Doaa El-Bey looks at the aftermath of the Nagaa Hammadi shooting and a horrific earthquake, plus the selection of the new head of the Muslim Brotherhood The front pages followed the developments of the Nagaa Hammadi killing after the arrest of the three men who shot to death seven people outside a church earlier this month. Al-Ahram had the headline, "The three perpetrators may face capital punishment", Al-Akhbar wrote, "Prosecution asks for capital punishment for the three culprits"; from Al-Masry Al-Yom, "The killers of the seven Egyptians to be tried before the supreme state security court" and Al-Wafd blared, "The accused referred to the Supreme State Security Court". Writers focussed on the impact of the incident on society. Sherif Riad ruled out that Egypt would be exposed to the danger of sectarian strife between Muslims and Copts because of the history, good relationship and strong ties between them throughout long years of joint suffering and pain. However, that does not fully exclude sectarian tension as a result of an event here or there. The most important thing in such cases is fast confrontation and serious punishment, Riad wrote in the official daily Al-Akhbar. Nagaa Hammadi should be put in its proper context: it is not a religiously motivated crime because investigations did not reveal any evidence to support such a claim. It was an ordinary criminal act and its perpetrators were motivated by rumours concerning the publishing of obscene pictures of Muslim girls on mobile phones and the alleged rape of a Muslim girl by a young Christian. If the weak or slow deterrence in similar past crimes has infuriated the Copts, then expediting the trial of the perpetrators of this crime should be our main goal. On the other hand, the writer added that we should take the recommendations of a report by the National Council for Human Rights on how to handle this incident seriously. It included developing a religious discourse which has great influence on forming public awareness, issuing a unified law for houses of worship, punishing any official who is found guilty of discriminating between Muslims and Copts, and reviewing the educational curricula and the performance of school teachers. Makram Mohamed Ahmed wrote that the prosecution will refer the perpetrators to an immediate trial for premeditated murder, spreading horror among worshippers in their church and spreading sectarian strife. He called for the maximum punishment for the accused. However, he added in the official daily Al-Ahram that there will be another case in the courts other than the one related to the criminals who committed the Nagaa Hammadi crime: the trial of a number of Muslims and Copts who rioted after the incident and caused damage to some shops and houses. The indictment in this case would be issued separately according to the conditions of the arrest of the accused and whether they deliberately caused harm. According to the prosecutor-general, the speedy trial of those behind the Nagaa Hammadi murders is a necessary deterrent imposed by the nature of the crime, the large number of victims and the deep impact of the incident on Copts and Egyptians in general. Nagaa Hammadi should get special attention to prove that justice will be achieved and that the law will be applied to all Egyptians irrespective of any religious considerations. For this reason, Ahmed added, the attorney- general visited the crime scene himself immediately after the shooting, and to participate in the investigation process in order to assure everyone that justice will be served. According to Ahmed, there was no comparison between the Kasheh incident and Nagaa Hammadi, because the murders in the former were committed during a rally attended by hundreds, which led to difficulty in proving who did it. But in Nagaa Hammadi, there is a clear and specific case in which the defendants and their weapons are respectively known and confiscated, in addition to the defendants' confessions and the witnesses' statements. Amany El-Taweel compared Nagaa Hammadi to what happened in Detroit. She wrote in the independent daily Nahdet Masr that on both occasions, celebrating Christ's birth was an occasion for killing innocent people. In the US, the Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdel-Muttaleb could have killed more that 300 Americans aboard a US airliner, whereas in Egypt, El-Kammoni committed a crime that spread fear and raised questions about the future of this country. The difference between the two incidents, as El-Taweel added, was in the way officials of both countries dealt with the incident. The US president told his people two days after the incident that there was a communications breakdown within and among US security bodies. As a result the immigration department responsible for granting visas failed to act on the security reports issued in Nigeria about the affiliations of Abdel-Muttaleb. The president chose to deal with his people in a transparent way and acknowledge mistakes. El-Taweel expressed her hope that officials in Egypt would adopt the same transparent way in dealing with the repercussions of Nagaa Hammadi. "We are in dire need of complete transparency and quick investigations in order to reveal to the public the causes of the death of some Copts in front of their church," she wrote. "We need to know who the real criminal is, given that the criminal history of the accused does not indicate they could commit such crimes. We also need to review the performance of the media and the satellite channels after Nagaa Hammadi and other similar incidents because some newspapers published excuses for the accused to commit the crime. Finally, we need to activate the law and not allow anybody who commits such crimes to escape without punishment." The election of a new leader for the Muslim Brotherhood is important for the future of the group and political life in Egypt. Alaa Uraibi asked what the government wants from the group; why it insists on categorising it as an extremist group like Al-Qaeda; whether the government fears the group because of its popularity or its authority; and why it does not seriously consider turning it from an outlawed group into an active political party. In the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Wafd Party, Uraibi said that, "unlike the old days, the Muslim Brotherhood today strongly participates in political and social life, and we meet its members every day in the People's Assembly, local authorities, syndicates and clubs, which means that the current generation of the group has given up its limited thinking and changing the community by force." That change, he added, "should be subjected to study and we should identify the difference between the old ways and the current thinking of the group." Most probably, the Muslim Brotherhood is different from Al-Qaeda or any other extremist group in terms of its doctrine and jurisdiction. Thus, it would be better if the government encouraged it to work in the light and be subjected to the law instead of leaving it to militants who could take the group back to the mentality of ignorance. "What is the danger," asked Uraibi, "if it becomes a party with a political, not a religious agenda?" Trading in antiquities is illegal, but one Egyptian MP, an iron magnate, wants to give it the green light. "This MP is thinking of leaving the iron business and turning to us." In the Egyptian daily Al-Wafd
