The bombing of the Two Saints (Al-Qidisayn) Coptic Church in Alexandria left officials and the public in a state of shock as was reflected in newspaper headlines. Al-Ahram 's banner quoted President Hosni Mubarak in his televised address as saying 'We will cut the head of the serpent and vanquish terrorism'. Al-Akhbar wrote 'The people declare their rejection of terrorism: protest marches by Muslims and Christians'. Al-Wafd had 'The shock of terrorism rocks all Egyptians'. Al-Masry Al-Yom blared 'Black terrorism ignites sectarian strife and kills 21 martyrs' and Nahdet Masr bannered with 'Black terrorism shows its face at the beginning of the new year'. Nearly every writer and columnist wrote about the significance and impact of the bombing. The editorial of the official daily Al-Ahram said the bombing delivered a crystal clear message that Egypt is targeted and so is its national unity. The question now, the editorial added, is what can be done? Facing cowardly terrorism is not only the responsibility of the government or security bodies, but that of the people as well. Efforts to confront terrorism, the edit added, should expand. All Arab states and international powers that love peace should gather to combat terrorism, resolve all pending regional issues and give a boost to peace in the region. "There is a clear and dire need for cooperation among all the parties in order to cut the head of the serpent that is spreading terrorism in the region," the edit concluded. Nabil Rashwan wrote that there is a thin line between terrorism that targeted the Alexandria church and the thorny issues of Copts and Muslims in Egypt. In order to combat terrorism, Rashwan said, Egypt has to open all sensitive files, including building new churches, Coptic representation in high posts and in the parliament and putting an end to discrimination. "In our attempt to face terrorism, we should be armed with Egypt's internal front, the same front that protected us during the October 1973 war," he wrote in the independent political daily Nahdet Masr. Moataz Billah Abdel-Fattah wrote that the attack could open the door for our religious issues being bared at the international level, a direct consequence of the state's reluctance to deal with religious issues seriously. Instead, it left it in the hands of the security apparatus. In his column in the independent daily Al-Shorouk, Abdel-Fattah directed a few questions to the state, namely why shouldn't writing one's religion in his ID and other official documents be left optional; why shouldn't a law be issued to incriminate whoever calls for or encourages sectarian strife; why hasn't a law for building houses of worship been issued? Building more churches does not pose any danger to Islam and likewise building more mosques does not pose any danger to Christianity. "Egypt, in fact, is not in need of more churches or mosques. It needs schools, hospitals and factories," Abdel-Fattah wrote. Ahmed Megahed pointed in the same newspaper to two facts -- that the bombing was an organised terrorist crime regardless of who did it and how. Second, there is a foreign hand that is willing to plant the roots of sectarian strife in Egypt in the name of religion. Megahed regarded the clashes that erupted after the bombing as a catastrophe that threatens national security because it is the second incident in two months in which Christian anger turned into violence and because it indicated that foreign hands had succeeded in directing the power of fury the way they liked. Megahed called on all parties to direct all their efforts to national unity. "If we need to meet on a national project other than football, it is national unity because it is the most dangerous issue facing Egyptians at present on the one hand and because we cannot start another national project unless we thwart all attempts to drive a wedge between Egyptian society," Megahed wrote. Alaa Abdel-Wahab wrote that the bombing was not a mere attempt to drive a wedge between Muslims and Christians but part of a long-term plan to fragment the Arab states on ethnic, religious and sectarian bases. A look at what is happening in Lebanon, followed by the suffering in Iraq and Sudan and then Yemen indicates that they are working hard to carry out their plan. "The Alexandria crime is an indication that the supporters of fragmentation are boosting their plans at a quicker pace. Talk about 'creative havoc' is a temporary truce to replace it with 'non-creative havoc' through an alliance between fundamentalist terrorism and modern colonisation," Abdel-Wahab wrote in the official daily Al-Akhbar. Magdi El-Galad declined to repeat phrases like "national unity" and the "principle of citizenship". However, El-Galad wrote, "we all know that the relationship between Muslims and Christians has reached the point of exploding, that Christians have demands that should be considered and that the regime is not capable of acting, only reacting. Egypt has been in a deep freezer for the last three decades. No wonder the Christian file is frozen," El-Galad wrote in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom. In his column in the back page of the same newspaper, Belal Fadl acknowledged the bitter truth that extremism has eroded the infrastructure of Egyptian society and that confronting it is a matter of life and death. However, Fadl added, the real danger lies in what happened after the bombing: the Christians ran to the closest mosque to vent their anger and frustration, the Muslims ran to protect their mosque and the matter transformed into a confrontation between Christians and security forces. Our only way out is in genuine change, a change in our hardline beliefs and more importantly a change in our failed political leaders. Abbas El-Tarabili argued that the bombing targeted all Egyptians, Muslims and Christians because the crime was committed against a church and a mosque. The crime did not differentiate between a Muslim or a Christian. "It is a conspiracy against all the Egyptian people. It is the people who were the target, and they are the ones capable of thwarting the terrorists' designs," El-Tarabili wrote in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Wafd Party.
