WATANI International
23 October 2011
Last Sunday, Paris witnessed a resounding Coptic demonstration against the Egyptian goverment and Military Council. According to the French Police, the demonstration witnessed more than 5,000 Copts participants. The rally condemned the Sunday 9 October attack by the Egyptian army against the peaceful Coptic demonstrators at Maspero, Cairo, which left in its wake some 26 Copts and one Muslim passerby dead, and more than 300 injured.
The rally set off at 3.00pm in front of the premises of UNESCO in Paris, and ended at 5.30pm at the Assemblée Nationale, a five-kilometre march through the streets of Paris.
The Coptic Solidarity Organisation, as well as all Coptic organisations in Paris participated in the demonstration. Joining the Egyptian protestors were representatives of French political parties and human rights organisations. For the first time, all the Coptic priests in Paris took part in the rally, as well as a number of Egyptian Muslims who joined in as an act of solidarity with the Copts.
“Where are you, Tantawi? The Copts’ blood stands between us”; “Leave, leave Tantawi”; “Save Egypt from Salafis”, were among the banners held by the protestors, who demanded the dismissal of Aswan Governor, General Mustafa al-Sayed, and Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi, Head of the Military Council which now rules Egypt.
White coffins
“No one in the whole world believes the lies reiterated by representatives of the Military Council during the press conference held on Wednesday 12 October, through which the military Council practically washed its hands of the Maspero massacre,” the Egyptian journalist William Wissa who resides in Paris said. The military alleged that the Coptic demonstrators had commenced hostilities against the army soldiers, who then had to retaliate.
In the speech delivered at the start of the rally, Mr Wissa held the Military Council and the Egyptian government politically responsible for the bloodbath in Maspero, and demanded that those who gave the orders to shoot the peaceful protestors should be brought to justice. He strongly denounced the trend now gaining momentum in Egypt of dealing with the Copts as apostates. He expressed outrage at the attitude which, he said, is being also embraced by Egyptian State TV, under the very nose of the Military Council and the government. This, he insisted, is the major reason behind the culture of hatred now spreading like wildfire in Egypt against Copts.
Rights activists who participated in the Paris demonstration described the Maspero bloodbath as a crime against humanity that should not go unanswered. They also demanded the dismissal of the Media Minister Usama Heikal for failing to question the National TV authorities who instigated Egyptian viewers against the Copts.
At the end of the rally, a large number of white boxes in the shape of coffins for the Maspero victims, were laid in front of the French National Assembly.
“Lord have mercy”
In London last Sunday, some 1000 Copts carrying a symbolic coffin held a rally in front of the House of Lords. The demonstration was organised by Copts United in the UK, and included a number of Coptic Orthodox clergy who held prayers for the Maspero victims. The head of Copts United UK, Ibrahim Habib, joined the protestors, many of whom wore white T-shirts carrying red crosses, in calling for justice for the Copts who fell victim to sectarian attacks since the bombing of the Alexandria church on 2011 New Year Eve.
Other rallies by Egyptians abroad were held in several spots in the world, among them Berlin, Brussels, and Vienna. In Los Angeles, Coptic rallies cried for justice for Copts in Egypt, to chants of “Lord have mercy” in Coptic, Arabic, and English.