Sunday, April 7, 2013

#Abassiya3 : Playing with Fire again and Again

Just from moments ago it was announced that Mahrous Henna Ibrahim passed away in Damdrush hospital. Ibrahim was injured in his neck. He was shot allegedly by live ammunition. He passed away at the ER.
Wassfey was shot in his neck while covering the funeral of the Khosous Christian victims at Saint Mark Cathedral in Abassiya earlier today. You probably know that there were sectarian violent clashes between Muslims and Christians in Al Khosous town in Qalyubia governorate on Saturday that resulted in 9 fatalities from both sides.
Update : There is another fatality announced in Abassiya clashes according to the ministry of health. The second fatality was not identified !! The injured are over the 80 
The MOI on the other hand announced that its injured have reached to 25 !! The MOI also announced that it arrested 11 during the clashes. 
The ambulance authority stated that there are about 21 injured in the clashes. OF course unofficially there is a field hospital inside the Cathedral.
I will not go in to much details but today was supposed to be the funeral of the Christian victims “6 Victims”. The day started peaceful sad one at the Saint Marks Cathedral , the HQ of the Egyptian Coptic Church papacy itself. According to the activists who attended the funeral there were not too many mourners like in Maspero massacre funeral.
After the funeral procession began to move the people suddenly found the angry people attacking them clashes with rocks and Molotov cocktails from side streets then the security forces entered and hell broke loose for real. The Christians were forced back to the Cathedral and security forces showered the area with tear gases as the same time those so-called unknown attackers who were not stopped by the security forces as we have seen on TV screens for hours.
The newspapers and TV channels showed young men with arms and rocks on the roofs buildings including the cathedral in a nasty street fight.
It is worth to mention that the first Ministry of interior’s statement blamed the mourners in the funeral and claimed that they started the fight.
The so-called Islamists on twitter say that the Christians were chanting inside the church chants against Islam , the president and MB as well chants saying Egypt is originally Coptic on TV and that this is what allegedly provoked the Muslim locals of Abassiya.
The thing for sure is that the angry mourners in the church and the funeral chanted against Morsi and the Muslim brotherhood.
I have not seen the chants or the funeral itself as I have been sick all morning. I followed it through twitter.Of course from what I see from photos and eye witnesses the locals are more like thugs with handmade guns. Already I wonder how many of them watched ONTV Live and CTV as well Christian TV channels
Today the security forces threw tear gases inside the cathedral.Today according eye witnesses, according to live broadcast of TV channels the security forces from police did nothing except watching those so-called unknown assailants
There are hundreds of Egyptian Christians inside the Cathedral , many of them are women and children as today is Sunday. From what I understood many families are staying now in the Cathedral’s theater for safety reasons singing hymns asking for protection. 
It seems that Abassiya will have bad reputation after three major clashes with others starting with Revolutionary protesters then
Ironically in the past Abassiya was a cosmopolitan area full of Egyptians, Arabs and foreigners as well Muslims , Christians and Jews with too sects living peacefully. Again this in the past. There is no doubt after three clashes the locals played a vital role in beating the other if not killing him, we have to wonder about why the locals of Abassiya allow this to happen in their area.
I will not jump in to the wagon of conspiracy theories and start the game blame , I see clearly that police and the ministry of interior are directly responsible for this disaster, for this fire.
Of course I can not ignore how some mainly from the Islamists are playing with fire for days now. Since April 3, 2013 so-called Islamist tweeps like Abdel Rahman Ezz launched a Hashtag about the #Church_Militia.
Now these Islamists like Ezz are accusing the Christians of accusing these tensions to affect the visit of the EU officials today to Cairo. These Islamists are the supporters of Morsi and the members of the Muslim brotherhood.
President Morsi as usual called the Pope from short time ago according to the Presidency where he assured him that he does not accept these attacks and he ordered the fast investigations to arrest those attackers.
Any attack on the cathedral is an attack on me personally !!
Morsi told Pope that !! I wonder what the supporters of Morsi will think about that !!
Mr. President Please check your supporters because they are sectarian seriously speaking and will not hesitate in starting a civil sectarian war in Egypt
Here is the storify report with all the updates and photos. I have to apologize because I have been sick all day.

