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In Egypt Christian Anger Grows After Church Bombing

By Howard M. Friedman

An AP article in today's Washington Post reports that in Egypt, protests by Christians have spread from Alexandria to Cairo in the wake of the bombing on New Year's Eve of a Coptic church in Alexandria. Twenty-one people were killed. (See prior posting.) The bombing was the latest in a long series of anti-Christian incidents since 2008, including a drive-by shooting killing 6 Christians and a Muslim guard in January on Coptic Christmas eve. In 2009 the government disrupted the livelihood of a large number of Christian garbage collectors by ordering the destruction of a quarter million pigs to prevent swine flu. The garbage collectors raised the pigs to dispose of organic waste. Perpetrators of anti-Christian incidents have largely escaped punishment. Christians claim they are discriminated against in obtaining government and university jobs, as well as jobs in the private sector. An editorial titled J'accuse in the online version of the English language state-owned newspaper al-Ahram, warned against growing anti-Christian feelings among moderate Muslims and raised the spectre of Christians being driven out of Egypt.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on January 03, 2011 (boomark / email).