Salafist leaders celebrate ceath of Coptic Pope in Egypt

As Christians across Egypt continued to mourn the loss of Pope Shenouda III t, Islamist leaders of the Salafist movement issued a litany of insults, calling the late leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church the “head of the infidels” and thanking God for his death.

The vitriol indicated the level of hostility the Salafists, who now make up 20 percent of Egypt’s parliament, have toward Christians. In a recorded message released on the Facebook page of one leading Salafi teacher, Sheik Wagdy Ghoneim, the sheik celebrated the pontiff’s death.

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Egypt Pope orders first post-revolution count of Christian population

AHRAMONLINE

Egypt’s Pope Shenouda III has ordered a census of the country’s entire Christian population to be conducted through committees accountable to the Church.

The Church’s census will for the first time include all the Christian denominations in Egypt, not just the Coptic Orthodox, which constitutes the largest Christian denomination in Egypt.

It will also be the first in post-revolution Egypt. Prior to the uprising, there were significant differences between government estimates of the Coptic population and those of the Church.

An unofficial census, conducted by a number of Christian organisations in cooperation with the Church, published figures on Sunday showing the entire Christian population of Egypt neared 17 million, around 20 per cent of the population.

The latest government estimates of the Egyptian Christian population stated they made up around 4 per cent (around 3.3 million) of the total population of around 83 million."
 

Pope Shenouda mulls canceling Christmas celebrations

Pope Shenouda ended his spiritual mediation at St. Bishoy Monastery in Wadi Notroun to go back to the Cathedral's headquarters in Abbasiya on Sunday, meanwhile mulling whether or not to cancel Coptic Christmas celebrations.

Some church leaders requested that the Jan. 7 Coptic Christmas celebrations be cancelled after the bombing of a church in Alexandria that left 21 dead and 97 injured.

The Pope met on Sunday the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa and Minister of Religious Endowments Hamdy Zaqzouq.

The Pope has not yet made a final decision regarding Christmas celebrations, while some church leaders think it is necessary to hold the celebration on time.

"The Pope will meet with church officials to address the incident and to reach a final decision regarding the cancellation of the celebrations," the sources added.

Bishop Basanti of Helwan and Maasara told Daily News Egypt that there is a disagreement among church leaders over the possible cancellation.

"The Pope is investigating the matter, and he will take the final decision."

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Egyptian state-run media defames Coptic Pope

A recently published column in the state-run daily al-Ahram newspaper carried an unprecedented attack on Egypt's patriarch, Pope Pope Shenouda III, the Coptic Church, and the Copts in general. The column entitled "2010 Copts," by Abdel-Nasser Salama, an obscure journalist, appeared on December 6; it accused Pope Shenouda of having instigated sectarian tension in Egypt ever since he became Pope in 1971, by introducing into the Egyptian society "terms such as sectarianism, sectarian strife, citizenship and the resort to foreign powers for support."

Salama accused Pope Shenouda of giving a speech in 1973 to the congregation in Alexandria in which he said, according to Salama, "the number of Christians in Egypt will be at par with the number of Muslims by the year 2000, according to the plan the church is implementing, described in the speech." In addition Salama claimed that the Pope allegedly called for "expelling the 'Muslim invaders' from Egypt".

The Chief editor of Coptic Newspaper Watani, Youssef Sidhom, wrote an editorial on December 12, blaming al-Ahram's editorial executives of allowing an article with such offensive and undocumented material to be published. "The column cited 'information which it claimed was historical fact and which 'proved' that Copts have been for decades acting in a treacherous manner against their homeland." Sidhom added that "it takes no effort to determine that the so-called 'information' is entirely groundless; its only base is in the writer's imagination."

"The issue this time is highly sensitive," said Dr. Gabraeel in an interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm. "It's not a writer accusing the Copts of something; it's the official newspaper of the state launching an attack on the church's spiritual leader, Pope Shenouda III, who is a symbol for millions of Copts in and outs Egypt."

