Thousands of police manned barricades around Christian places of worship in this Mediterranean coastal city on Saturday after seething sectarian tension spilled into the streets when Muslim rioters attacked churches and shops in Egypt's worst Muslim-Christian violence in five years.
Egypt's top Muslim and Christian leaders called for calm on Saturday, a day after 5,000 Muslim rioters rampaged through two predominantly Christian neighborhoods in Alexandria. The violence sparked clashes with rubber bullet-firing police that killed two rioters and two policemen, police and hospital officials said on Saturday on condition of anonymity as they were unauthorized to speak to the media. At least 90 people were injured.
The violence followed a week of protests over a stage play deemed offensive to Muslims and performed two years earlier in the St. George's Coptic Church, which was one of seven churches attacked. While passing by unnoticed at the time, the play was recorded by someone and distributed on DVDs recently, angering a large section of Alexandria's predominantly Muslim community.
Local political leaders and security officials claim local hard-line Islamists were behind the release of the DVDs to coincide with next month's parliamentary elections and tarnish a Coptic Christian candidate nominated to run on the ruling National Democratic Party's (NPD) ticket in Alexandria's impoverished constituency of Ghorbal.
But Maher Khalah, one of two Copts running as NDP candidates throughout this mainly Sunni Muslim country, announced later on Saturday that he was withdrawing from the election race because of the violence and to prevent any reoccurrence.
"This violence is not about the DVD, it is all about the elections," Khalah said.
A senior security official also blamed Islamic extremists for spreading rumors of Copts handing out DVDs showing the play, which is entitled I Was Blind But Now I Can See. The play tells the story of a young Christian who converts to Islam and becomes disillusioned.
Coptic Christians account for about 10 percent of Egypt's 72 million population and generally live in harmony with the Muslim majority. But violence flares occasionally, particularly in small southern communities. Many Copts also complain of discrimination.
Friday's violence was the bloodiest since January 2000, when 23 mainly Christians were killed after an argument between a Coptic shopkeeper and a Muslim customer in el-Kusheh, south of Cairo, degenerated into street battles with rifles and other weapons.
In a joint-statement, Coptic Orthodox Church head Pope Shenouda III and Egypt's highest Islamic authority, Grand Sheik of al-Azhar Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, urged Christians and Muslims to resort to dialogue instead of violence.
"We call on everyone to be calm so we can spread the grace of peace, security and affection among us," the statement said. "If something happened and was misunderstood, then it is our duty to deal with it in the spirit of dialogue and understanding."
"We're not going to apologize because we don't want it to become a precedent," said Kamil Sediq of the Coptic Community Council, a secular body of prominent Copts established in 1874 to oversee affairs of the community.
"We did nothing to apologize for," he said.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
RSS