CAIRO: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Saturday that his government would do all they can to protect the country's Christian minority after last week's threats by the international terror group Al-Qaida. He told the state-run MENA news agency that security was being bolstered across the country to ensure safety for Christians in the country. According to reports, security has beefed up patrols around all churches in Cairo and other governorates in the country to deter any potential al-Qaida attack. Last week, an al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq said it was giving Egyptian Coptic Christians 48-hours to release two women it said the Church was holding after they had allegedly converted to Islam. The ministry of interior told Bikya Masr on Wednesday morning that all churchgoers would be searched upon entering any house of worship. “This is a precaution because we want to protect our citizens from any attack against a religious institution,” said an interior ministry official on condition of anonymity. Across the country, trucks have been stationed outside churches and dozens of security personnel were stationed around church entrances following the attack on a church in Iraq that left dozens dead and scores injured. Mubarak told Pope Shenouda III in a phone call that he rejected “pushing Egypt's name into the terrorist act that targeted a church in Baghdad,” MENA reported. “The president affirmed his extensive solicitude for the protection of the nation's sons, Muslims and Copts, from the forces of terrorism and extremism,” it added. An official said security has been tightened around Coptic churches. In an online audio tape released by the Islamic State of Iraq referred to two priests' wives who left their homes in separate incidents and who were rumored to have converted to Islam before police escorted them back. The Coptic church has denied they had converted to Islam. Leading Egyptian Muslim figures denounced al-Qaida's threats late last week, saying Egypt will not be bullied by terrorists. Leading the charge against the radical and violent international terror organization is the country's most popular opposition movement the Muslim Brotherhood. The group said on its website that Muslims must do all they can to protect Christian houses of worship after an al-Qaida group in Iraq threatened to blow up churches in Egypt. “The Muslim Brotherhood is stressing to all, and primarily Muslims, that the protection of holy places of all monotheistic religions is the mission of the majority of Muslims,” the group said in a statement on its website late on Tuesday. The chief of Egypt's Al-Azhar, the oldest Islamic seat of learning, said on Tuesday that such threats served only to “undermine national unity.” “This is something to be rejected and strongly denounced, and it serves none but those who want to spark discord and target national unity,” said the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb. He condemned what he described as “heinous” hostage-taking, which left dozens of Christians dead after security forces stormed the church. It is unclear where the women, if at all, are being held. Earlier this year, a wife of a Coptic priest allegedly converted to Islam and fled from her Upper Egypt home to Cairo, but was later “returned” to her husband by police after the church said she was kidnapped. Her status is unknown. Christians in Egypt account for approximately 10 percent of the population and the majority of those Christians are Coptic Christians – the first Christian church dating back to the second century. BM
