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| Coptic Christians Protest |
Reports like this always leave me feeling
shocked. Is it really possible that this can still be happening in the 21st
Century? Read the story for yourself at source here
or read it below.
Coptic Christian protesters clashed with
security forces in Cairo yesterday, in a night that left at least 24 people
dead and more than 200 injured as shooting broke out and cars were set on fire,
according to news reports.
Several hundred Egyptian Christians
protesting a recent attack on a church came under assault by people in plain
clothes who fired pellets at them and pelted them with stones, according to the
Associated Press. Some protesters may have snatched weapons from soldiers and
turned them on the military, in addition to throwing rocks and bottles, the AP
reported.
The death toll from the violence was at
least 24, the AP reported, citing a health ministry official. Egypt’s military
deployed more than 1,000 security forces and armored vehicles along the Nile
where clashes began, AP said. Protests continued late into the night with the
military imposing a curfew until 7 a.m. local time in central Cairo, Agence
France-Presse reported.
Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said in a
televised speech that the clashes were “unjustified violence” that “raised fear
and concerns about the future of this homeland” and the country’s transition to
democracy.
Protesters set military vehicles on fire as
soldiers fired into the air to disperse the Coptic Christians, who were
protesting the demolition of a church in Aswan, Egypt, last week, Al Jazeera
reported. The church in southern Egypt was demolished Oct. 1, according to
Shorouk News, the website of the Egyptian newspaper El-Shorouk.
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