Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

 

 

A: What happened is a real turning point in the history of what I call religious tension in Egypt, which started in 1970 after Ikhmīm incident.

 

 

A: The history of sectarian tension in Egypt has gone through four stages. The first  witnessed the Islamist groups' attacks on Copts and churches. The significance of this stage lies in the fact that those violent incidents were denounced by all Egyptians, Muslims and Copts. The second stage started in 2000 after the Kushh incident. It is referred to as the stage of social tension. The general theme of this stage was that any ordinary social incident was dealt with as religion-related. The third stage started in 2005. It is the stage of verbal exchanges of accusations of infidelity between Muslim and Christian religious leader. The result of this stage was that people started to believe that the other, who believes in another religion, is a kāfir. This has lead to the fourth stage we live in nowadays. This stage witnesses incidents of violence, but this time they are committed by ordinary citizens and not by extremist groups as was the case in the 70s, and hence it is a very critical stage.

 

A: If the sectarian atmosphere continues as it is without firm resolution, the fifth stage will take the form of a Coptic reaction.  Signs for the advent of such a stage have already been seen in the recent Coptic protests after the incident of Naja‘ Hamādī. This means that we may go further than just isolated incidents to a sectarian conflict among citizens.

 

…