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EGYPT PROTESTERS CALL FOR MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN UNITY
PanARMENIAN.Net
October 15, 2011 - 10:47 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Hundreds of protesters marched Friday, October 14,
from Egypt's pre-eminent mosque to a central Cairo cathedral in a
show of Muslim-Christian unity after a bloody clash earlier this week
involving Coptic Christian protesters and the military.
The Associated Press reports that demonstrators chanted slogans
against the country's military ruler, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi,
who has increasingly become the focus of activists' anger during the
bumpy transition following Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February.
A crowd of onlookers threw rocks at the demonstrators outside Al-Azhar
mosque, the most important center of learning in Sunni Islam. But the
group of Muslims and Christians was undeterred and marched on toward
the cathedral before heading to Tahrir Square and a nearby boulevard
along the Nile where Sunday's clashes took place.
The distrust between pro-democracy activists and the military council,
which is leading the country's transitional period until presidential
elections expected in 2012, deepened after the clashes. Twenty-six
people were killed in the confrontation between Coptic Christians,
the military and others who joined the mayhem. Most of the dead were
Copts, who had been protesting an attack on a church.
Coptic Christians, who represent about 10 percent of Egypt's 85
million, say they are treated like second-class citizens and that
repeated attacks on them go unpunished.
PanARMENIAN.Net
October 15, 2011 - 10:47 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Hundreds of protesters marched Friday, October 14,
from Egypt's pre-eminent mosque to a central Cairo cathedral in a
show of Muslim-Christian unity after a bloody clash earlier this week
involving Coptic Christian protesters and the military.
The Associated Press reports that demonstrators chanted slogans
against the country's military ruler, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi,
who has increasingly become the focus of activists' anger during the
bumpy transition following Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February.
A crowd of onlookers threw rocks at the demonstrators outside Al-Azhar
mosque, the most important center of learning in Sunni Islam. But the
group of Muslims and Christians was undeterred and marched on toward
the cathedral before heading to Tahrir Square and a nearby boulevard
along the Nile where Sunday's clashes took place.
The distrust between pro-democracy activists and the military council,
which is leading the country's transitional period until presidential
elections expected in 2012, deepened after the clashes. Twenty-six
people were killed in the confrontation between Coptic Christians,
the military and others who joined the mayhem. Most of the dead were
Copts, who had been protesting an attack on a church.
Coptic Christians, who represent about 10 percent of Egypt's 85
million, say they are treated like second-class citizens and that
repeated attacks on them go unpunished.