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Egypt’s Coptic pope celebrates Christmas with call for unity
David Shariatmadari and Damien Pearse

As Coptic Christians celebrated their first Christmas after the Egyptian revolution, their pope called for national unity amid fears that their community will suffer under Islamic majority rule.

Copts, who use of a 13-month calendar dating back to pharaonic times, celebrated Christmas Day on Saturday.
At the start of the festive celebrations in Egypt, prominent figures from across the political spectrum, including leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and members of the ruling military council, attended Friday night mass at Cairo’s main Coptic cathedral.

The Coptic pope, Shenouda III, commended their presence and appealed for national unity for “the sake of Egypt”. He said:

For the first time in the history of the cathedral, it is packed with all types of Islamist leaders in Egypt. They all agree … on the stability of this country, and in loving it and working for it, and to work with the Copts as one hand for the sake of Egypt.

The call for unity follows an escalation in violence against the Christian minority, an estimated 10% of Egypt’s 85 million people, over the past year.

Many Christians blamed a series of street clashes, assaults on churches and other attacks on radical Islamists who have become increasingly bold after Mubarak’s downfall.

The Coptic church traces its origins to 50 years after the death of Christ, when Mark the Evangelist took the gospel to the pagan city of Alexandria.

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The 1 January 2011 attack outside al-Qiddissine church in Alexandria, the worst sectarian violence in Egypt for more than a decade, left 23 dead.

Attacks on the community continued after the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, prompting thousands of Copts to take to the streets in protest that no culprits had been brought to justice. The military violently quashed the most recent demonstration in October, leaving 27 dead and provoking further outrage.

“At the beginning [of the revolution] there was a great euphoria, a sense of hope for the future,” said Angaelos. “The problem is that because of the lack of law and order, you then had a lot of extremism. We saw in the past 10 months more attacks on Christians and churches than over the past two years before that.”

Amir Michaeel, 26, saw the revolution as a moment of hope for the country, which he left aged 12 when his father came to the UK to work. But he is concerned by the emergence of more organised Islamic parties.
Raphael is more categorical. “There is real concern about the likelihood of harsher treatment for the Copts if radical Islam is to rule Egypt.”

Bishop Angaelos said the community had no issue with a Muslim majority government as long as the rights of Copts were protected: “What we want is a government which represents everyone in the country, not just one sector over another.”

Figures from across political spectrum attend mass at Cairo's main Coptic cathedral amid fears of rising sectarian tension...


The call for unity follows an escalation in violence against the Christian minority, an estimated 10% of Egypt's 85 million people, over the past year....


Attacks on the community continued after the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, prompting thousands of Copts to take to the streets in protest that no culprits had been brought to justice. The military violently quashed the most recent demonstration in October, leaving 27 dead and provoking further outrage.

"At the beginning [of the revolution] there was a great euphoria, a sense of hope for the future," said Angaelos. "The problem is that because of the lack of law and order, you then had a lot of extremism. We saw in the past 10 months more attacks on Christians and churches than over the past two years before that.".

Amir Michaeel, 26, saw the revolution as a moment of hope for the country, which he left aged 12 when his father came to the UK to work. But he is concerned by the emergence of more organised Islamic parties.

Raphael is more categorical. "There is real concern about the likelihood of harsher treatment for the Copts if radical Islam is to rule Egypt."...

violence that you and your blogger friends want to over-hype.

shafique wrote: the violence that you and your blogger friends want to over-hype

shafique wrote:But I'm not surprised you're choosing to ignore the positive message of this thread and side with a poster who gets their info from hate-mongering bloggers.

shafique wrote:and call a massacre of hundreds of children an 'outstanding job' over all.

shafique wrote:But as I said, this thread is about the positive aspects of a Pope's message - not the hate-filled hype from Islamophobic blog sites.

Flying Dutchman wrote:You really are a real nasty piece of work.

On Tuesday a prosecutor in Egypt ruled that a 15-year-old Coptic Christian boy must remain in custody for at least 15 days while an investigation is conducted into whether he posted cartoons on Facebook depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

The Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm reported that Gamal Abdallah Masoud, a high school student in the central Egyptian town of Baheeg, has denied posting the images, claiming they were added to his Facebook wall without his permission.

On New Year’s Eve, after news first spread of Masoud’s alleged online activity, riots broke out in Baheeg and three other nearby towns in the province of Asyut.

Muslim villagers threw rocks at police and set fires in at least six homes owned by Christians, including Masoud’s home, which was empty at the time. Seven officers were hospitalized after police used tear gas to disperse the rioters.

Egypt is a mostly Muslim country, with a Coptic Christian population of about 10 percent.

Mostafa al-Sayyed, the regional governor, met Monday with Muslim and Christian leaders and several Islamist members of Egypt’s parliament. Afterward, the group announced that rioters would be arrested. They also urged Coptic priests to publicly apologize for the Facebook images, and encouraged Masoud and his family to move out of the region.

In 2005 a global controversy erupted after a Danish newspaper published a dozen editorial cartoons depicting Muhammad, an act Muslims considered heretical. Although at attempt was made on the life of one of the cartoonists, the newspaper later apologized for offending followers of Islam.

In October, Egypt’s state news agency reported that a court in Cairo sentenced a man to three years in prison for posting material on Facebook that was determined to be disrespectful of Islam. The court determined that freedom of belief doesn’t excuse hate speech that may offend Muslims.