President Honsi Mubarak called on intellectuals “wise People” in Egypt on Thursday to stave off sedition after six Copts were killed in a drive-by shooting in Southern Egypt earlier this month. "The intellectuals of this nation are asked to combat sedition after the Naga Hammadi incident, which broke the hearts of Egyptian Muslims and Copts," Mubarak said in an address marking the Science Day in Cairo Thursday. “Despite the instructions for an urgent arrest of those who committed this heinous crime, the wise Egyptians and the media should play a role in uprooting sedition, ignorance, fanaticism and sectarianism, which jeopardises the unity of our nation," he added. Six Coptic Christians and a Muslim guard were killed by three tugs in the Upper Egyptian city of Naga Hammadi, Qena Governorate on the Christmas Eve on January 6. The Egyptian authorities said the attack was an individual criminal act and that it had nothing to do with sectarianism. "We seek to build a civil society that has no place for those who mingle religion with politics or politics with religion, a society that never differentiates between a Muslim and a Copt," Mubarak. The Naga Hammadi attack was the worst to target Christians in nearly a decade, and shocked Egypt's Christian community. Copts make up most of 8 million Christians in this country of 80 million people. The nation's Prosecutor General Abdel Magid Mahmoud said last week the three Muslims accused of gunning down the six Christians would stand trial before an emergency security court on February 13. He added in a statement that they faced Charges of premeditated murder aimed at harming national interests. The killings drew criticisim from the European Union, the US and Egyptian Copts abroad.
