'Horrible': Christian churches throughout Egypt stormed, torched For 67 years, the Virgin Mary Church has been a peaceful refuge for Shenouda El Sayeh, much like the Giza province village of Hafr Hakim where it rests and where he has lived all those years.
But, as he swept its floors on Thursday, it was painfully obvious things had changed.
The night before, a mob
-- chanting against Coptic Christians such as El Sayeh and calling for
Egypt to become an "Islamic state" -- had torched and looted the Virgin
Mary Church.
"I didn't expect this to happen," El Sayeh said.
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He's not alone.
Christians all around Egypt are cleaning up in the aftermath of a spate
of attacks, which not coincidentally came on the county's deadliest day
since the 2011 revolution that overthrew longtime President Hosni
Mubarak.
Bishop Angaelos, the
Cairo-born head of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom,
said he was told by colleagues in Egypt that 52 churches were attacked
in a 24-hour span that started Wednesday, as well as numerous
Christians' homes and businesses.
Ishak Ibrahim, a
researcher with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said, he
had confirmed attacks on at least 30 churches so far, in addition to
the targeting of church-related facilities, including schools and
cultural centers.
Those churches reportedly set ablaze Wednesday included St. George Church in Sohag, a city south of Cairo on the Nile River.
And the new day brought
new attacks. Prince Tadros Church in Fayoum, which is southwest of
Cairo, was stormed and burned Thursday night, according to the official
Middle East News Agency.
This and other attacks
have been blamed by some on supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the
Islamist group once led by more recently deposed President Mohamed
Morsy. They, too, have reportedly been caught up in the violence:
Egypt's health ministry says that at least 580 people were killed and
more than 4,000 injured amidst clashes involving security forces and
Morsy supporters.
What group, if any, is
behind the church attacks, and how coordinated this violence has been
might not been be sorted out definitely for some time.
Until then, Christians
in Egypt are left to try to put things back together, as well as to try
to make sense of what's transpired.
As Dalia Ziada of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies said: "This is horrible to happen in only one day.
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