Editor: Coptic Christians have been demonstrating for three days in the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral of Cairo against the Egyptian publication al-Nabaa which had published a story with photos about the sexual activities of a former monk. Ra’ed El-Sharqawi, a Christian human rights activist, was present and was asked by the RNSAW to describe what he saw and experienced during these demonstrations.
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The backdrop of these demonstrations are the problems in the daily life of Christians
and reports about previous clashes in el-Zawya el-Hamra, Kafr Dimyan, and finally el-Kosheh. The demonstrating Christians also remembered what happened to Pope Shenouda III when he himself was forced to stay in a monastery unable to represent the Christians before the state.
The article in Al-Nabaa was the last straw that made Christians come in large numbers to the cathedral. They were searching for a personal answer concerning the church’s response to the article in this yellow paper.
Mamdouh Mahran, editor-in-chief of this yellow paper, had written about an ousted monk and his sexual adventures in the monastery of al-Muharraq, even behind the altar of the church. The article shamelessly claimed he used the altar cloth to clean himself after sexual intercourse.
The first people gathered on Monday morning, June 18, in the cathedral. They begged Bishop Yo’annis, secretary of H.H. Pope Shenouda, to tell the pope to be more firm and not to let what happened pass like before. Besides Bishop You’anis also Bishop Bemwa, Bishop Bimen and the monk Armiah were present. They had difficulties hiding their tears when they tried to calm the crowd and conveyed the pope’s message that God will act. They also said the state, represented by the president, had for the first time enforced martial law and made a large effort to put everything in its proper place. The gathered people shared in the prayers of the clergy and left.
In the evening, thousands of young men between the ages of 15 and 20 came, sad and persistent to do something effective and strong to make the authorities understand the need to be more strict with anything that harms the Christian faith.
Some 300 policemen from the central police forces armed with sticks, rifles, electric sticks, and other things used for fighting demonstrations, and a group of secret police personnel, stood in front of the cathedral asking each person entering the compound the same question, what do you want to do? Coptic youth formed groups at the main gate of the cathedral repeating angry slogans about the role that must be played by the president and the state. They cursed Mahran, the editor-in-chief of al-Nabaa, and asked Pope Shenouda to be firm.
Some of the slogans were "Pope Shenouda you are our shepherd, we sacrifice our blood for you", "the Cross and the Bible are the first and the last", "in any case we will get Mahran down", "the monks are honest but not you Mahran", "with blood we will save our Cross."
Things became more heated as people heard these slogans and reacted by going again to Bishop Yo’annis who calmed them down and explained the facts. They prayed and after many requests from the Bishops for them to go, they unwillingly left at 2:00 a.m. followed by waves of police. The rest of the police’s forces stayed to provide more security both inside and outside the Cathedral, which is located near two large mosques where many extremists pray and attend the lessons.
On Tuesday evening people again turned up for demonstrations at the Cathedral which did not result in clashes such as on Monday and Wednesday.
On Wednesday many people were expecting Pope Shenouda to attend his Wednesday meeting until a rumor spread that the pope could not attend because the security forces were preventing him from doing so [later others said he cancelled the meeting in protest against the publication in al-Nabaa]. In a few minutes a flood of people went to the main gate trying to get out to the Ramsis street. They climbed on the gate and the roofs of both the el-Botrosiah church and a service building and began shouting slogans for president Mubarak to intervene. The security forces used their sticks to push them away from the roofs and the gate lest they fall and get injured. Many young men felt the security forces were trying to show some kind of power so they hurried to get tiles and red bricks being used for renovation works in the cathedral and also a ladder to climb onto the roofs in large numbers.
The police left the smaller part of the main gate open for people to come in whilst blocking the other to stop them from going out into Abbassia Street. The yard of the cathedral was full of people lining up in a queue repeating slogans, women and girls cried.
Some women and young girls went to the gate, protected by two lines of young men one in front and one behind them. The secret police took some young men to the State Security Intelligence office and the demonstrations became more heated and tougher. Two fake bullets were fired that made the people retreat as they were wounded by each other throwing stones from different directions. The police chiefs feared more injuries. They were wise and sent ambulances with Christian doctors. Families and girls began to leave. There was now space to stand.
Hundreds of young men continued their clashes with the police, while some others, fiancés or friends, were sitting in the back garden chatting or drinking cold drinks and sometimes watching. Another group of Christian young men tried to convince those engaged in clashes with the police to behave like Christians and stop them from using force.
The clashes went dangerously wrong, when some of the young men were about to destroy the gate of the church compound facing the Ramsis street and get out to the street. This prompted Bishop Yo’annis to ask them to gather for prayers. Many responded positively while others who had come from slum areas such as Zawya al-Hamra where pressure from Muslims exists, wanted to continue. The words of the Bishop were about how to be meek and wise and he spoke about the role played by the president, the Supreme Press Council and the Journalist’s Association. The bishop said they had all agreed with the church’s recommendations.
The numbers began to reduce after 2.00 a.m. A few families remained behind asking Bishop Yo’annis to intervene to release those who had been arrested.
Only after around 3.30 a.m. police officers started to leave the cathedral. About 300 fully armed security personnel were left to protect the cathedral and Christians against any illegal action. They arrested some Muslim extremists and held them for that night
The young men who had demonstrated wanted Egypt and the world to know that Christians have a strong voice. They were sure their message of protest had been delivered.
العربية