“Give us back our
church,” shouted some 8,000 people, Copts and Muslims together, in front
of Egyptian TV, as they called for the rebuilding of Saints Minas and
George Church, which was destroyed by fire last Saturday by a group of
Muslims.
Fr Rafik Greiche, head of the press office of the Catholic Church of Egypt and spokesman for seven Catholic denominations, told AsiaNews
that “for the first time Coptic Christians gathered outside Cairo’s
Saint Mark’s Cathedral for a show of strength and signal their desire to
be present in society and change the constitution.”
The place was
chosen because various TV studios are located near Tahrir Square, which
has come to symbolise the protests that brought down the Mubarak regime.
For Fr Greiche, this shows that Christians are more
conscious of what they can do. “With this demonstration, they wanted to
show that they can take to the street and find support in the Muslim
community.
In fact, they were able to convince Prime Minister Essam
Sharaf to meet a delegation of a thousand Copts, and get a promise out
of him to rebuild the church immediately.”
“Videos from the demonstration show Muslim women
wearing the hijab along with Christian women, calling together on the
army to rebuild the church,” the priest said.
“Images such as these, of
Muslims standing side by side with Christians, are a sign of the
equality between the faiths that came out of the Jasmine Revolution,
which brought together hundreds of thousands of young people from both
religions under the same flag,” he explained.
“During the uprising,
Christians and Muslims showed that they were truly one heart in their
country.”
Nevertheless, Islamic fundamentalism remains a major
danger to the country. Organised extremist groups like the Muslim
Brotherhood are trying to take advantage of the situation of chaos to
impose a radical version of Islam and implement Sharia in Egyptian
society.
“Many imams are opposed to changes to Article 2 of the
constitution, which says that the principal source of legislation is
Islamic Jurisprudence (Sharia). Right from the beginning of the unrest,
religious leaders said they would accept changes only to those articles
that affected the government and parliament, but not those that involved
Sharia.”
Many of these leaders belong to the same fundamentalist Muslim
groups that include Muslim radicals who escaped from Mubarak’s
political prisons.
“The fire at the Coptic church in Soul occurred in a
rural area not far from the capital,” the clergyman said.
“It was
provoked by a family feud between a Muslim and a Christian family.”
Local muslims used the dispute to exercise the right
of vengeance, which is rooted in Muslim society, in order to demolish
the church and force 7,000 Christians out of their homes.
“Even though the army pledged that it would rebuild
the church on its original site, some Muslims do not want it in their
village, and are trying to have it moved to another location. This goes
to show the real intent behind the attack, namely the desire to get rid
of the church from the village. It also suggests that for some
Christian-Muslim disputes can only be settled by moving a church to
another place.”
According to Fr Greiche, the only good thing that has
come out from the Jasmine Revolution is equality between Christians and
Muslims. In a situation of instability, it can stop extremists from
imposing Sharia as the source of Egyptian law.
“Western governments can put pressure on our
government to recognise the value of equality in society,” he said.
“Muslims and Christians together carried out the revolution. There were
martyrs on both sides. The West must let any future government realise
that a new country can be built by making a small change to Article 2 of
the constitution.”