Arab-West Report Denounces Devastating Bomb Attack at the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo

Yesterday a bomb exploded close to St. Peter and St. Paul Chapel which is attached to St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo, leaving 25 dead and around 50 injured. This makes this attack the most severe in modern history of Christians in Egypt. A woman in her twenties was able to get through the security control with an explosive belt. Custom in Egypt is to check bags but not people and this has become fatal for the victims. Since the explosion took place in the women’s section in church the victims were women and children.

Arab-West Report is offering condolences to family and friends of the victims. Today Arab-West Report’s Cornelis Hulsman and Chinese Coptic studies intern Shen Shangyun visited the church of the Holy Virgin in Mahmasha, Shubra, Cairo. Bishop Martyrus was presiding the condolence meeting and gave an explicit welcome to Hulsman and Shangyun. Following this Hulsman offered his condolences to the assembled church congregation.

In this newsletter we want to highlight the tremendous significance of such a large attack.

The remote detonation and the timing indicate planning. Yesterday, the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad was celebrated. It was also Sunday during the period of Advent in preparation for Christmas and thus many people attended church. Due to this, President al-Sīsī declared three days of mourning and all the Muslim’s celebrations for the Prophet’s birthday have been put into halt as a result. An attack on the Cathedral on a Muslim holiday and Christians preparing for Christmas seems to intend to sow division in Egypt. 

This bomb attack reminds us of the bomb attack on the Two Saints Church in Alexandria in the first minutes of the New Year in 2011 that left 23 people dead. The perpetrators of this attack were never found but the Egyptian Interior Ministry attributed this to Islamist militants from Sinai. Following the Islamist supported revolution against President Hosni Mubarak persistent rumors were spread in 2011-2013 that the Egyptian minister of Interior was responsible for this. Claims were made that evidence had been found in police premises. Some foreign correspondents were believing this. I have, in those years, made efforts to find evidence and was not able to track down any convincing evidence.

The bomb attack also reminds us to the earlier clashes around the Cathedral in April 2013. That one had been triggered by the earlier clashes in Khusūs, a town just north of Cairo. Many Copts at the time decried this as an attack on the church in Egypt as a whole. Here too accusations were made in different directions. Was the Egyptian police responsible or was this the then ruling government of President Muhammad Mursī? President Mursī issued a statement directly saying the attack on the cathedral was an attack on him personally. But many did not believe he was sincere and accused Islamists. See here the report of AWR researcher Jayson Casper.

We do not yet know who is responsible for this attack but it is very likely that an Islamist group is responsible. In an extensive report for Missio I reported about the history of mistrust and growing escalation between Islamists and Christians. See: Hulsman, Cornelis, Christen in Ägypten: Die wachsende Kluft zwischen Islamisten und Nicht-Islamisten. Missio: Aachen, 2013 (Menschenrechte 54). The English text “Christians as Victims of the Growing Islamist non-Islamist divide; the urgent need for peace and reconciliation” can be found here.

Pope Tawadros was, together with Muslim leaders, seen alongside then General ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ al-Sīsī, now president, when he made the statement that President Mursī had been removed. President al-Sīsī attended the Coptic Orthodox Christmas masses twice in January 2015 and January 2016. During the last visit he made promisess to repair all churches that had been destroyed after the violent dispersal of Islamist demonstrators in Cairo. Pope Tawadros has made numerous positive statements about the president in the past years. It is thus obvious that there is a strong link between the president and the church.

On November 3 Egypt devaluated the Egyptian pound with 32.3%. This was applauded by several prominent Egyptian businessmen, including Egypt’s wealthiest Egyptian businessman Christian Naguib Sawiris, but the people in the street experienced new financial pressures with foreign products suddenly becoming more expensive and petrol and other prices increasing. Islamists called for massive demonstrations on November 11 but failed to do so. But this did not take away the widespread anger against the increasing prices. Islamists are known for deep involvement in social work in the poorest communities and mixing charity and development with a political message. President al-Sīsī and Egypt’s security have destroyed much of the infrastructure of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist organizations. Most of the leaders are in prison or have escaped abroad. But it is impossible to fully root out the Muslim Brotherhood that has an estimated membership of 800.000 to one million. Other Islamist organizations are much smaller in number but then the sympathy for the Islamist activists might be larger. Many preach a political message but others have been involved in militant attacks since Mursī was overthrown in July 2013.    

The attack on the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral is not like an attack on any other church. The cathedral is the seat of H.H. Pope Tawadros and is well protected.

Pope Tawadros is widely seen as an ally of President al-Sīsī and since it is hard to target him it is easier to target his presumed ally. Egypt is going through difficult economic times. It is evil to use the suffering of Egyptian people to settle political scores but this is most likely what we have seen today.

It is of paramount importance to reduce tensions in Egyptian society. Of course the arm of security is needed to wipe out militant extremism but also dialogue is needed with Islamists who denounce and oppose such violence. For this to happen it is needed to understand how diverse Islamists are, some resorted to violence but many others have not. Dialogue is needed to avoid that non-militant Islamists and others opposed to the government become attracted to violence. This needs an opposition to generalizations and an effort to understand the diverse background of Islamists and other opposition movements. In the previous newsletter I wrote about our forthcoming 271 page academic book From Ruling to Opposition; Islamist movements and Non-Islamists Groups in Egypt 2011-2013 which is primarily based on 65 interviews with Islamists and people opposed to them that have mostly been carried out by our interns. This book will help to get a better understanding who these Islamists are and what their relation is to the current government. The book still can be ordered for the highly reduced price of 12 Euros before it goes to print. Please write me if you want to obtain a copy for this highly reduced price.

An attack of this size on the main center of Coptic Orthodox Christianity is not likely to be without consequences. President al-Sīsī offered his condolences to the church. Security will hunt for the perpetrators and will be even more determined to fight extremism. Rumours about responsibilities are likely to follow. It is even possible that this will trigger another visit to the January Christmas mass in church. After the attack on the Two Saints Church in 2011 Muslims demonstrated in very large numbers their sympathy with Christians by standing during Christmas around many churches with candles.

In a statement, the Azhar, the world's oldest seat of Sunni Islamic learning, underlined that targeting houses of worship and the killing of innocent people are criminal acts that violate Islamic principles.Muslims in authority and most Muslim Egyptians strongly abhor such violence but this does not take away that there is widespread mistrust and animosity between Egypt’s Christians and a substantial number of Islamists which cannot be resolved in the current political atmosphere in which large numbers of Islamists refuse to accept the government of President al-Sīsī, the government suppresses Islamist movements and activities since it is hard to distinguish between those who are militants and those who genuinely denounce violence, also if it comes from Islamists. Large numbers of Christians show, for good reasons, sympathy for Egypt’s government policies towards Islamists. During the condolences in the church of the Holy Virgin in Mahmasha Muslims were attending, the bishop spoke about Muslims and Christians being ‘one hand’ and support for President al-Sīsī was expressed.

Cornelis Hulsman,

Editor Arab-West Report

Written with support of Matthew Sparks, editor, and Shangyun Shen, Intern Researcher on Coptic Christianity

PS Our newsletter was written hours after the attack but we were not able to mail this since we had been hit by a spam attack. These problems have been resolved now but it has caused a delay of over one day in sending this mail.