Posted on 11/25/2010 12:14:51 AM PST by Traianus
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Cairo (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Copts and Egyptian security forces clashed on Sunday outside the Saints Mary and Michael Church in Talbiya, near the Pyramids, Giza. Police want to stop the church construction, which is in its final stage. This is the second time in ten days that security forces try to enter the religious compound, which is under 24-7 protection by priests and worshippers. The siege began at midnight, and lasted six hours. As of 9 pm, the church was full of worshippers praying, aware that security would try to move in.
Security forces surrounded the church compound and seized four concrete mixing vehicles on their way to the site. The concrete was spoiled.
At the same time, some 2,000 Copts joined those already in the church. Demonstrations and sit-ins took place in front of police.
Christian religious authorities said that the church would continue to be protected until the matter is not settled.
Naguib Ghobrial, president of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights, issued a statement calling for the dismissal of the head of the local government in Omraniya who ordered the security forces in.
“The Church has all the permits,” he said. “By this behaviour, the chief of the local authority is encouraging Islamists to fight with Christians because of the Church. This encourages sedition.”
Protestors are adamant that they have all necessary construction permits. They slam the decision of the head of the local government in Omraniya to stop work on the church, which is nearly complete except for the domes.
Samira Ibrahim Shehata, a volunteer worker at the church, who has been on guard at the Church premises since 11 November, said, "I want to know why a hundred mosques can be built, and not one church”.
About a million Copts live in the Talbiya area, but they have no church. Worshippers who want to attend religious services must travel back and forth for several kilometres.
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The Religion of Peace is at it again.
Where are the Ground Zero Mosque people? Why aren’t they defending the Coptics in Egypt? Where’s their fellowship now?
I am sick of their hypocrisy. It is the radicals that run that religion and the so-called moderates complain about the West!
I don’t understand this. Sharia doesn’t allow church construction of any kinda how did they get a permit?
Islam claims to be bothered by a Christian church popping up next to... PYRAMIDS? I thought Mad Mo didn’t like those pagan Pyramid religions and would be the last to defend them.
So when they come here and set up their savage sharia they will attack, persecute and kill Christians here too. They will NEVER mellow and become nice neighbors.
Sharia’s rules restrict non-Muslims from building new houses of worship and even any effort to maintain existing houses of worship. When Muslims invaded Egypt, Egypt was predominantly Christian with Churches in almost every town. Over the years many of these Churches were destroyed by Muslim mobs and many Christians were forced and/or enticed to convert to Islam. Allowing any new Church to be build was up to the Muslim Rulers. Currently the rules allowing new church buildings are very confusing. So many new Churches are built as a general use buildings then converted to a Church, and this was the case in this Church. Now the authority decided to stop the completion of this Church and the confrontation resulted in at least one Christian killed and many Christians either injured or in jail. That’s how a Muslim dominated country treats non-Muslims, so wake up America.
Thank you. I was wondering how they got a permit in the first place. They didn’t call it a church.
One of the reasons why gun sales have gone up through the roof, being prepared.
They did that to a large part of India as well.
My secular Hindu friend hates em more than I do, and that’s saying something.
The West needs to know that. What is happening in Egypt today and what just happened in Iraq few weeks ago, and continue to happen in every country ruled by a Muslim majority is not an aberration, it reflects Islamic teachings which believe that non-Muslims do not deserve the same rights as their Muslim brothers.
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