CAIRO - Pope Shenouda III, the head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, has said that the Coptic community will not forget the blood of two men, who died during the violence in el-Omraniya, Giza Governorate last month. During his weekly sermon on Wednesday evening, the Pope insisted that the Church will do its best to bring justice to the victims and punish the perpetrators. "Coptic blood is not cheap," Shenouda was quoted by the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) as saying. On November 24, violence broke out between hundreds of Copts and policemen after the construction of a church in el-Omraniya was ordered to be stopped, due to the lack of a proper building permit. The violence led to the death of two Copts. "We will do our best to punish those who killed the two Copts in Omraniya," the Patriarch stressed. Police clashed with Christians first at the site where the church is being constructed in the early hours of the morning and then several hours later, when a mob of hundreds assaulted the Giza Governor's office in retaliation. Coptic Christians make up about 10 per cent of Egypt's population of 80 million. They complain frequently of discrimination, though they generally live in peace with the Muslim majority, with tension and violence occasionally flaring, especially over the limits on church building.
