Islamists Drive Cairo Church Shut Down

Hundreds of Muslims, angered by the prospect of a government-closed church re-opening in their neighborhood, protested outside the church yesterday, causing the provisional military authority to back away from its promise to allow Orthodox clergy to reopen it.

Protesters started gathering on Thursday afternoon outside the Church of the Virgin Mary and St. Abraam in Ain Shams, a poor section of northeastern Cairo. The church was scheduled to reopen that day, but protestors surrounded the building, preventing anyone from getting into it and trapping priests who were inside.

Several people were injured in fights between the Copts and the Muslims. Protestors threw rocks at each other, according a witness. One Coptic bystander was seriously injured, another witness said, when he took out a cell phone camera to record the protest and a group of Muslims surrounded and beat him. Several Copts were arrested, according to church officials.

It was unknown if any of the Muslim protesters have been arrested.

Peter Rizq, a lay minister at the church, said he, the priests and others trapped in the building found a way to sneak to safety after Muslims threatened to kill the head priest of the congregation.

“He [the priest] told us, ‘We need to go home now,’” Rizq said. “He told us we couldn’t stay any longer in the church because it would cause more problems.”

The men left the church building one by one, but some of them were later arrested and charged with illegal possession of weapons, a charge Rizq said was untrue.

Intimidation
This is the second time the church has been closed because of local Muslim opposition. Three years ago, in November 2008, Egypt’s State Security Intelligence service closed the church building after a group of protesting Muslims blocked the entrance.

Prior to their attempts to open the church building, members of the congregation held meetings in two rented apartments. Eventually the congregation gathered donations and bought a plot of land with a building, converting the inside of it into a worship place. Other than signs outside the building, there were none of the structures traditionally associated with a Coptic Orthodox church, such as crosses or domes.

Problems started soon after the renovations began. A group of Muslims bought a piece of land across from the church building and hastily started constructing a mosque. When the mosque was still unfinished, the Muslims blocked access to the church building; on the day it was scheduled to open, they placed prayer mats in front of the makeshift mosque, extending the rows to the entrance of the church.

The church building has been closed since the confrontation in 2008.

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