See preceding page for earlier posts today, 1/11/11.
REGENSBURG ACT 2?
It didn't take long - but it's Egypt that has reacted - or over-reacted - first, rather than Pakistan. First, let us quote what exactly the Pope said yesterday about the situation in Egypt, deliberately creating a crisis situation with the Vatican for no reason:
In Egypt too, in Alexandria, terrorism brutally struck Christians as they prayed in church. This succession of attacks is yet another sign of the urgent need for the governments of the region to adopt, in spite of difficulties and dangers, effective measures for the protection of religious minorities.
What could be a worse expression of bad faith on the part of the Egyptian government than its decision today to 'recall its ambassador to the Vatican' on the basis of the statements above. As if they were just waiting for a pretext to do so, once past the near-miraculous show of Muslim solidarity with the Copts on Orthodox Christmas Day. Was that all propaganda? (Even if I do not doubt that many Muslims who went out of their way to atending midnight Mass with the Copts must have meant it.)
Egypt recalls Vatican envoy
over the Pope's remarks .
by Mona Salem
CAIRO, January 11 (AFP) – Egypt is recalling its Vatican envoy for consultations over remarks by Pope Benedict XVI on Coptic Christians seen as an "interference" in its affairs, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
The action follows "new statements from the Vatican concerning Egypt which are considered by Egypt as unacceptable interference in its internal affairs," the ministry spokesman said in an apparent reference to remarks concerning Copts.
The Pontiff has expressed repeatedly his solidarity with the Copts and called on world leaders to protect them in the aftermath of a New Year's Day church bombing that killed 21 people as worshippers emerged from midnight mass in Alexandria.
A day after the attack on the Al-Qiddissin (The Saints) church, the pope appealed for the "concrete and constant engagement of leaders of nations," in what he termed a "difficult mission."
At his New Year's Day Mass, Benedict underscored that "humanity cannot display resignation in the face of negative forces of selfishness and violence, it cannot get accustomed to conflicts which claim victims and endanger the future of people."
On Sunday Benedict again voiced solidarity with Egypt's Copts -- two days after they marked their Christmas, celebrated on January 7.
"I salute the Coptic faithful present here to whom I renew my expression of closeness," the Pope told thousands of people gathered in Saint Peter's Square.
Benedict has already come under harsh criticism for speaking out for the Copts.
Egypt's top Muslim cleric, Ahmed al-Tayeb, criticised the Pope's call on world leaders to defend the Copts as interference in his country's affairs. [This was on January 2, at which time the Imam seemed like a lone dissident voice in the flood of propaganda in the Egyptian press about Muslim solidarity with the Copts. And on the day of the Orthodox Christmas, the Egyptian rpess even published a statement by the Apostolic Nuncio to Egypt calmly restating everything the Pope had said so far about the Copts' tragedy.
And now, all of a sudden, the government itself is claiming 'interference' for the two sentences he said about the Coptic bombing yesterday???]
"I disagree with the Pope's view, and I ask why did the Pope not call for the protection of Muslims when they were subjected to killings in Iraq?" the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, the oldest Islamic seat of learning and Sunni Muslim authority, told a news conference on January 2.
[And when did the Grand Imam, or any other Muslim leaders, for that matter, last say anything at all about the continuing massacre of Iraqis, mostly Muslims, but also some christians recently, by Islamist terrorists????]
The Vatican immediately rejected the accusation, saying the head of the Roman Catholic Church had shown solidarity with the Coptic community as well as concern for the consequences of the violence for the Christian and Muslim population.
"Therefore we cannot see how the Pope's approach to bring everybody to accept non-violence can be considered meddling," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said at the time.
"I think there are misunderstandings in communication but I don't think we should play up the imam's statement."
Lombardi said the Vatican referred to "an attack against a Christian church and therefore we are concerned about Christian minorities but that does not mean that we will justify or minimise violence against the faithful of other religions.".
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the Alexandria church attack, which came after threats to Egypt's Copts from the Al-Qaeda-linked group in Iraq that claimed an October 31 attack on a Baghdad cathedral.
Copts account for 10 percent of Egypt's mostly Muslim population of 80,000 million, and are the largest Christian community in the Middle East.
online also reports the following:
Less than two weeks since the car-bombing at a Coptic Church in Alexandria that hwas been the worst religious violence in Egypt in recent years, a new day of bloodshed and religious polemics in Egypt.
Sources from Egyptian health and security services confirmed that a Christian was killed by gunshot on a train rid in southern Egypt, with three others wounded in the shooting.
But the news was still unclear, and it was not known if this was yet another attack against the Copts, or due to other reasons.
Actually, five Christians with gunshot wounds were admitted to a hospital in southern Egypt, according to a lady physician, Dr, Mariam Salah, and a security source said a sixth Christian was killed.
P.S. Here's the New York Times account of the train shooting involving Egyptian Christians:
Christian is killed, 5 others wounded
in shooting on train in Egypt
By MONA EL-NAGGAR and J. DAVID GOODMAN
CAIRO, Jan. 11 -- A gunman jumped aboard a train heading toward the Egyptian capital on Tuesday and opened fire on passengers, killing one Christian man and injuring five other Christians, the Interior Ministry said.
It remained unclear whether the man, who used a handgun, had singled out Christians. But word of the shooting quickly reignited the raw emotions of Egypt's Coptic Christian population, still smoldering after the bombing of a Coptic Christian church less than two weeks ago that left 21 people dead and led to widespread rioting.
