Lack of Response for Coptic Attacks Reveals Signs of Complicit Government, Says Founder of Coptic Secular Current
Kamal Zakher, founder of the Coptic Secular Current, has said what happened in Warraq - where a Christian wedding was attacked - has revealed imbalances within the Egyptian government when it comes to their response regarding violence aimed at religious minorities.
Zakher insited that Christians are "Coptic brothers" and not just "Christian Egyptian citizens." He added that condolences were only offered to the church and not to the Egyptian people who were the real target of this criminal act.
Zakher recently penned an article in the Bawaba News portal, where he wrote that the Warraq's incident may have revealed a failure of the security information apparatus in a context that supposes the expectation of such criminal acts. Especially with the availability of recordings issued by terrorist groups confirming that the phase following the dispersal of the sit-ins in Rabaa el-Adaweya and Nahda square would witness an extended wave of terrorist crimes against Copts, as a part of a plan to exhaust the state until it falls.
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"What happened in Warraq was an escalation that moved from targeting buildings to targeting humans, after the reaction of Copts was different to the expectation of terrorists who attacked dozens of churches and Christian installations after the breaking-up of pro-Morsi sit-ins. However, there was a Coptic consensus that they would satisfactorily accept the cost of demolition, looting and destruction of churches if it is the price for the freedom of the homeland," Zakher wrote.
"Terrorists thought that targeting human beings would be more painful and would explode the wrath of Copts to turn to escalation before the international judiciary, which would realize the dream of terrorists of the fall of the revolution and the return of the obscurantist rule. But the Coptic reaction has exceeded and foiled their expectations when the church declared it would be engaged in prayer so that God opens the eyes of the perpetrators of the criminal act and inciters, who have lost their loyalty to the nation and their humanity under the influence of the terrorist ideology."
Zakher added, "We need to manage the scene differently. It is no longer acceptable to see the street move more quickly than the administration, which suffers from sharp slowdown in reactions at home and abroad in a way that is not consistent with the revolutionary moment, which imposes a different pattern surpassing the traditional inherited approach."
Gunmen opened fire at Virgin Mary Church in Warraq, Giza, on October 20, killing five, including two children, and injuring 17.
