Egypt says ‘mastermind’ behind sectarian riot held

AFP/Cairo

Students walk yesterday past soldiers outside the Coptic church that was set on fire during clashes between Muslims and Christians in the Imbaba neighbourhood of  Cairo on Saturday

Egyptian authorities have arrested the “mastermind” behind the sectarian violence in Cairo that killed 12 people, the cabinet said. “The interior ministry has arrested the mastermind behind the clashes between Muslims and Christians in Imbaba,” the cabinet said on its Facebook page late on Monday, without identifying the person. The authorities also detained another 14 people in connection with the deadly clashes, it said, bringing the total number of arrests to 205. Around 1,000 Copts continued a sit-in in front of the state television headquarters for a third straight day yesterday to protest against sectarian violence and to demand protection. Some pitching tents, others keeping warm under blankets, the protesters have vowed not to leave until their demands are met. Fierce clashes broke out on Saturday between Christians and Muslims in northwest Cairo’s working-class district of Imbaba which also left scores injured and a church ablaze. Six Muslims and four Christians were among the 12 dead, while two bodies were not identified. The two groups clashed after Muslims attacked the Coptic church of Saint Mena in Imbaba to free a Christian woman they alleged was being held against her will because she wanted to convert to Islam. The military council governing Egypt since a popular uprising toppled president Hosni Mubarak admitted that the latest flare-ups in the country represent a “counter-revolution” by old regime diehards aimed at sowing chaos. Copts, who account for up to 10% of the country’s 80mn people, complain of discrimination and have been the targets of fairly regular sectarian attacks. Claims that Christian women who converted to Islam were kidnapped and held in churches or monasteries have soured relations between the two communities for months. Salafi leaders have denied involvement in Saturday’s attack, although their followers were among the Muslims who tried to storm the Saint Mena church. “Salafists played a positive role,” said Abdel Moneim al-Shahat, a Salafi cleric. He said news had spread that the woman was detained in a building adjacent to the church after she got hold of a cell phone and called her Muslim husband. “The Salafists persuaded people to go with the police to the church to negotiate her release. But they were fired upon. They did not come armed,” he said. He blamed “thugs” for the violence. The incident was just the latest in a series of events that worried the Coptic Church enough to convene a synod on the Salafists’ newfound assertiveness. Salafists regularly stage protests demanding the Coptic Church release the wives of two priests the Islamists say converted to Islam, and Salafists were prominent in mass demonstrations in the country’s south against the appointment last month of a Coptic governor. Last week, hundreds of Salafists also protested outside Cairo’s American embassy at the death of Osama bin Laden. Egypt’s Salafists are now forming political parties, and they say Christians and other Muslims have nothing to fear from them. “We do not want to impose our views on anyone. We do not want to turn society into a battlefield,” Shahat said.