More than 200 angry protesters converged outside a hospital where the wounded from the train were taken, and the police dispersed them with tear gas.
An Interior Ministry statement said the authorities had arrested the gunman, a Muslim, and were actively seeking a motive for the shooting.
The suspect was identified as Amer Ashour Abdelzaher, an off-duty policeman. The Interior Ministry statement identified the victim as Fathy Said Ebeid, 71, and said the wounded included Mr. Ebeid's wife, another man and three other women.
Mr. Abdelzaher boarded the train in Minya Province, an area south of Cairo along the Nile that has a sizable Christian population.
The shooting came a day after Pope Benedict XVI called on Egypt and other predominantly Muslim nations to do more to protect their Christian populations after a spate of recent violent episodes.
The Pope's comments, delivered in the course of an annual address to Vatican diplomats, rankled the Egyptian government, which recalled its ambassador from the Vatican on Tuesday in response.
"We will not allow any non-Egyptian party to intervene in our internal affairs under any pretext," the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Jan. 1 bombing, which occurred after New Year's Mass, was the worst attack against Christians in Egypt in recent memory and set off days of protests by Christians calling for better protection and equal treatment from the government. Coptic Christians in Egypt celebrated their Christmas last week under heavy security.
The bombing appeared to awaken the country to the threat posed by a sharp rise in fundamentalist religious identification, a state of affairs that until recently the government strongly denied. Unrest in Egypt has increased the chance that its ailing 82-year-old president, Hosni Mubarak, will seek a sixth six-year term this year, to preserve the status quo.
Additional info from
...On the railway line linking Cairo to Assiut, apolice officer, Amer Abdel Zaher Ashur, took the train to Salamut, about 200 km south of Cairo, and opened fire with his police weapon.
He killed a 71-year- old Coptic Christian, Fathi Said Ebeid, and wounded his wife of 61 and four others. Medical sources say that all the wounded, two of them in serious condition, are Christians.
A police officer who was not in uniform. Ashur tried to flee but was arrested in the station. He was questioned about the motives for his attack, but the investigators are maintaining secrecy on the outcome of the interview.
Ayman Mohyeldin, Cairo correspondent for Al Jazeera, said that the authorities do not seem eager to disclose the reasons for the attack. "The bombing of Alexandria is on everyone’s mind. There will be many questions whether the Salamut attack has religious motives".
Bishop Morcos, bishop of the Coptic Church in Salamut, claims to have spoken to some witnesses of the attack.
"This madman went back and forth on the train looking for Christians. Seeing a group of women and girls who were not wearing a veil, he thought they were Christian and fired, shouting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is great)".
Following a few hundred Copts gathered in front of the Good Shepherd Hospital in Salamut, where the injured are hospitalized, and clashed with police, who responded with tear gas.
COMMUNIQUE FROM FR. LOMBARDI:
Egyptian envoy meets with
Vatican 'foreign minister'
Translated from
January 11, 2011
This evening, Madame Lamia Aly Hamada Mekhemar, ambassador of Egypt to the Holy See, was received in audience at the Vatican by Mons. Dominique Mamberti, Secretary for Relations with States.
During their meeting, the ambassador, who is leaving for Cairo for consultations with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, expressed the concerns of her government during the difficult situation in her country today, and was given information and other elements necessary regarding statements made by the Holy Father recently on the subject of religious freedom and on protection of Christians in the Middle East.
Underscoring that the Vatican shares the sentiments of the Egyptian people who were affected by the killing of many Coptic Christians by a car bomb in Alexandria, Mons. Mamberti assured the ambassador that the Holy See fully shares the concern of the Egyptian government "to avoid the escalation of encounters and tensions motivated by religion", and that it appreciates the efforts made by the Egyptian government for that purpose.
And this news from an English language Pakistani newspaper:
Islamic association protest
the Pope in Pakistan
LAHORE, January 11 - A large number of protestors joined the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI, Islamic Party) to protest against Pope Benedict’s demand for repealing the blasphemy law, in Lahore on Tuesday.
[JI is the oldest religious and political party in Pakistan and advocates a pure Islamic state under sharia law; it also opposes Westernization, capitalism, socialism and secularism.]
JI Secretary General, Liaquat Baloch, who led the rally, termed the Pontiff’s demand “insane and a plot to threaten Pakistan’s Christian minority’s security”.
Liaquat Baloch said that the Pope, demanding the release of Aasia Bibi, had been ignorant of the treatment being meted out to Dr Aafia Siddiqui.
[Siddiqui is an American-educated Pakistani neuroscientist who was given an 86-year sentence last September after a jury trial in a U.S. federal court convicted her of assault with intent to murder her U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan. Obviously, to equate her case with Aasia Bibi's is patently absurd!]
He also advised Christian leaders and Bishops in Pakistan to disown the Pope’s stance.
Speaking on the rally held in Karachi on Sunday, Baloch said that the party would hold another rally in Lahore on January 30, stating that the protests would continue till the parliamentary committee on the issue was scrapped and the amendment to the bill, tabled by Pakistan People's Party (PPP) member Sherry Rehman, was dropped.
He also said that Salmaan Taseer’s killer, Mumtaz Qadri, enjoyed the backing of “the entire nation” and the “proud and honourable” lawyers would secure his release. [Taseer is the Punjab governor who was killed by his bodyguard because. though Muslim, he opposed the blasphemy law under with Bibi was sentenced to death.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/01/2011 15:43]