The second conciliatory session, held on Monday, ended up in determining some 10 requests by the villagers, including the expulsion of the families that caused the strife and payment of compensations for the people whose houses and stores were damaged.
Nādir Marqus, an advisor for Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda III and member of the Millī (Community) Council, said the pope was still following up developments in al-Nahdah.
Marqus pointed out that as soon as the pope returned from his treatment trip, a detailed report was offered to him on the incidents, adding the pope confirmed the church's participation in compensating the families that were harmed in the incidents.
Al-Nahdah has been the scene of acts of violence and clashes between Muslims and Copts after a Christian young man reportedly sent "indecent" videos of a Muslim woman on his cell phone.
"Elders are trying to end the fitnah and disperse the citizens who opened fire and hurled stones," he said, adding Father Buqtur of the al-'Āmirīyah Church has pledged to get the young man who has caused the incidents and his family out of the village. [Amīrah Fathī, al-Wafd, Feb. 1, p. 3] Read original text in Arabic
The attack on the Christians was led by a number of Salafists who used mosques to incite these attacks but the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has detained them for a period of more than 12 hours inside the Northern Military Zone without bringing them to trial.
Lawyer Joseph Malāk called for intervention by the police forces to protect the local residents of Sharbāt village to repulse repeated assaults on Copts there now that the security apparatus has not regained its full strength yet.
"The volume of losses from these incidents exceeded the sum of LE2 million (roughly $350,000) and the number of families harmed are about 25," said Malāk. [Rānyā Nabīl, al-Ahālī, Feb. 1, p. 3] Read original text in Arabic
Copts resumed demonstrating outside a police station in Naja' Hammādī, the Upper Egyptian governorate of Qena, for the fifth day running as Bishop Kyrillos called for hastily arresting the culprits in the murder of two Copts in Bahjūrah village after they refused to pay an itāwah (protection money) for some thugs.
"We have sent many calls for help to the security agencies but to no avail, now that the names of perpetrators are known to everyone," said Bishop Kyrillos. [Mīnā Mhanná, al-Ahālī, Feb. 1, p. 3] Read original text in Arabic
Meanwhile, Muftī of the Republic Shaykh 'Alī Jum'ah said Egypt is an Islamic nation that respects the rights of Copts as partners in the nation, noting the Iftā' House pursues a moderate approach. [Muhammad Hijāb, Khālid Ahmad al-Mat'anī and Sāmī al-Qamhāwī, al-Ahrām, Feb. 1, p. 3] Read original text in Arabic
On the other hand, informed sources said the Advisory Council offered proposals to SCAF on the ways and criteria to pick members of the constituent panel to draft a constitution in a way that will be expressive of all groups in the Egyptian society. [Nashwá al-Hawfī and Sarah Nūr al-Dīn, al-Misrī al-Yawm, Feb. 1, p. 1] Read original text in Arabic
Coptic thinker Jamāl As'ad 'Abd al-Malāk, in an opinion piece in al-Musawwar magazine, says it would not do much good to cry over spilt milk and say the constitution should have been drafted prior to the legislative elections.
The committee that conducted amendments of some of the articles of the 1971 constitution, for some unclear reason, has determined that a constitution would be written by a 100-member panel to be selected by the elected members of the People's Assembly and Shūrá Council, with the exclusion of appointed members.
More importantly, that committee has hammered out a plan to have elections held before a constitution was laid, in a time when the fledgling parties are not stable yet and revolutionary powers have not yet found a foothold in the political reality area.
Perhaps that committee did so to serve the interests of the Islamist powers that boast organized presence in the street and a social roadmap by providing supply commodities and health and education services to the vast needy sector of the Egyptian people. [Jamāl As'ad 'Abd al-Malāk, al-Musawwar, Feb. 1, pp. 60-61] Read original text in Arabic
