CAIRO – The government of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf is largely responsible for the tragic incidents on Sunday, in which more than 24 people were killed and hundreds seriously injured. Although this beleaguered government was aware that a gale was blowing from the village of Marinab in Edfu, Aswan (after the outbreak of a dispute over a demolished Coptic Orthodox Church property), it carelessly refused to act swiftly and defuse the crisis. The government's inept handling of this dispute between Copts and Muslims in Marinab village was revealed after a renowned judge, Noha el-Zeini, who is a member of the Cabinet's National Justice Committee, submitted her resignation to the Prime Minister. She had resigned in protest at the government refusing to accept the committee's forewarning about the anticipated Sunday violence in front of the Maspero State Radio and Television building on the Cairo Corniche. In its report, which was submitted to the Prime Minister, three days ahead of the deadly incident, the committee said that the dispute over the Church building in Marinab village should be settled legally and officially to defuse the Copts' anger. But it seemed that the Prime Minister was more interested in appeasing striking workers and employees more than millions of outraged Copts. Also seeming sure that the Unified Bill of Places of Worship would fulfill the constitutional principle of citizenship in the case of the Copts, the Premier had apparently kept the bill in the remotest corner of his drawer. It is unfortunate that it was too late in the day when he decided to produce the bill and sincerely promise to put it into force. The dispute in Marinab village erupted when Muslim fundamentalists demolished a building that they alleged was illegally being used as a church. Had the Prime Minister given time to listen to his honest advisers, including Judge Noha el-Zeini, the blood of Egyptian people could have been saved and the nation's unity firmer and more consolidated.
