Egyptian Copts feel ignored, sidelined and neglected
Reuters
Saturday 27 April 2013
CAIRO: Egypt's Christians feel sidelined, ignored and neglected by Muslim Brotherhood-led authorities, who proffer assurances but have taken little or no action to protect them from violence, Coptic Pope Tawadros II said.
In his first interview since emerging from seclusion after eight people were killed in sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians this month, the pope called official accounts of clashes at Cairo's Coptic cathedral on April 7 "a pack of lies."
He also voiced dismay at attempts by President Muhammad Mursi's allies to purge thousands of judges appointed under ousted President Hosni Mubarak, saying the judiciary was a pillar of Egyptian society and should not be touched.
"There is a sense of marginalization and rejection, which we can call social isolation," the pope told Reuters of the feelings of Christians, who he said make up at least 15 percent of Egypt's 84 million people.
Asked about the government's response to this month's attacks, he said: "It made a bad judgment and it was negligent... I would have expected better security for the place and the people."
Mursi and his ministers tried to mend fences with the 60-year-old Coptic pontiff after the April 5 clashes in the town of El Khusus, north of Cairo, in which four Christians and one Muslim were killed.
Sectarian violence spread to the capital's sprawling St. Mark's Cathedral, the pope's headquarters, after the funerals. "Sometimes we get nice feelings from officials, but such feelings require actions, and the actions are slow, and maybe little, and sometimes don't exist at all," the pope said.
The black-robed pontiff was particularly scathing about an account of the cathedral violence posted on the Facebook page of Mursi's national security adviser, Essam Haddad.
"It is 100 percent rejected," Tawadros said. "This statement was in English, directed to the US State Department, and was sent with a CD to explain their position and to cover up, but this statement is a pack of lies. It did not tell the truth."
Haddad's office said Christians had instigated the clashes by vandalizing cars outside the cathedral during the funeral procession, and that firearms and petrol bombs had been used from inside the church compound, provoking the security forces.
A Reuters witness saw at least two people carrying guns and petrol bombs on the roof of the cathedral that day, but the pope said mourners had merely been reacting to an assault.
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