7 comments:

  1. I am a not very well informed Canadian. I am alarmed and disappointed at what I see playing out in Egypt. I was, perhaps naively, so thrilled for the Egyptian people during the 'Arab spring'...so excited that you could control your destiny as a people. And now, this is what you choose?

    Is this what 'Allah' would want? Is this what 'God' would want? Are you not all the children of Allah/God? What is wrong with you?

    I am not religious...and yet I feel closer to what is bigger than us than I believe you, as Egyptian people are. Religion is a disgrace and this is the evidence. "We are the chosen ones!" "No, WE are the chosen ones and know what's right!"

    None of you do. You should all be ashamed.

    (This is not a comment reflecting on the owner of this blog as I admire her for bringing the truth to the forefront. Thank you so much for your balanced perspective!)

    A lone, simple Canadian who is a simple member of humanity here on this planet. (Why don't we all look out for each other??)

    N.

    d

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was, perhaps naively, so thrilled for the Egyptian people during the 'Arab spring'...so excited that you could control your destiny as a people. And now, this is what you choose?

      If you, a Canadian, was aware of what happened to Lara Logan the very day Mubarak stepped down, and were aware of the fact that hundreds of Egyptians either participated in that attack or stood by cheering rather than helping, and are still surprised by where Egyptians are at now, two years later, then yes: that was naive of you.

      If you weren't aware then you're too ignorant to have had an opinion then, and likely are too ignorant to have an opinion now.

      Religion is a disgrace and this is the evidence.

      Atheism is the answer? The non-religious like Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler, etc are better? Sorry, friend, but the atrocities committed by atheists dwarf those committed by everyone else combined, the last 100 years. Muslims have a very long way to go to catch up, and Christians aren't even trying. Your self-righteous posturing rings very hollow indeed when atheists in a positions of power have been so much more brutal than anyone else has.

      Delete
  2. It seems like the Copts are slowly becoming a targetted group which many predicted as one of potential results of a turn towards political Islam. Most of the Christians in Iraq are gone.

    It only takes a minority of muslims to create this kind of situation and the apathy of the majority.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have spent 20 years of my life raised in this church. It's a peaceful, quiet area were boys and girls come and learn about God/Christ, living in together in this world.

    Shame, shame what's happening now. It saddens me seeing this place, with so many memories, torn apart with tear gas, thugs claiming to be Alla's arm on this earth.

    They have invaded the church's main centre in Egypt. There's now nothing left for these thugs. No stopping. They've crossed 'the last' line and seem to getting away with it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Terrible and the only way out for the Copts is either to immigrate or to have a mini state where they control their own affairs but at the end Egypt and Egyptians will lose a very important part of their heritage and where is Morsi? No place to be found as usual

    What a shame

    ReplyDelete
  5. Abbaseya residents are sick and tired of protesters causing havoc in their area. That's the bottom line! It has nothing to do with MB or Copt! this is about ordinary Egyptians sick to death with dishonest reporting of events like this and not reporting the real situation.
    Let's be clear about this.
    The current government are fighting felool.

    DO NOT be surprised if Mubarak and his sons and Adley are all released before this year is out.
    Don't be surprised when Shafik re appears working alongside El Baradei and Sabahi etc to overthrow the revolution and release the regime from jail.

    Wait and see.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Zeinobia: Check this article by Raymond Ibrahim (and you can agree or disagree with him but a crime is a crime) and it is about the pictures of the criminals that attacked the Coptic Cathedral

    http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/scandal-morsi-government-permits-savage-attack-on-st-mark-cathedral/

    ReplyDelete

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