While a number of initiatives have been launched to contain the anger of Copts, political and counter-terrorism experts continue to debate the ramifications of the bloody church attack, writes Gamal Essam El-Din Senior politicians, religious leaders and civil society activists have been striving to dissipate the horror and pain felt by Copts following the carnage at the Two Saints Church in Alexandria on New Year's Eve which left more than 22 dead and some hundred injured. In a speech to the nation last Saturday, hours after the attack, President Hosni Mubarak urged Christians and Muslims to close ranks and confront terrorism. Ahmed El-Tayeb, the sheikh of Al-Azhar, announced the launch of an anti-sectarian intiative, the Family House. In a joint press conference with Pope Shenouda on Sunday, El-Tayeb explained that the Family House will be run by a committee comprising Muslim and Christian scholars tasked with finding solutions to sectarian strife and resolving communal tensions. Meanwhile, demonstrations by angry Copts, as well as Muslims showing solidarity with their Coptic fellow citizens, erupted in various places of the country all week. One initiative emanating from Muslim activists was a call for Muslims to form human shields in front of churches throughout the country during tonight's Christmas Mass. Protesters gathered in front of the buildings of the Radio and Television Union and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, chanting slogans against the government and the Interior Minister Habib El-Adli, blaming what they say are slack and lax security measures around churches for the tragedy. Ismail El-Shaer, chief of Cairo police, said he ordered police forces to exercise restraint "because we fully understand that the young Copts are angry and they have a right to express this anger". In Shubra, a predominantly Coptic neighbourhood in Cairo, protesters injured five police officers and 125 soldiers. In a televised interview on Monday evening, the Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda III, urged Copts who took to the streets chanting anti-government slogans to exercise restraint. According to Pope Shenouda, "the slogans used by some transgressed all values and modes of behaviour... and some tried to resort to violence which is not a method of ours," he said. He blamed the disturbances on those who have tried to ride the wave of protests. "I am glad that many Muslims joined [in the protests] which shows that all are against terrorism and sectarian violence. The attack brought us together. We have to unite against the enemy that aims to sever our bonds." The Orthodox Church, said its head, would go ahead with celebrations marking Coptic Christmas. "We are celebrating the birth of Jesus, and without Jesus we wouldn't have been Christians... If we don't celebrate it will bring more damage than good." A number of Egyptian political parties and groups called for a candle-lit vigil tomorrow, to coincide with Coptic Christmas. The vigil will take place at 5pm in front of the Saad Zaghloul Mausoleum in Cairo in remembrance of those who died in the attack and to show solidarity with Egypt's Copts. Zaghloul led the 1919 Revolution, whose symbol was the Muslim crescent embracing the Christian cross. Political parties and groups involved in the call include the Tagammu, Wafd, Democratic Front, Ghad and Karama parties, Egyptians Against Religious Discrimination, Copts for Egypt, the National Assembly for Change led by Mohamed El-Baradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the 6 April movement. Egyptian universities held peaceful demonstrations on Monday and Tuesday, with faculty staff and students joining together in their condemnation of the massacre. Protesters chanted "Mohamed will remain the friend of Jesus and the mosque will remain beside the church." Schools also stood still as students across Egypt held a minute's silence on Sunday in commemoration of the victims of the attack. The Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions decided to send a delegation to St Mark's Cathedral, seat of the Coptic Pope Shenouda III, on Christmas Day, to express their condemnation of the brutal attacks. In parliament deputies joined other civilian forces in trying to contain public anger but also exchanged accusations over the causes of the attack. Rifaat El-Said, member of the Shura Council and leader of the Tagammu Party, took the government and the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) to task for ignoring the religious needs of Copts. "For too long," El-Said said, "the government ignored amending the unified law regulating the construction of places of worship" thus contributing to the overflow of anger when the terrorist attack hit the Alexandrian church. El-Said's argument polarised Shura Council members into two camps. Chairman of Shura Council Safwat El-Sherif, and Minister of State for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Moufid Shehab, strongly criticised El-Said, arguing that "the number of churches built over the 30 years of President Hosni Mubarak's rule is far greater than the number of churches built since Christianity came to Egypt." In a statement before a fact-finding parliamentary committee on Sunday headed by speaker of the People's Assembly Fathi Sorour, Deputy Interior Minister Adli Fayed said early indications were that the explosion was not the result of a car-bomb. "Most likely," said Fayed, "the deadly attack was caused by locally-made explosives." Fayed denied claims by Coptic protesters that the Interior Ministry failed to provide adequate protection for churches. "Security for churches includes one officer and three police guards on normal days, and four officers and 12 police guards on feast days such as Christmas," he said. Emad Gad, an Al-Ahram political analyst, believes the attack, the most bloody since the 1990s Al-Kosheh village massacre in Upper Egypt which left 20 citizens dead, poses a considerable threat to Egyptian national security. "This massacre signals that Egypt is no longer immune to major terrorist attacks, sectarian strife or even civil wars like those that have hit Lebanon, Iraq and Sudan," says Gad. "The incident could open the door wide for international meddling in Egypt's internal affairs with the excuse of saving Christians from persecution." Gad urges the government and the NDP to open a public debate on Coptic grievances: "We need new political reform and democratisation initiatives to eradicate the seeds of divisions not only among Muslims and Christians but also between the regime and opposition," argues Gad. Diaa Rashwan, another Al-Ahram political analyst, believes "a short-term solution to the current sectarian crisis lies in facilitating the construction of churches, tightening security around Christian places of worship and issuing a new law regulating personal status issues among Christians". Rashwan expressed fears that "the crime might drive Copts to feel more alienated from public life and inflame their anti-regime outrage". The long-term solution to such problems, he says, "involves taking concrete steps towards activating the role of Copts in political life, ending the NDP's monopoly of the political arena and democratising the country". "Simultaneously, the state should be mobilised to stem the tide of Salafist ideology that has invaded the hearts of young Egyptian Muslims in recent years. This ideology, which forms the basis of the Jihadist doctrine of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, has penetrated Egypt, and the young people of Alexandria in particular, creating the schism in the relationship between Muslims and Christians."
