AFRICA/EGYPT - Attacks against churches, Christians criticize the government and security forces

Cairo (Agenzia Fides) - During the terrorist attack which last Sunday caused the death of four people - including a 9-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl - and wounding 18 Coptic invited to a Coptic wedding, the police who were supposed to preside over the church during the ceremony were absent. This was confirmed to sources of the Egyptian press by the Church personnel, thus providing new reasons regarding intolerance toward the security forces that already winds in some Christian surroundings. Yesterday the militants of the Maspero Youth Union - a group of young activists, expression of the Orthodox Coptic community - canceled the protest called after the massacre for not providing a pretext for acts of provocation instigated by "infiltrators", but at the same time, during meetings with representatives of the government, called for the removal of the interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim for his inability to protect Christians.
Meanwhile, the Coptic Orthodox priest, Thomas Daoud Ibrahim, pastor of the church hit by the terrorist attack, confirmed that among the injured there are some members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the wedding guests, and members of the Islamist movement took part in the rescue of the wounded due to the attack. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 23/10/2013)