Targeting of Christian Coptics opens new concerns; President will get new powers
CAIRO– With Islamic State suicide bombs at churches in Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta claiming at least 50 dead and causing over 100 injuries, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ordered the armed forces to help the country’s police secure the nation’s vital facilities and announced his intention to seek a three-month state of emergency.
The two attacks, the first inside St George’s Church in Tanta and the second just outside the security perimeter of St Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria, were the largest ever coordinated terrorist attacks targeting Egyptian Christians.
While the head of Egypt’s Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros, who was in Alexandria to lead a special holiday mass, was unhurt in the St. Mark’s blast, it’s clear that the explosions were timed to cause maximum carnage, taking place on Palm Sunday, the first day of Easter week, when church attendance soars.
“The number of dead among the injured is much higher than it should be because despite the calls for blood donation, we are still suffering a shortage of supplies for rare blood types,” a Cairo cardiologist told The Media Line.
State Information officers sent out an advisory out to the press on Sunday warning them against disseminating any reporting on the bombing and its aftermath from unofficial sources, and dissuading physicians and law enforcement officers from disclosing details about casualties or the investigation.
Yesterday’s twin bombings follow an Islamic State campaign to drive Christians from the Northern Sinai Peninsula and continue a campaign to intimidate the 10 million strong religious minority that began in December with an explosion at the chapel adjacent to the Coptic cathedral in Cairo. That attack killed 25, mostly women and children.
“This attack will not undermine the resolve and true will of the Egyptian people to counter the forces of evil,” said Sisi in a televised address as he emerged from a late-night meeting with top security officials. “It will only harden their determination to move forward on their trajectory to realize security, stability and comprehensive development.”
The three-month state of emergency is subject to parliamentary approval within seven days of the president’s request and would grant the president a number of exceptional powers– most significantly the use of state security emergency courts for the duration of the three-month period.
In addition to calling for approval of a state of emergency, President Sisi also announced the establishment of a new body, the Supreme Council to Combat Terrorism and Extremism and called on the international community to “to hold accountable countries which support terrorism and fund terrorist organizations.”
But the official measures have little meaning for Fady Victor, a witness to yesterday’s bombing in Tanta.
“I don’t know what a state of emergency means,” the 38-year-old advertising agency director told The Media Line. “All I can tell you is that I’m in a state of shock.”
Victor was seated in the seventh pew back from the altar of the church in Tanta when the explosion ripped through the sanctuary. “My face and my body were hit by debris and parts of the exploded victims,” said Victor, “so personally, I would prefer silence over the renewal of religious discourse.”
Renewal of religious discourse is the official term used in Egypt for President Sisi’s push for state-supported clerics to reinterpret Islamic doctrines of “jihad” or holy war and inculcate a commitment to co-existence between Muslims and Christians
Earlier in the day, Ahmed El-Tayeb, The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, led a delegation of religious officials to visit the Tanta church in solidarity with Egyptian Christians. But as night fell, angry mourners shouted over the homily of the local archbishop as he praised the response of Egypt’s leaders and security officials.
“They can go to hell,” shouted out young male relatives of the church bombing victims. “How can we allow our women to attend services when our holy places are exploding!”
Chruch sources in Alexandria say there will not be funerals- just burials for the Coptic victims of the St. Mark’s bombing. Similar to Jewish practice during the High Holidays of Rosh Ha Shana and Yom Kippur, Coptic Christianity limits public mourning during Holy Week which runs from Palm Sunday through Easter.
Egyptian media stressed the fact that Muslims as well as Christians died in the Alexandria attack.
Four police officers were among the dead including Nagwa El-Haggar, a hijab-wearing Brigadier General.
People looking at the aftermath of a bomb blast which struck worshippers gathering to celebrate Palm Sunday at the Mar Girgis Coptic Church in the Nile Delta City of Tanta, 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of Cairo, on April 9, 2017. (Photo: STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images)