Cathedral Attack Was State Suppressing Coptic Youth, Says Famous Egyptian Author
Egyptian political intellectual and writer Amin el-Mahdi described the recent assault on St. Mark's Cathedral and Al-Azhar earlier as an attempt for "sectarian fragmentation" by the Muslim Brotherhood in order to control Egyptian society.
Mahdi said that the attack by the interior ministry on the Coptic youth inside the cathedral during the funeral of the victims of El-Khosos City was aimed at suppressing Copts.
In his comment on current events in a seminar organized on Wednesday evening at San Gabriel Cultural Center in Alexandria under the title, "Crisis of Democracy and Peace," Mahdi said that the state assaulted on and besieged the cathedral to suppress Coptic youth. The efforts came because the Maspero Youth Union participated in the solidarity march with Sheikh of Al-Azhar against "Brotherhooding" the institution.
Mahdi believed "the state provoked the events in Khosos, Qaliubiya, and later the events of the cathedral, to deter Copts," while denouncing the presidential statement, which accused young Coptic people of initiating the violent altercation.
"All that we have seen on television proved something quite different," Mahdi added.