ICC Note:
“Egyptian state television has been accused of spreading false information and inciting violence against Christians protesting in front of the TV building in Maspero on October 9,” Assyrian International News Agency reports.
By Mary Abdelmassih
10/13/2011 Egypt (AINA) – Egyptian state television has been accused of spreading false information and inciting violence against Christians protesting in front of the TV building in Maspero on October 9. Calls have been made for the Information Minister Osama Heikal to resign. Egyptian lawyer Hamdi el-Assuiti filed a complaint with the Prosecutor General against the Minister of Information and TV presenter Rasha Magdi, accusing them of “deliberate broadcast of false news, information and rumors, which disturbed public security, causing terror among the public, and harming public interest.”
While the event of the attack on the Copts was ongoing, news presenters called on Egyptians to come to the aid of their armed forces, which were being attacked by “armed Coptic protesters, killing three military personnel and wounding many,” said broadcaster Rasha Magdi. The news bar read the same for over three hours.
Angry Muslim young men from the neighbouring Boulak, Sabtiya and Ezbet el Safih in Ramsis, hurried to the help the army, chanting anti-Christian slogans and intercepting Copts in the streets and assaulting them with stones, clubs, and firearms, before going to Maspero to join the military police attack on the peaceful protesters.
Dr. Emad Gad, head of strategic studies at Al Ahram Organization, called on the Minister to resign, saying the State television’s coverage “could have led to wide-scale massacres, or even civil war. I know Copts who did not go to work for two days, afraid to leave their homes.”
“This was devastating to the Muslim-Christian relationship,” said Nabil Sharaf-eldin, Muslim liberal and head of El-Azma electronic news wire, who attended the Maspero candle vigil before being joined by the 150,000 Christians arriving from Shubra district. He said on his way back home he heard Muslim comments against Christians, adding “it caused a spiritual divorce between them that will never heal.”
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