Easter surprise gift from Mubarak
I post two articles below. One is from Reuters, one is from a well known Christian website. You can see that the difference in reporting between the two is considerable.
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, April 15 (Reuters) - Police fired tear gas on Saturday to stop clashes in Alexandria between Muslims and Christians angered by the killing of an elderly Copt a day earlier by a Muslim, witnesses said.
Hundreds of Christians turned out for the funeral of the 67-year-old man. His assailant wounded five other people in the knife attack on worshippers in two churches.
Thirty people were wounded in Saturday's fighting, medical and police sources said. Rocks and sticks were used in the clashes, which the state news agency MENA said started after the funeral.
Two cars were torched, shop windows were smashed and police arrested 15 people, MENA said.
Tensions between Egypt's Christians and Muslims occasionally boil over into violence. In 1999, 22 people where killed in sectarian strife in the southern village of Kosheh.
An Interior Ministry source said the 25-year-old man who carried out Friday's attack said he was taking revenge for insults to the Prophet Mohammad, apparently a reference to cartoons of the Prophet published mainly in European newspapers.
The authorities said the attacker was mentally ill (There were at least four attacks! Were the terrorists ALL INSANE?).
But Christian demonstrators in Alexandria said the authorities were trying to make excuses for what some Copts saw as increasing attacks on Christians (100% true!).
"We want justice. Christ is the winner," they chanted as they marched through the city on Egypt's northern coast.
"Why can't we live in peace?" read a banner held by mourners at the funeral. "No to oppression", read another.
Three people died in Alexandria in clashes with the police in October during protests by Muslims over a church play which they said was offensive to Islam (Were they also "insane"?).
Coptic Christians comprise between 5 and 10 percent of Egypt's 73 million people, most of whom are Sunni Muslim.
President Hosni Mubarak said Egypt would confront any attempts to harm national unity.
"Egypt is considered a model of national unity and religious tolerance," Mubarak said in comments published in state press. "The occurrence of an individual incident (WHAT?) or problem cannot disturb the serenity and strength of this relationship between the two elements of the nation," he said (There are now three elements in Egypt, Hosni!).
04/14/2006 From Christians Under Attack
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 (Were they all "insane"?). 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 (But the President said that it was an "individual incident!).
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. (Here we go again! Terrorists in Egypt are all "insane"!)
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. (How did they do that???!!!)
But Abdullah Osman, an official with the ruling National Democratic Party, questioned the sanity of the attackers (Ha..ha..ha!!!)
"They are only insane people, and insane people can do anything. They are not normal," (sic!!!)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 (sic!!!) 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 (According to the Egyptian authorities terrorists in that country are "insane"!)
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO CALL THE CHURCHS FOR MORE INFO
VIRGIN MARY CHRUCH ( EL HADRAH) 4201976
EL KIDISEN CHRUCH (SIDI BESHR) 5508395
VIRGIN MARY CHRUCH (JANAKLES) 5731002
PLEASE IF YOU ARE IN THE US DIAL 011203
The following article gives more info on what really happened.
Egypt, Mubarak, Islamic fundamentalists, the Muslim Brotherhood...
Dark days are looming on the Egyptian horizon!
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, April 15 (Reuters) - Police fired tear gas on Saturday to stop clashes in Alexandria between Muslims and Christians angered by the killing of an elderly Copt a day earlier by a Muslim, witnesses said.
Hundreds of Christians turned out for the funeral of the 67-year-old man. His assailant wounded five other people in the knife attack on worshippers in two churches.
Thirty people were wounded in Saturday's fighting, medical and police sources said. Rocks and sticks were used in the clashes, which the state news agency MENA said started after the funeral.
Two cars were torched, shop windows were smashed and police arrested 15 people, MENA said.
Tensions between Egypt's Christians and Muslims occasionally boil over into violence. In 1999, 22 people where killed in sectarian strife in the southern village of Kosheh.
An Interior Ministry source said the 25-year-old man who carried out Friday's attack said he was taking revenge for insults to the Prophet Mohammad, apparently a reference to cartoons of the Prophet published mainly in European newspapers.
