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Unpunished attacks on Coptic Orthodox and Catholics led many Christians in Egypt to join the demonstrations that led to President Mohammed Morsi being ousted by the armed forces.
“Most of the Christians do not want the president,” said Father Rafic Greiche, the spokesman for the Greek Melkite Catholic Church in Egypt. “We have to be clear about this.”
“Most of the Christians have felt during this year that nothing of his promises toward the Christians has been implemented,” Father Greiche told Vatican Radio.
“And it is very important to know that this year nearly every day we have a sectarian problem: Burning churches, deporting people, and this big attack on the Copt Orthodox cathedral that happened two months ago.”
The Christians who joined the protests said discrimination and violence against minority faiths had increased since Morsi took office at the head of a political party was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Coptic Pope Tawadros II gave his view in a tweet: “It’s wonderful to see the Egyptian people — through the idea of Tamarod and its youth — taking back their stolen revolution in a peaceful way.”
Tamarod is the protest group that led the campaign against Morsi.
Coptic Catholic Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak said “a year from the election of President Mohammed Morsi, we see the country going backwards, instead of forwards”.
Last year, representatives of all the Christian churches resigned at the same time from the Constituent Assembly as a gesture of protest against attempts by Islamist forces to impose a Muslim identity on the country.
During the latest demonstrations, President Morsi tried to persuade Pope Tawadros to tell Coptics not to protest. So did the American ambassador, Anne Patterson. Pope Tawadros told them his spiritual authority over the Copts did not extend to political matters.
According to the Middle East News Agency, leaders from Egypt’s Muslim and Christian communities will now meet with military leaders and opposition figures to discuss an end to the current political crisis and pave the way forward for Egypt.
Sources:
Image: Hindustan Times
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