Dr. Naguib Gabraeel, who is head of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organization (EUHRO), filed a complaint on December 8 with the General Persecution Office, accusing al-Ahram of defaming Pope Shenouda III. The complaint included libel, false reporting, undermining social security and inciting sectarian unrest.

Salama said Copts are being "pampered" and "coddled" by the state, referring to the Incident of St. Mary and St.Michel Church in Omraniya on November 24 and the ensuing Coptic protests against halting their church construction, and the precedent of security forces opening fire on Coptic protesters, resulting in 4 Coptic fatalities, 79 injured and 157 Coptic detainees including women, teens and children as young as 11-years-old.

Several writers touched on the point of the state

's pampering and coddling of Copts and whether this was consistent with the different massacres of Copts such as el-Kosheh and the Christmas Eve Massacre in Nag Hammadi in 2010, the frequent torching of Copts' homes, looting of their property, displacement from their villages, abductions and forced Islamization of the minor girls and lack of freedom for worship.

Salama accused church officials of planning and staging the demonstrations in Omrania by bringing over youth from Upper Egypt for this purpose, and of aiming their aggression at police officers who were allegedly injured.

"How did our clergy plan these demonstrations when the Governor of Giza's secretary visited the premises and told the congregation on November 23 that the church permit has been changed," said Yacoub, "and congratulated them on the new church. This was on the evening of the surprise attack on them by security forces"

"The large amount of Molotov cocktails seized from the protesters, raises the question about the presence of weapons in churches," Mr. Salama wrote. The accusation of the Coptic church stockpiling weapons was claimed by Islamist Dr. El-Awa on September 15, during an interview of Al-Jezeera TV Channel.

Attorney Adel Mikhail, defense lawyer, confirmed that according to police reports, " no trace of Molotov cocktails whatsoever was found on the 157 detained demonstrators or any kind of weapons seized from them." He said that the detainees said that they never took part in the protestes but were picked up at ramdom and arrested by the police.

Mr. Salama said that the stance adopted by Pope Shenouda of non-condemnationn of the Copts involved in the recent attack "is quiet surprising and confirms that matters ought to be firmly resolved."

Pope Shenouda III, denounced what he described as the "excessive use of force against Coptic protesters", and announced that the Copts will not forget the blood of those who died during the church incident on November 24, adding "Power should be used to serve the people, not for violence. Violence only generates counter-violence."

During his weekly sermon on Wednesday December 8, the pope vowed that the church will do its best to bring justice to the victims even if it meant going to court, adding that "Coptic blood is not cheap"

Al-Ahram Editor in Chief Osama Saraya's apologized to Pope Shenouda on a front-page editorial on December 8 and the Church accepted his apologies and said it will not take legal action against the paper.

Copts were not satisfied , however, with this apology, viewing that Saraya highlighted the good qualities of Pope Shenouda, but did not refer to the other claims in the article. "On the contrary Saraya protected Salama by finding excuses for him," said Yacoub.

It was reported on December 11, that the Chairman of al-Ahram has stopped Abdel Nasser Salama from writing his column every Monday.

The majority of Coptic observers believe that this defamatory article would not have seen the light of day had it not been instigated by the State Security authorities. "What Salama has written was not a random article," said Dr. Gabraeel "The words reflect the government's policy of not only marginalizing the Copts, but of also degrading them."

Al-Ahram claims: “Pope Shenouda III called for expelling the ‘Muslim invaders’” from Egypt.”

Egyptian Coptic activists filed a complaint on Wednesday with the General Persecution Office accusing state-run daily Al-Ahram of defaming Pope Shenouda III, head of Egypt’s Coptic Church, and inflaming sectarian tensions.

The move comes after Al-Ahram published a column on Monday that carried an unprecedented attack on Pope Shenouda III.

