Clashes between Muslims and Christians resulted in at least thirteen deaths in Egypt yesterday while sporadic street fights between rival gangs brought a return of violence to Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
The fighting began late on Tuesday in Moqattam, an impoverished Christian quarter of the Egyptian capital where crowds gathered to demonstrate against the burning of a church during sectarian fighting last week. Gangs of Muslim youths arrived on the scene and opened fire on protesters, according to witnesses.
Meanwhile in Tahrir Square, the site of pro-democracy protests that ousted President Hosni Mubarak, remaining activists battled attackers with rocks and clubs as mobs tried to evict them from the Square.
“Its not so clear any more,” a student explained in the wake of the fighting in the Square. “The remaining protesters aren’t representative of our revolution. They are in our way, protesting about jobs and pay rises. They aren’t political. A lot of people are angry with them and wish they would just go away.”
In the aftermath of revolution, the famous Square offers a grim warning of what could occur in Egypt unless the new government quickly re-establishes authority and stability. Suspicious gangs of youths eyed each other with hostility, unsure of which side the other was on. The were no police to be seen.
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More serious, however, was the upsurge in sectarian fighting between Muslims and Christians. The clashes took place as the newly appointed cabinet met with the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to propose a law criminalising incitement to hatred, which could lead to the death penalty. Yet Egypt’s Christian community regards its future warily, suddenly uncertain of its relations with Muslim neighbours.