The authorities said the attacker was mentally ill (There were at least four attacks! Were the terrorists ALL INSANE?).
But Christian demonstrators in Alexandria said the authorities were trying to make excuses for what some Copts saw as increasing attacks on Christians (100% true!).
"We want justice. Christ is the winner," they chanted as they marched through the city on Egypt's northern coast.
"Why can't we live in peace?" read a banner held by mourners at the funeral. "No to oppression", read another.
Three people died in Alexandria in clashes with the police in October during protests by Muslims over a church play which they said was offensive to Islam (Were they also "insane"?).
Coptic Christians comprise between 5 and 10 percent of Egypt's 73 million people, most of whom are Sunni Muslim.
President Hosni Mubarak said Egypt would confront any attempts to harm national unity.
"Egypt is considered a model of national unity and religious tolerance," Mubarak said in comments published in state press. "The occurrence of an individual incident (WHAT?) or problem cannot disturb the serenity and strength of this relationship between the two elements of the nation," he said (There are now three elements in Egypt, Hosni!).
04/14/2006 From Christians Under Attack
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 (Were they all "insane"?). 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 (But the President said that it was an "individual incident!).
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. (Here we go again! Terrorists in Egypt are all "insane"!)
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. (How did they do that???!!!)
But Abdullah Osman, an official with the ruling National Democratic Party, questioned the sanity of the attackers (Ha..ha..ha!!!)
"They are only insane people, and insane people can do anything. They are not normal," (sic!!!)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 (sic!!!) 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 (According to the Egyptian authorities terrorists in that country are "insane"!)
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO CALL THE CHURCHS FOR MORE INFO
VIRGIN MARY CHRUCH ( EL HADRAH) 4201976
EL KIDISEN CHRUCH (SIDI BESHR) 5508395
VIRGIN MARY CHRUCH (JANAKLES) 5731002
PLEASE IF YOU ARE IN THE US DIAL 011203
The following article gives more info on what really happened.
Egyptian security forces were deployed around Coptic churches in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria on Saturday after attacks that killed one person, the official MENA news agency reported.
The move came as Noshi Atta Girgis, fatally stabbed on Friday by a man officials said was mentally unstable, was to be buried. At least five others were wounded in the attacks on three churches.
The interior ministry said Mahmoud Abdul Razak Salah Eddin Hussein, 25, had been arrested.
Alexandria Judge Samy Breik ordered Abdul Razak to be held in custody for four days, charged with murder, illegal entry into a place of worship and illegal possession of weapons.
While the ministry spoke of only one assailant, police said there were in fact two attackers carrying knives and put the number of wounded at 12 (All "insane"?).
Witnesses said Abdul Razak shouted, "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of God," a statement that is one of the main tenets of Islam, as he carried out his attacks.
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in Alexandria denounced the attacks (Oh..oh..!).
"We consider this crime an attack against all the Egyptian people, Muslim and Copt," a statement said, calling on security forces to protect places of worship.
It also warned against using the incident to "threaten the unity of the Egyptian people".
Egyptian Copts typically attend weekly Mass on Friday, which is also the Muslim holy day and marks the beginning of the weekend.
Coptic faithful, religious leaders and intellectuals expressed fear of further harassment after the gains of the Muslim Brotherhood in parliamentary elections last autumn (So we have three elements in Egypt, not just two, Mr Mubarak!).
Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Issam al-Aryan expressed disbelief over the security forces' failure to prevent the attack.
"It's very sad news. I cannot understand what the security and police were doing. (Neither do I!)
They are supposed to be guarding the churches," he said.
The deadliest recent communal clashes occurred in October, when Muslim protestors attacked a church in Alexandria that they said hosted a play they deemed offensive to Islam. Three people were killed in the fighting.
Egypt, Mubarak, Islamic fundamentalists, the Muslim Brotherhood...
Dark days are looming on the Egyptian horizon!
posted by Enzo at
11:04 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home