29/10/2013

The opinions of those who clamor about protecting the “gains of the revolution” and who are thus dead set against any regulation of protests are clearly at odds with the terrible reality of our streets. Recently we saw maddening protests sweeping Al-Azhar University, in which the participants hurled insults at the army as well as at Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb.

Any insult to the army, which defends the country, and the grand imam, who is the face of tolerant Islam, is distasteful to the extreme. But what is even more distasteful is that some people, posing as champions of the revolution, would reject a law that aims to bring sense to where and how the public right to demonstrate can be exercised.

I am also bewildered by the desire, expressed by some of our enthusiastic youth, to postpone the passage of the law until after parliamentary elections. I simply cannot see a reason for us to leave this country vulnerable to protests that claim to be peaceful but rarely are.

Another thing I find truly disturbing is the continuation of heinous assaults on Christians and their churches. The assaults clearly aim at fomenting sectarian strife.

Last week, the nation watched in horror as a church in al-Warraq came under bloody attack. Nothing is more painful to Muslims and Christians in this country than seeing innocent churchgoers subjected to such atrocities. The cruel individuals who saw fit to cut short the lives of Camellia and the child Maryam have not only hurt their families, but every single family in this country. The shots that mowed down others, including the muslim Mohammad Ibrahim, were intended for all of us.

The Christians, in the midst of this horror, have remained typically and saintly stoic. Led in prayers by Pope Tawadros II and Rev. Justus of al-Warraq Church, the Christians didn’t blame the police, or even the Muslims, but only the criminals who crave hatred and believe only in bloodshed.

May God bless Egypt and its people and church, and keep us all united in the face of such horrors.

Translated from Al Yom 7