More Violent Protests in Egypt - This Time It's Against Christians

24 dead in worst Cairo riots since Mubarak ouster

CAIRO (AP) — Flames lit up downtown Cairo, where massive clashes raged Sunday, drawing Christians angry over a recent church attack, Muslims and Egyptian security forces. At least 24 people were killed and more than 200 injured in the worst sectarian violence since the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February.

The rioting lasted late into the night, bringing out a deployment of more than 1,000 security forces and armored vehicles to defend the state television building along the Nile, where the trouble began. The military clamped a curfew on the area until 7 a.m.

The clashes spread to nearby Tahrir Square, drawing thousands of people to the vast plaza that served as the epicenter of the protests that ousted Mubarak. On Sunday night, they battled each other with rocks and firebombs, some tearing up pavement for ammunition and others collecting stones in boxes.

At one point, an armored security van sped into the crowd, striking a half-dozen protesters and throwing some into the air. Protesters retaliated by setting fire to military vehicles, a bus and private cars, sending flames rising into the night sky.

After midnight, mobs roamed downtown streets, attacking cars they suspected had Christian passengers. In many areas, there was no visible police or army presence to confront or stop them.

Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 80 million people, blame the country's ruling military council for being too lenient on those behind a spate of anti-Christian attacks since Mubarak's ouster. As Egypt undergoes a chaotic power transition and security vacuum in the wake of the uprising, the Coptic Christian minority is particularly worried about the show of force by ultraconservative Islamists.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, addressing the nation in a televised speech, said the violence threatened to throw Egypt's post-Mubarak transition off course.

http://news.yahoo.com/24-dead-worst-cairo-riots-since-mubarak-ouster-232452205.html

 

It's religion. Sad, but hardly news imo. Just when things seem to have a chance of moving forward, all of a sudden we've got Christians and Muslims. Or Jews and Muslims. Or Muslims and Hindus. Leave it to religion to totally f**k up an already fragile situation.

 

It is the wonderful Arab Spring. The uprising that our government support by threatening the past Egyptian government not to crack down on. This is what the Saudi government wants. An islam that is zero tolerant and has no outside influences upon it be it old cultural or imported. They will not be happy till we all are not muslims, not sunnis muslims but Wahhabi sect of Islam. This is why the Saudi's spent over one hundred billion dollars building wahhabi mosques in other nations. This is why the Saudi's own vast majority of stock shares in mass media. This is why they have the sword for holy war in their flag. People have to wake up. They have a long term plan. They do not care if it takes ten years or a hundred years to win nation by nation over.

 

This whole arab spring was a religous thing from the beginning. The only difference is, where it was shia uprising against Sunni it was ignored.

 

Can we send our Christians over to join the fight?

 

I think that's a good question. We can't send them but they can send themselves. If you are Christian and you see your fellow Christians being oppressed in Egypt or anywhere else then go over there an fight for The Faith. I'm sure that the Egyptian Christians would be glad to have you. You've invaded and oppressed others enough in the name of your god. Maybe it's time you started playing defense against a religion that is as virulently expansionist as your own.

 

How about we send our Muslims instead?

 

What? To make it even harder on the poor Egyptian Christians? Are you outing yourself as a Muslim sympathizer?

 

How about if we stick all religious faiths in a big valley and let them fight it out. The one that emerges gets to be the world religion until someone in that religion has a slightly different take on how to worship imaginary beings and splits off to form a different religion and then they can both be thrown into the valley and see which one emerges and then that one gets to be the world religion. It would just keep things so neat. I'm all about solutions.

 

Yes, being a Muslim sympathizer seems to be the flavor-of-the-month these days.

 

Why is all this hatred being directed at religion? Can't you non-believers simply let others believe what they want?

 

Hey, I called for a worldwide religion. It doesn't get anymore loving than that.

 

Nope, our army follows the orders of the Commander in Chief as well as congress and they follow the orders of Saudi Arabia. This is what they want. It is a holy war to rid Islam of outside influences and to get rid of any other religions as well. If Iran was not a threat to the Saudi's, Isreal would have been gone already. Funny through how no one cares when Christians die. They are people too you know.

 

I'd say there are plenty of believers involved. They just don't believe in the same things.

 

I have nothing against Christians, it's just those that practice Christianity that bother me. When are they going to get it right?

 

If the numbers were reversed in Egypt I'm pretty confident that the Christians would be kicking the Muslims' around. The stupidity of the whole thing is almost beyond belief. That people would persecute and kill each other over myths and magic.

 

Nope. look up the history of the coptic church. Was not their style. Muslims kill. Their Koran instructs them to. Just because a person does not have a religion does not makes them safe from them. They will kill anyone who has a different mindset. It is in the Koran. Pick your version. Shia or Sunni. Pick your sect. This is why they will win. We make excuses, jokes. They make gains by the year, by the centuries. Personal Freedom, good bye. Allah be praised

 

There are some pretty shallow, hypocritical folks among us here....the lefties demand fair treatment & equal rights for everyone except people of faith. Why is it okay for people of faith to be skewered by the same people here who bristle when sexual preference or race is at issue?

 

Maybe because it is those people of "faith" constantly trying to block rights for people they don't like. You know gays, women that aren't submissive to their husbands, other religions, etc. I've never heard of a gay group trying to take away any religious group's rights to marry, prevent them from adopting, force any religious group to have an abortion, or restrict any of their rights. But these nice people of faith are the victims here because if some gay guy in inner city New York gets married to his lover, their marriages will all be destroyed. I have a very hard time seeing these religious zealots as the victims here. I see them reaping what the sew. Look at your friends of faith at the values summit this past week end. They attacked Mormons as cults. They don't even get along with each other but we're supposed to see THEM as victims. Don't make me laugh. All you Right-wingers play the victim so well it's almost funny and the Christian Right isn't any different. Boo hoo!

 

I wasn't going to waste any more time on you, I really wasn't. You are so not worth it. But I've got to respond to this one.

Faith, religion, whatever you want to call it is a choice. Your religion, if you have one, is a belief system. Presumably you've examined it, thought about it, compared it to some of the myriad of other religious belief systems out there plus the concept of no religious belief system at all and decided it makes sense to you. But you were not born with it, as you were born with the color of your skin. Or your sexual orientation. Or the color of your eyes. It is a choice based on your understanding of the evidence available to you.

As such it it open to criticism, analysis and even skewering, just as my being a Libtard is. Or your being a Conservative is. Religious people variously argue with, debate, mock, skewer, excommunicate, and even kill each other over their respective sects, denominations, or faiths. They have been doing these things probably since organized religion got started. Is the criticism of religion the right of believers only and off limits to the rest of us? As an atheist I can tell you that sure doesn''t work that way in reverse and I don't think it should.

So when you can show me that you had no choice being a [fill in the religion] That is was programmed into your genes. That is was not something that you were taught or ever thought about or reflected on or studied, that it was something you were born with. That it was not a choice. That your being a Baptist or a Catholic or a Zen Buddhist or whatever it is you are was something that you had no more control over than the color of your skin then I will consider your faith off limits for comment or criticism or skewering.