Egypt Riots.

On Sunday (9/10/11) Coptic Christians held a protest march in Cairo, Egypt's capital. As the march entered Maspero square it was attacked by thugs in plainclothes. Although the identity of these thugs is not known many of the protesters assumed them to be secret police like those who were used by the ex-president before the revolution so the protesters responded by attacking uniformed police officers who were guarding the near by state TV headquarters. The violence quickly escalated to petrol bombs and machetes and the rioting spread into surrounding areas including Tahrir square. The police were quickly overwhelmed so the army responded with tear gas and eventually by driving armoured vehicles into the crowd - a tactic that was used during London's riots in August. At present 25 people have been confirmed killed and over 200 have been injured. This includes both Muslim and Christian civilians along with soldiers and police officers.

Following the rioting and burning of a Coptic Church in Cairo's Imbada neighbourhood in May which was instigated in part by an Israeli spy Egypt's interim military rulers have been quick to blame Sunday's violence on foreign provocateurs. Although I can't rule that out entirely I think that on this occasion the violence was purely an Egyptian problem with the Christians themselves having the bear their share of responsibility. Part of the way that Mubarak was able to hold onto power for so long was by playing Egypt's Christians and Muslims off against each other and a false flag attack on a Coptic Church in Alexandria actually fuelled the revolution itself. While Mubarak has gone it will take time for this ingrained hostility to fade. Also nine months after the revolution many people are frustrated over how long it is taking for the interim military rulers to hand over power to a civilian government. Amongst them there is a hardcore of anti-military protesters who want to see the army go now without really understanding how difficult a task the generals are facing. Holding a large march in this sort of climate was provocative bordering on the irresponsible and was always likely to end in trouble. Also for what I've read in English from the Christians in the run up to the march there seemed to be an element within the organisers intent on making the march as confrontational as possible.

However the Christians themselves were reacting to some extreme provocation. In the Aswan region there has been an ongoing local dispute over the renovation of a Coptic Church. This prompted the provincial governor Mustafa al-Sayaad to declare that the Church had been built without the proper permits and permissions and therefore the renovation work was illegal. While I'm not aware of the context in which al-Sayaad made his comments it is very difficult not to interpret them as anti-Christian rhetoric designed to inflame and provoke. A local Iman went on to use al-Sayaad's comments to justify telling his followers to take the law into their own hands and on 3/10/11 a Muslim mob burnt down the Church along with a number of Christian owned homes and businesses. This comes on top of an increase in isolated and generally un-coordinated attacks on Christians by Muslims that have largely gone un-investigated and unpunished by the interim military rulers creating a feeling amongst Egypt's Christians that they are being left out of post-revolution Egypt.

There are a number of factors contributing to this feeling of isolation including the new constitution which declares Islam to be the official state religion and makes some small concessions to Sharia law. Although the constitution also guarantees religious, intellectual and political freedoms it can be quite difficult to understand how the constitution will balance the rights of Muslims and non-Muslims and even with that understanding it still requires a high degree of trust that this will actually happen in practice. Also Egypt's interim military rulers recently backed down over an amendment to electoral law that would have seen one third of seats in parliament reserved for independent candidates. Although I cannot see how this amendment would have protected democracy or limited the power of Islamist parties and was opposed by a broad coalition of political parties the mildly Islamist Muslim Brotherhood were seen to lead the opposition. So by backing down the interim military rulers looked as though they were doing the Islamist's bidding even if the rule was a bit silly to begin with.

The two main factors though that seem to be causing Egypt's Christians to feel isolated are anti-Christian laws like one requiring a presidential permission for any building work on a Church and the interim military rulers failure to investigate the criminal attacks on Christians. Although it sounds a strange thing to say these two things actually further convince me of the interim military rulers commitment to democracy and their desire to hand over power to a civilian government as quickly as possible. The anti-Christian laws are very old laws that even Mubarak was trying to get rid of so I think they will be overturned quite soon. However in a democracy it is the people who make the law through an elected parliament/senate not unelected generals. Therefore it is not the place of the interim military rulers to repeal those laws. Likewise in a democracy crimes against anybody should be investigated by an independent and impartial civilian police force who will collect evidence and present it to an independent and impartial civilian court so a fair trial can be held. If that court finds the evidence presented sufficient to prove the accused guilt then the court will sentence that person to a humane and civilian punishment.

However for that to happen in Egypt the interim military rulers first need to build an independent and impartial court system and police force along with doing unpopular but essential things like doing away with the current system of food and fuel subsidies. They can't do any of these things if they're spending all their time breaking up riots.