“We went to the General Prosecution Office in order to stop the attack on Copts and their spiritual leader by Al-Ahram,” Coptic Church lawyer Naguib Gebraeel told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Gabriel’s complaint accuses the government broadsheet of libel, false reporting, the undermining of social stability, and incitement of sectarian unrest.

In his weekly column, Al-Ahram journalist Abdel Nasser Salama held Shenouda accountable for inciting sectarian hatred between Muslims and Christian for the last four decades.

“Concepts such as sectarianism, citizenship and the resort to foreign powers for support only began circulating in popular discourse when Shenouda assumed the papacy in 1971,” Salama wrote.

Shenouda became the 117th pope of the Egyptian Coptic Church in November, 1971.

Salama claims that the pope told a Coptic congregation in 1973 that, “By the year 2000, the number of Christians will be equal to that of Muslims, according to the plan the church is implementing.”

Coptic Christians are said to account for roughly 10 percent of Egypt’s population of some 80 million.

In the same address, Salama went on to write, the pope also “called for expelling the ‘Muslim invaders’” from Egypt.

According to Gebraeel, such statements amount to defamation.

“These accusations are illegal since they defame someone and make claims about things that never happened,” he said. “I repeat–this alleged address by Pope Shenouda III is a fiction.”

Coptic Bishop Sergius Sergius issued a statement on Tuesday accusing the writer of “agitating the state against the church.”

“The issue this time is highly sensitive,” said Gabraeel. “It’s not a writer accusing the Copts of something; it’s the official newspaper of the state launching an attack on the church’s spiritual leader. Pope Shenouda III represents a symbol for millions of Copts inside and outside Egypt.”

Al-Ahram, Egypt’s most widely-read state newspaper, published the article in its Monday print edition. It also ran the article on its website before abruptly removing it.

Al-Masry Al-Youm failed to obtain a reaction to the legal complaint from Al-Ahram. Al-Ahram Editor-in-Chief Osama Saraya acknowledged on the front page of the Wednesday edition that Salam had been “out of line,” but had only been motivated by his fears of rising sectarian tension.

Saraya added that Shenouda represented “a national symbol for all Egyptians” and was therefore “beyond being evaluated by anybody.”

Salam in his article also accused church officials of recently planning and staging demonstrations in northern Cairo in which several police officers were injured and two Coptic protesters were killed. “The huge number of Molotov cocktails thrown in the Omraniya church riot shows that churches can be used for stockpiling weapons.”

Shenouda denounced what he described as the excessive use of force against Christian protesters, who clashed with security forces after authorities halted construction of a local church. Along with two Coptic fatalities, 157 were arrested, while church property suffered significant material damage.

Last September, prominent Islamic scholar Selim al-Awah accused Egyptian Copts of maintaining their own armed militia and stocking arms and ammunition in the country’s monasteries and churches. These and similar remarks caused public uproar among Copts.

The church quickly dismissed the allegations, describing them as “false and baseless” and aimed at igniting sectarian strife.

Several Islamic groups, meanwhile, have staged demonstrations against the pope in various cities across Egypt, accusing the church of detaining a Christian woman who they allege attempted to convert to Islam. The church has denied the allegations, going on to hint that the state had turned a blind eye to the demonstrations.

“What was written was not a random article,” said Gebraeel in reference to Salama’s article. “The words reflect the government’s policy of not only marginalizing the Copts, but of also degrading them.”

On Sunday, Shenouda refrained from casting a ballot in Egypt’s parliamentary run-offs in a move that some experts believe signaled his growing disappointment with the ruling regime of President Hosni Mubarak.

In the first round of polling, Shenouda voted for the liberal opposition Wafd Party, clearly expressing frustration with the Mubarak regime. Previously, Shenouda had always called on Copts to vote for Mubarak’s National Democratic Party (NDP).

Egypt’s Coptic minority has traditionally sided with the NDP, which, say some observers, it looks to for protection.