“I call on the officials to take realistic positions, as there have been no realistic consequences ten days after the incident, an issue that has increased the frustration and pain among Copts,” His Holiness Pope Tawadros II continued.
“Copts suffer from a number of problems, including the crisis regarding the building of churches, the fragile law that does not prevail on all and religious discrimination in different positions of the Egyptian state,” His Holiness added.
After his meeting with the representatives of the national and democratic current in the Shura Council (de facto parliament for now) on Tuesday the Coptic Patriarch said, “What concerns me is the image of Egypt, as the attacks against the cathedral, which is the oldest and largest church in the East, came after the aggression against Copts in Khosous. Such attacks undermine the image of Egypt in front of the world, and could affect the economy, aid, and tourism. They put Egypt in the ranks of countries that are far from (respecting) law and human rights. These repercussions pain me as and Egyptian, as I love Egypt and every Egyptian citizen, Muslims and Christians.”
Regarding the customary reconciliation session conducted in Khosous, His Holiness said, “Such issues cannot be resolved without reconciliation, especially when the law is undermined. What can we do? It is necessary in order to allow people to get to their life. We have no other way to ease the suffering of the poor citizens and to allow him to get out of his house, but a state of panic is dominating citizens due to the current insecurity and the absence of law.”
His Holiness commented on the arrest of Coptic youth over the accusation of involvement in the cathedral incident, saying, “I refuse the violations and the security “balances” (whereby innocent Copts may be arrested in order to appear even-handed), as they could lead us outside of the circle of law. We should avoid such wrong approaches.”
Pope Tawdros II added that he met with representatives of the national and democratic currents in Egypt’s Shura Council who expressed their condolences for the martyrs who were killed in the attacks against Copts in Khosous and St Mark’s Cathedral.
“The talk was candid without compliments. We discussed a number of problems from which the Egyptian community suffers. It was agreed that a serious stand is needed to resolve these problems that are growing every day,” His Holiness added.
“We mentioned the report prepared by Gamal El-Otiefy which proposed solutions for such problems since the Khanka incident of 1972, but it has never been adopted. A large number of incidents have accumulated to expand the circle of sectarian violence and sectarian sedition, but the law has not been implemented, which further increased the anger and frustration of Copts,” His Holiness concluded.
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Edited from http://mcndirect.com/showsubject.aspx?id=44879