Cairo: Coptic Families Flee after Clashes between Christians and Muslims
August 8, 2012 11 Comments
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Cairo – About 100 Christian families have fled from the village of Dahshur (Giza), 40 km south of Cairo after recent violence between the Coptic and Muslim communities. Yesterday, a group of Muslims set fire to several Christian homes and shops and even tried to set fire to the local church. The police intervened with tear gas. In the clashes 16 people were injured, including 10 officers. The group was returning from the funeral of a Muslim who died during a brawl with some Christians took place on July 27. Sources from Giza Diocese report that Coptic families have now left the village for fear of new attacks. The case of Dahshour is the first serious incident of violence between Christians and Muslims since the election of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
The tensions erupted last July 27. The pastor of the parish Mari Gerges (Saint George) in Dahshur, Fr. Takla, says that on that day, Ahmed Ramadan went to Sameh Sami’s laundrette (makwagi), to collect his shirts. One short had been accidently burned. At Ahmad’s protest, Sameh offered to pay for it and the two made an appointment to meet that evening after iftar meal that breaks the daily fast. Ahmed arrived that the evening, but not alone. He was accompanied by several hundred people, armed with knives, guns and Molotov cocktails.
Sameh closed his shop and ran into his house for protection, where his father and brother were. The attackers fired shots and launched Molotov cocktails. One of these failed to explode, Sameh through it back at his attackers. Unfortunately it exploded near Mo’adh Hasaballah, who was badly burned. He was brought to a hospital in Cairo.
The crowd went wild. They attacked the family (father and two children) and another Christian, and burned the houses of Christians. Firefighters could not reach the burning houses because of the crowd. Many Christian houses and shops were destroyed…
More here.
About Fr Stephen Smuts
Why is Muslims setting fire to Coptic Christian people’s houses always ‘clashes between Christians and Muslims’?
Indeed…
One cannot reason with monsters. The only reasoning they’ll listen to is gunfire. There is no hippy-dippy “loving” your way out of such reckless hate.
Frankly, European gunboats in Alexandria Harbour are what are needed; but that would be colonial. SO much more enlightened to watch the Christians of the Near East be eaten alive. Your turn will come, ye intellectuals and bureaucrats!
Mr. Coulombe,
Europe has become bankrupt in more ways than one. From Greece to Ireland, New Vandals and Visigoths have an orgy while performing millions of child sacrifice allowed by the secular governments.
I don’t think they care much about the notion of sending gunboats to protect Christians; Europe seems more interested in doing to Christians what Muslims are already doing elsewhere. (Hence, why it is laudable to look at the efforts of Bishops and members of government who have the courage to say “No” to abortion, contraception, atheism, homosexual marriage, etc.)
We must fight the war at home first, I recon.
Religious hatred has many causative factors. From my experiece of Egypt it is often very much a case of “both to blame” with the mobs being incited by agitators on both sides. Extreme poverity is also a contributory factor. What is good to see is that the police intervened – and that’s an improvement on past practice.
And sometimes religious hatred is to be encountered in the oh so civilised west.
See:
(i) US Mosque burned to ground
(ii) <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/9456186/Sikh-leaders-fear-Wisconsin-gunman-believed-he-was-targeting-Muslims.html" Sikh leaders frear Wisconsin gunman believed he was targeting Muslims
Sorry – Fouled up the html – Sikh leaders frear Wisconsin gunman believed he was targeting Muslims
Well, even if ignorance is not a factor; just knowing that Muslims kill Copts, who are a dwindling MINORITY in Egypt, does not really stop Muslims from killing Copts. There may be Muslims who dislike the treatments of Copts, but that will not stop Muslims from killing Copts. There may be Muslims, especially in the West, (you know, the successful, law-abiding professional types) who will talk, and talk, and talk about how “These actions are reprehensible! We condemn violence in the name of Islam!” But that will not stop Muslims from killing Copts. There may Muslims who are ignorant of the existence of Copts. But that will not stop Muslims from killing Copts.
I can post on the internet on how horrible everything is, and how we ought to do so and so… and even that will not stop Muslims from killing Copts. Or any Christian that lives in “Muslim lands”
The primary enemy is atheism and secularism- entailing this is the idiotic notion that we are now “Enlightened” and “Civilized” and that Christianity is “Superstition” and “outmoded” and “causes wars” -boy, oh boy do I desire actual armed Christian militias that so many liberals cringe at imagining. (For if taking up arms is evil, there would be no Swiss Guards.)
Unfortunately, in our enlightened and civilized times, a law-abiding, Christian armed militia is likened to gang members, the Ku Klux Klan, and people like Anders Breivik and less like groups such as the Knights of St. John. (I wonder if these “chivalric orders” are nothing more than social clubs, and don’t have anything to do with protecting Christians in lands where they are threatened?)
Here are two things to note, while Christians are being murdered:
And the Islamic Republic of Dearborn, Michigan.
Ioannes, an “armed Christian militia” smacks a bit too much of Mussolini, Franco, the Lebanese Phalange, the Argentinian Juntas for my liking.
I don’t wish to alarm you or anything, and I would understand if you’re horrified, but I’m a supporter of the Falange, sir. Or any current Catholic Monarchy in good standing with the Church. (I wish to bring up the great examples of Belgium and Lichtenstein)
It’s something I’ve discovered as my political alignment. I cannot find any other alternative. At least in the United States, the Left is filled with Marxists and Anarchists, the Right is filled with Ayn Rand Objectivists and Libertarians. Supposed “Conservatives” in the U.S. are actually traditionally liberals. (Meaning anti-monarchy) and it’s all useless, at this point.
My only real hope is the Catholic Church. She’ll be there, even if America sinks to the bottom of the oceans.