Residents of Cairo's poverty-stricken Imbaba neighborhood have condemned the deadly clashes in their neighborhood last weekend. They said the people who incited the clashes which left 13 dead and over 200 injured, as well as a church in ashes, were not from Imbaba. Hafez Abu-Seida, a member of a fact-finding committee tasked with investigating the incident, said the committee's visit to Imbaba revealed many bleak aspects. On the popular television program ‘10pm,' he said around 2,000 Salafis had gathered in front of St. Mina Church while 500 Coptic Christians rallied inside. The Salafis, a hard-line Islamic sect, went to the church because a Muslim woman named Abeer said she was being held against her will in the church after her family discovered she converted to Islam. Suheir Lotfi, another committee member, said she found an excessive presence of Islamists from various groups in Imbaba, including Salafis, members of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Jihad, and others. She blamed the incident in part on the densely-populated nature of the neighborhood, where rumors can spread rapidly without justification. Abu-Seida raised the necessity of detecting who started the shooting. He described the owner of a nearby café as a big mystery after detecting his affiliation to the dissolved formerly ruling National Democratic Party. He added that the streets are full of broken bottles used in violent clashes the church witnessed. He confirmed that extremists in Imbaba are still trying to create religious and sectarian tension. Abu-Seida said the committee found that extremists and thugs were involved in burning the Virgin Mary Church. The committee said the thugs ordered all the shops in the street closed and then divided themselves into two groups. The first group intimidated residents by firing shots into the air and preventing them from defending the church. The second group was to burn the church. Abu-Seida described the actions as criminal and aimed to create chaos. Lotfi said some of Imbaba's residents responded to the incitement and religious provocation. She also said Copts have faced similar situations in the past, and were prepared to face any armed clashes. She questioned whether the café owner involved in the shooting would be dealt with by police as an aggressor or someone acting in self defense. Abu-Seida said the neighborhood's economic and social position, high population and traffic problems allowed the incident to occur, as well as the absence of Al-Azhar's influence in the area to respond to cases of hatred or misunderstanding and lack of acceptance between different religious groups. He said implementation of law is necessary to treat such crises.
