In the absence of firm political and social action, the events in Imbaba may not be the last episodes of sectarian strife, writes Dina Ezzat "This is our church. We pray here, and we had our children baptised here. We go to seek solace in this church during difficult times, and we thank God there for the good things he has given us. This is the church where I intend to have my funeral. Why did they have to burn it," asked a composed but clearly angry Karima. Speaking from her house in the Imbaba district of Cairo, only a five-minute walk from the Church of the Virgin Mary, Karima expressed subdued but deeply felt grief over the attack against the church that took place on Saturday evening as part of a broader wave of sectarian violence that hit this popular district. The wave was part of an apparently never- ending series of rumours of Christian women said to have converted to Islam and then held against their will by their families in one church or another. Two weeks ago, hundreds of Salafis demonstrated next to the Coptic Cathedral in Abbasiya in Cairo, demanding the release of Camilia, another Coptic woman who supposedly had converted to Islam a few years ago, again to escape a marriage. On Saturday, the fate of Camilia was supposed to have been settled when the woman herself appeared on a Christian TV channel to announce that she was a Copt and would always remain a Copt. She was also living with her husband, she said, a Coptic clergymen. However, the account she gave appeared suspicious to many, with some suggesting that the woman on TV was not Camilia but was instead a Camilia look-alike. Hours later, an angry man was screaming in front of a coffee shop in Imbaba, asking for help in order to release a woman who had originally been a Copt but had converted to Islam. What followed was "terrifying", a word used by many residents of Imbaba, whether Copts or Muslims. A group of men, some of them looking like Salafis and others merely like thugs, ran towards the nearby Mar Mina Church, vowing to rescue the woman, apparently called Abeer. According to accounts given by residents to the Weekly on Sunday evening, another group of men, mostly Coptic merchants of Upper Egyptian origin, many of them armed, followed the original group. One man, anticipating that the crowd would attack the church, fired his gun. What happened next was just as terrifying, but even more bloody. Violence erupted and swiftly spread, with angry Muslim men moving from the Mar Mina Church to the Church of the Virgin Mary some 15 minutes away. Then, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly, most of whom were Muslim, other men, some Salafis, other thugs, ran into the second church, set it on fire, and destroyed copies of the Bible, shouting "Proud to be Muslim". By midnight on Saturday, the original call of a Muslim man for help in releasing his wife supposedly taken prisoner by her Coptic family in the Mar Mina Church had left around 15 dead and close to 240 wounded. Worst of all, it had left Imbaba, a run-down district with reservoirs of poverty and fanaticism, a battleground of Coptic-Muslim polarisation. "I know the family of one of the Coptic victims, but I cannot go to express my condolences. The whole matter is very sensitive. The perception is that it was Muslims, not fanatics or criminals, who attacked the church," said Essam, a resident of Imbaba. This perception was confirmed by Rami, a Coptic resident of Imbaba. "I don't know about Salafis or not Salafis. All I know is that it was a group of Muslims who attacked the church," he said. Rami's reading of the situation was not influenced by events on Saturday night alone. "You tell me if this is the first church that has been attacked. Did you hear about the Two Saints Church in Alexandria? Did you hear about Omraniya and Atfeeh? Did you hear about Naga Hammadi," he asked. Over the past two years, several Coptic Orthodox churches in Egypt have come under attack. In January 2010, six worshippers were killed as they left Christmas mass in the Upper Egyptian town of Naga Hammadi by a thug hired to avenge the reluctance of the city's Coptic community to vote for a member of the former ruling National Democratic Party. Later the same year, a wave of violence occurred over the construction of a church in Giza without government approval. On New Year's Eve earlier this year, the Two Saints Church in Alexandria was attacked as worshippers were attending midnight mass. A few months later, another church was demolished by angry Muslim crowds in Atfeeh, a Middle Egyptian village. Such attacks on churches have prompted Muslim activists to form human shields around the country's churches during religious holidays. "I know that the first shot came from our people, but can you blame us," asked Nadi, one of hundreds of Copts protesting in front of the Television Building in Cairo. "Have we not been under attack? The state is not defending us, so we have to defend ourselves." Like other Copts who had joined the demonstrations, Nadi thinks that "it is not just churches that are under attack in Egypt. It is also Copts." Like many others, Nadi called for "international intervention to make sure that the Egyptian government respects the rights of Copts to live in peace and to worship in peace." "The Islamists, call them Salafis, extremists, Muslim Brotherhood or any other name, don't want us here. But this is our country, and if we cannot defend ourselves because we are a minority we need help from the outside," Nadi said. Medhat, another demonstrator, was opposed to calls for international intervention. Although he was convinced that "Copts are under attack," he said that international intervention would not solve the problem. "What would solve the problem is to have a law that says in clear language that all Egyptians are equal, and that any Egyptian who dares humiliate another should be punished," he said. Like other Copts who have spoken to the Weekly after the tragic attacks on churches over the past two years, Medhat complained about what he called "anti-Coptic incitement" in some mosques. In Shubra, where he lives, he said that he often heard "Copts being labelled as infidels who cannot be trusted by preachers during Friday prayers." Many Copts are calling for a law to put an end to such slander, while others are demanding laws that will give them a full sense of equal citizenship. Such laws should include the right to build churches and the right to hold senior state posts, some Copts immediately adding that this should not include the presidency, as well as the right to equal freedom to worship. Short of such laws, many argue, the events in Imbaba will not see the end of sectarian strife in the country. "If the state continues to treat us as lesser citizens, then of course misguided Muslims will also do so and worse," said Hani, a resident of Imbaba. The only way out of the present situation, he said, was "to have a civil state in which citizens are treated on merit and as a result of their loyalty to the state and not as a result of their faith." "This is the role of the state -- to make sure that all citizens are equal," he said. Such calls for the state, today the ruling Higher Council of the Armed Forces and interim government, to act promptly to contain growing sectarianism have come from many commentators, Coptic and Muslim alike. Presidential election frontrunners, political commentators, human rights activists and figures from the 25 January Revolution have all called on the state to take the necessary action to stop sectarian polarisation. "I thought the whole idea of sectarianism was behind us. I thought that the bonds created in Tahrir Square during the revolution, when Muslims and Copts joined the call for freedom in this country and when noon prayers were followed by a mass, meant that we were on our way towards a new condition of social cohesion," said Mona, who had taken part in the Tahrir demonstrations. Mona is currently working with a group of activists, both Muslims and Christians, to organise a march next Friday to Imbaba to continue calls for social unity. However, she understands that such a march cannot do much if the leaderships of both communities, Muslim and Christian alike, do not act to halt calls of incitement, which she says "are now coming from both sides". "We are living in a state of acute polarisation, in which you can easily find Christians who think that all Muslims are violent and that Islam is the religion of violence and Muslims who think that Christians are trying to force their demands through using the influence of foreign powers," Mona said. Such ideas would be serious at any time, but they are perhaps particularly serious now that the nation is embarking on the writing of a new constitution and is preparing for parliamentary and presidential elections. "If this kind of polarisation continues, we will not be able to work out a better future. Things will be impossible," Mona said.
