The situation of Christians in today's Egypt is critical.
The arson of a Christian church in the province of Aswan (Upper Egypt) served as a pretext for unrest. Thousands of Coptic Christians came out to protest at the building of the Egyptian Union of Television and Radio Broadcasting, it quickly turned into clashes with military personnel and Islamists.
The Christians demanded the resignation of the provisional government of Egypt, headed by its chairman, Muhammad Tantawi. According to them, the authorities are engaged in inflicting Christians and Muslims, creating with the help of the media from the Copts of the "internal enemy" of Egypt. Also called for the resignation of the governor of Aswan, to protect the rights of religious minorities in Egypt.
The situation was aggravated by the fact that when the first clashes of the Copts with law enforcement forces took place, pictures of how Christians attack policemen, smash and turn over cars, were shown on TV. The authorities declared that Christians were to blame for the pogroms, and called on citizens to help restore order. Radical Islamists took to the streets, they also started pogroms, they heard a call - “End the Christians”.
Later, when emotions were asleep, Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said that in the events that took place there were no right and wrongdoers. This is a provocation with the aim of pushing together Muslims and Christians, the army and the people, to cause chaos and devastation in a country that is already going through hard times. True, the head of the provisional government could not name the perpetrators of the provocation. Sharaf called the Egyptians to an interfaith world, "otherwise we will all perish in this fire." And the mayoralty of the capital of Egypt declared that it would cancel one of the legislative acts that has been acting against Christians since the times of the Ottoman Empire. According to him, the church was allowed to build only with the consent of the authorities.
Some Egyptian media blamed the Israeli intelligence services for this provocation, so according to one version, the unrest began when a group of unidentified men in civilian clothes attacked a convoy of demonstrators. And according to the information of the Al-Arabiya (UAE) channel, the shootout began after Christians attacked the military, throwing their armored vehicles with “Molotov cocktails” and taking away some of the military personnel weapon.
This is not the first mass clash of Muslims and Christians this year. In May, 2011, during multi-day clashes between Christians and Muslims, at least 21 people died and hundreds were injured. Then the reason for the unrest was allegedly the abduction of two Muslim women by Christians. According to the Christians, they defended the Christian women who had previously been abducted by Muslims and forced to convert to Islam. In addition, one of the women was the wife of a priest. It should be noted that the abduction of women Christians has long become a kind of tradition among Muslim Egyptians. This allows the “bridegroom” not to spend money on a significant ransom for the girl’s parents, besides many Muslims consider the Copts to be “booty” from the time of the former Arab conquest of the country.
Christians can not resist the process of the radicalization of Egypt - no more than 10%. Moreover, not only radical Muslim groups, but also the army are now opposed to them. The only way to save yourself is to flee the country. What is already happening, after the collapse of the Mubarak regime, 100 thousand people left the country; by the end of the year, 250 thousand people are ready to say goodbye to Egypt. It is clear that recent events will only strengthen these moods.
In Egypt, the “Iraqi scenario” actually repeats itself; more than a million Christians left Iraq after the fall of the regime of authoritarian dictator Saddam Hussein. Of the 1,5 million of the Christian community of Iraq, no more than 150 thousand people remained.
The current temporary authorities of Egypt are not able to stop this process, if the army actively protects Christians, it will lose the vestiges of authority in society. And it is profitable to channel the dissatisfaction of citizens, to gain more time.
Information