Several Coptic bookshops, most of them in the Cairo district of Shubra, have received written threats from Muslim hardline groups that they should refrain form selling Christian icons, pictures
Several Coptic bookshops, most of them in the Cairo district of Shubra, have received written threats from Muslim hardline groups that they should refrain form selling Christian icons, pictures, or statuettes; on grounds that this was idolatrous practice.
It was reported on a number of Coptic news sites that Anba Morqos, Bishop of Shubral-Kheima in Cairo, had submitted official complaints against these threats to the public prosecutor. Watani contacted Anba Morqos, however, who denied he had submitted any complaints, but said he had advised those who had received threats to take legal action.
Anba Morqos said that there was nothing wrong with icons or statues as far as the Christian doctrine was concerned, so there was nothing wrong with selling such items. Egypt has always honoured religious freedom, he said, and this matter strictly falls within the precincts of such freedom.
Today, however, several news sites carried a statement by those who described themselves in the general term of al-Gam##at al-Islamiya, literally Islamic groups, who insisted that Christians had every right to use or sell icons or statues, since this did not contradict their faith.
WATANI International
13 August 2012