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The fallout from last week’s deadly clashes between the army and Coptic protesters is continuing here in Cairo, with a coalition of NGOs this week accusing the ruling military council of stoking sectarian tensions.
The NGOs released a report which also pointed the finger of blame at state television, criticising its one-sided coverage of the events on Sunday night last week and saying it was guilty of inciting violence against protesters.
At least 27 civilians and one soldier died in the violent clashes which erupted after a mainly-Christian demonstration arrived in central Cairo.
A candle-lit vigil to remember the dead took place last week in Talaat Harb Square in the capital’s Downtown district.
Those taking part, many of them dressed in black, stood around the statue of famed economist Talaat Pasha Harb in the centre of the square shouting chants amid the honking horns and grunting exhausts of passing cars.
Of the hundreds of people who attended, many of those interviewed by The Majalla spoke of their hope that last week’s killings would not derail Egypt’s political future.
Maha Tadros, a 45-year-old office manager, said: “We need this country to be better than before. 40 per cent of people in this country live under the poverty line.
“But I’m not worried. I know that the next days will be better than these days.”
Hisham Mohammad, a Muslim businessman and father-of-two, said he had gone to Talaat Harb Square so he could “be with Christians”.
“I’m here today so I can stand hand in hand with the Christians. We believe we will win the revolution.”
Yet away from the optimism of this decidedly middle-class rally in central Cairo, it is clear that Egypt is still torn by deep-seated divisions.
Mohamed al-Baradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a potential presidential candidate, might be lagging in the opinion polls, but in an interview this week he made a good point on the topic of religious divisions.
He spoke of the need to address the issue of sectarianism head-on in a way that does not skirt around the often naive sloganeering which characterised the protest movement that eventually toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.
“We have to get over the slogans that say Muslims and Copts are one and admit that we have a problem of religious discrimination,” he said.
Never was a truer word spoken. Away from the well-educated secularists who descend on central Cairo for anti-government rallies every other Friday, there are millions of poorer Christians and Muslims are mutually suspicious of one and other’s faith. It is a rift in need of healing if Egypt is to see better days ahead.
