Around 250 Coptic Christians gathered in front of Cairo's Court of Cassation Wednesday to call for the immediate release of Christians detained during the rioting that followed the 6 January Naga Hammadi slayings, which claimed the lives of six Christians and one Muslim. Organized by 16 international organizations, according to protesters and the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organizations (EUHRO), the demonstration began at noon and lasted for almost one hour. Protesters carried pictures of the slain next to banners reading, "Who incited the murder of our sons?" and "We demand the release of Naga Hammadi detainees." Police officers cordoned off protesters to limit their numbers--granting access only to journalists and media personnel--as angry demonstrators shouted, "Tell whoever sits in the palace that we're the ones protecting Egypt," in a veiled reference to President Hosni Mubarak. EUHRO head Naguib Gebrael told Al-Masry Al-Youm that he planned to go to the general prosecutor's office with 12 other organizations "to call for the immediate release of the Christians and Muslims detained after the Naga Hammadi incident." One protester said: "We were killed, our houses burnt. Why is that? Is it just because we're Christians? Where's the justice?" Fawzia Aziz Gerguis, a lawyer taking part in the protest, voiced similar sentiments. "The 15 detainees should be released," she said. "Our country is becoming another Lebanon." Gerguis expressed uncertainty, however, that the protest would result in any real pressure on authorities to release the detainees. "Although I love the president very much, and I know he isn't a fanatic, I think he should have visited Naga Hammadi and supported the people there--like what he did for the people affected by last month's floods." According to human rights activist Sherif Ramzy, "Every official in this country should know that Egyptian Copts have ended their silence." As the protest wound down, Gebrael declared that the attorney general had promised to release the detainees, but that it "might take some time for release procedures to be implemented." "We need a stamped and signed statement from the attorney general," one protestor commented. On the same day, a small forum at the Socialist Horizons cultural salon in downtown Cairo saw writer Nabil Zaki, Coptic thinker Samir Morcos and anti- discrimination activist Emad Attiya rage against legal and educational mores that they believe serve to widen the rift between Muslims and Christians. "Did we need Naga Hammadi as a wake-up call for us intellectuals?" asked Attiya. "The warning signs have always been there, including religious bigotry and the flaunting of religious symbols." According to panel speakers, at least 120 documented cases of violence against Copts took place between 1972 and 2009, which they presented as evidence of the state's failure to adequately deal with religious sectarianism. "Fifty days have passed since Naga Hammadi and the government has showed no intention of moving towards a solution to the problem," said Zaki, who is also head political officer of the leftist Tagammu opposition party. "All we're hearing is that sectarianism is non-existent; that the Naga Hammadi incident was just a 'normal crime'; and that those who committed it were simply avenging the honor of an innocent girl." Immediately after the bloody incident, the Interior Ministry tied the shooting to the alleged rape of a Muslim girl by a Christian man, currently on trial, in a village a few kilometers from Naga Hammadi. The ministry stated at the time that the shooting had "merely been an act of vengeance" and had not been sectarian in nature. "What they're trying to do [by linking the crime to honor and rape] is lessen the impact of this hate crime for Egyptians," said Zaki. "By ignoring sectarianism, the government is playing with fire. It's no secret that the dominant ideology is one of hate and intolerance." "It also reflects the state of the region, where Christians are being driven out of Muslim-dominated countries in the Arab World, such as Iraq and Palestine," he added. "The covert message is the same: convert to Islam or leave." Zaki went on to offer a list of solutions, including the passage of laws aimed at punishing those who incite hatred and regulating the building and restoration of churches. "The current draft bill on the construction of religious edifices isn't good enough, because there are no problems with mosques," he said. "It's the churches that face hurdles--you practically have to get official permission to fix a toilet." Morcos traced the role of the government in regulating Muslim-Christian relations down through history, saying that the best case scenario for both faith groups would be a state that insisted on "putting into effect the principles of equal citizenship." "Currently, there are only three options open to the state: to be Islamic; sectarian, based on giving each community a certain quota, like Lebanon; or to be rooted in equal citizenship. The Muslim Brotherhood [opposition movement] doesn't have to come to power for the state to be Islamic--the process can start from the bottom up, from the grassroots, and this is what's happening now," he said. "A sect-based state is one in which each group in the community, especially minorities, are given their demands, and there's a quota that regulates their participation and a representative who carries their demands to the higher authorities." "But with a state based on equal citizenship, there's unity between the people, regardless of their personal differences," added Morcos, "which is what Egypt should strive to become."
