Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Clashes in Cairo for third consecutive day

 
Pictures of the clashes and demonstration are difficult to find. It looks as if  in Egypt with  its powerful spolice and secret services not too many Egyptians want to burn their fingers. This one, in Al-Masry al-Youm ,is from Sundays's demonstration in Shubra. I accompanies an article that only mentions what other papers write about the clashes of Monday.

Egyptians took to the streets on Monday for the third consecutive day of protests against the government after the bombing of the Qiddisein (Two Saints) church in Alexandria on Saturday morning. In Cairo the main clashes took place in Shubra, a part of Cairo with a high density of Christians. The newspaper The Daily News has a video on its site of these clashes. 

"In the opposition Al-Ahrar, the chief headline reads: "The anger, with sub-headlines rike "Protesters denouncing attack on Alexandria church take to streets and universities" and "Road traffic halted in Giza… Protesters lie across road to block off 26th July Highway." Another headline, pertaining to protests and clashes taking place outside a Coptic cathedral in Abbasiya, reads: "29 injured, including 4 police officers in cathedral protest."
 
 Sarah Carr was in the demonstration in Shubra. She posted this picture on her blog 'Inanities' and gave a sarcastic account of what happened there. 
 
Also other - opposition and independent - Egyptian newspapers carry headlines on the ongoing protests. In the independent daily Al-Shorouk, the headline reads: "Angry Coptic protests extend from Alexandria to Aswan. In the independent daily Al-Dostour the headline reads: "8000 Muslims join initiative dubbed 'We will go to churches and die with them.' The article mentions that thousands of Egyptian Muslims are volunteering--on Facebook--to serve as human shields inside and outside churches during Coptic Christmas on January 7 in preparation for other church attacks during prayer services this holiday. Another headline warns: "New website promises a continuation of terror acts in Egypt''. The article describes that a website entitled Shabaket Shmoukh al-Islam (The Glory of Islam Network) includes posts that pledge continued attacks against Egypt's Christians, churches, and government.
Coptic churches in several European countries have also received threats, the BBC revealed on Tuesday. This concerned churches in England, Germany and France. Churches in the Netherlands were threatened as well, according to Dutch news reports .

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