ICC Note:
“The patriarch of the Coptic Catholic Church in Egypt blamed Islamic fundamentalists for the increasing number of attacks on Christians and criticized a growing division between Muslims and Christians since the country’s February revolution,” Catholic News Service reports.
11/3/2011 Egypt (Catholic News Service) – The patriarch of the Coptic Catholic Church in Egypt blamed Islamic fundamentalists for the increasing number of attacks on Christians and criticized a growing division between Muslims and Christians since the country’s February revolution.
Speaking Oct. 30 at St. Nicolas Cathedral in Fribourg, Switzerland, during a day of prayer for persecuted Catholics, Cardinal Antonios Naguib, Coptic Catholic patriarch of Alexandria, said the links between Muslims and Catholics that were reinforced in the period just after the revolution have deteriorated.
“Today, Islamic fundamentalists have come out of the woodwork, and there are recurring attacks on Christians,” Cardinal Naguib said.
The attacks left dozens dead and “created a gulf between Muslims and Christians, which is being continually widened under the influence of fanatical leaders,” he said during the event organized by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.
The cardinal said the unity that existed during the revolution, which saw Christians and Muslims praying together in churches and mosques for peace and a return to order, has virtually ended.
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“Christians in Egypt are experiencing their worst period in centuries — the Egyptian media are trying to cover up the attacks, so the international media won’t provide information about the real situation and there won’t be pressure from outside,” he told news agency.
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