Alexandria attack is plain terrorism
By Linda S. Heard
I was woken on New Year's morning by a flurry of phone calls from worried friends and neighbors. A terrorist bomb had struck Coptic worshippers celebrating mass at a church in the poor Alexandrian suburb of Baqoos, killing 21, wounding more than 80 and leaving a legacy of wrecked vehicles on the street.
Everyone I've spoken to are shocked, saddened and dismayed at this turn of events, which threatens a rift between Egypt's Muslim and Christian communities.
Ominously, in reaction to the attack, young Coptic youth entered a nearby mosque, threw out books and other items and clashed with riot police. Their fury is understandable but hitting out against Muslims is playing right into the hands of the crime's perpetrators.
On Saturday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak made a rare appearance on television to calm the nation and call for unity. He described the attack as “alien to us”, promised to “cut the head off the snake” and indicated that there were “foreign hands” behind the bombing. “All of Egypt is targeted. This blind terrorism does not differentiate between Copts and Muslims,” he said.
Initial reports from Egyptian officials put the explosion down to a car bomb, as witnesses saw a car being parked outside the church and the driver and another man walking away seconds before the blast, but that was later replaced by the theory that a suicide bomber may have been responsible for the devastation. The truth is as yet unknown.
Fingers are now pointing at the Islamic State of Iraq which last November threatened attacks on Egyptian Copts. This group has claimed responsibility for Baghdad bombings in January, April, June and August 2010 as well as for the attack on a Syriac Catholic cathedral in Baghdad on October 31st. But unlike many, I do not believe this particular incident has the hallmark of Al-Qaeda.
High-profile targets
For one thing, Al-Qaeda and its offshoot the Islamic State of Iraq usually carries out simultaneous attacks.
For another, Al-Qaeda and its clones tend towards high-profile targets for maximum effect and media coverage. When there are so many beautiful, ancient Coptic churches in the Old City of Cairo that attract camera-clicking foreign tourists, it seems strange that this organization would choose a relatively unknown church in a deprived area of Alexandria.
Moreover, Iraqis and other foreigners in Egypt are tracked closely by the Egyptian secret police.
As someone who has been living in Egypt for the past six years — three of those in Alexandria — I can't help taking this incident very personally. The question uppermost in my mind is whether the violence will stop here or is there more to come?
I can honestly say that in all my years in Egypt I have never come across any hint of sectarian hatred and, in fact, Muslims and Christians here are indistinguishable in most cases. Sometimes you can tell who's who by a person's name, but not always.
In Alexandria, Copts and Muslims are mixed. They live in the same apartment blocks, socialize with one another, and don't discriminate on the basis of religion. I have never heard any of my Muslim friends say, “Oh, those Copts...” or vice versa.
Muslims here know that the Coptic minority is as Egyptian as they are. Historians might say even more so as they are considered the direct descendents of Ancient Egyptians who embraced Christianity.
No precedent
Of course, there have been violent clashes between Muslims and Coptic Christians, mostly over Coptic women who convert to Islam and later return to the church, land disputes or because of difficulties Christians face in getting permits to build new churches, but nothing involving car bombs or suicide bombers.
A Muslim man who attacked three churches in Alexandria in 2006 was judged to be mentally unstable. In March, young assailants threw fire bombs at a Coptic centre in Marsuh Matruh because of a fence that had been built around it.
If I had to hazard a guess, I would say this wicked act was carried out either by local religious fanatics or individuals with an axe to grind against the Coptic community or by foreign agents acting on behalf of a country whose interests lie in seeing Egypt destabilized and fragmented in a similar fashion to Lebanon, Iraq and Sudan. There are some foreign elements that would like Egypt to break out into civil war as a prelude to its division into a Muslim state and a Coptic state.
The only thing for certain is that whoever is behind this atrocity is evil incarnate. The Egyptian government needs to be transparent and determined to bring the culprits to justice, Alexandria's Copts should eschew revenge and the city's Muslims must do everything they can to show solidarity with their Coptic brethren. Everyone must work together to ensure that, this time, the terrorist scum doesn't win.
Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com.
(Source: Gulf News)
Photo: People express their anger on Saturday as the bodies of victims are carried into ambulances at the Coptic Orthodox church in Alexandria. (Reuters photo)
Comments