Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

The union of Coptic associations in Europe also issued a statement in which it supported the statement of the Maspero youth and the stance taken by all Egypt’s liberal movements. The statement, signed by the head of the union Medhat Qelada, reminded that Copts had been part and parcel of the 25 January Revolution, and had spared nothing dear for the sake of Egypt. It described the Islamists’ rally in Tahrir and the raising of non-Egyptian, Islamic flags and banners as a “flexing of muscles” and an attempt to instate a religious State. The union, the statement declared, was directing all collective means available to it for the sake of Egypt, to defend it against a catastrophic end at the hands of those who plan to steal the Tahrir Revolution.

The sit-in in Tahrir, which should have supposedly ended as last Friday drew to a close, was extended by a relatively small number of protestors. This resulted in violent clashes between them and the shop-owners in Tahrir who had obviously reached the end of their patience with the closed square. The clashes, however, spilled over into nearby roads and, coupled with other clashes and demonstrations near by, resulted in near-complete traffic paralysis in the Downtown Cairo area. The Army finally dispersed the protestors.

Other commercial districts in Cairo witnessed violence between various tradesmen owing to disputes over territory or trade rights. In Muski, 39 were injured and 84 arrested following a dispute between two clans of vendors, in which glass bottles and Moltov cocktails, stones, and gunfire were used. In Sabtiya, Sayeda Zeinab and Boulaq al-Daqrour similar fights resulted in scores of injured.

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