Coptic leader warns of growing rift in Egypt

FRIBOURG, Switzerland (CNS) -- The patriarch of the Coptic Catholic Church in Egypt blamed Islamic fundamentalists for the increasing number of attacks on Christians and criticized a growing division between Muslims and Christians since the country’s February revolution.

Speaking Oct. 30 at St. Nicolas Cathedral in Fribourg, Switzerland, during a day of prayer for persecuted Catholics, Cardinal Antonios Naguib, Coptic Catholic patriarch of Alexandria, said the links between Muslims and Catholics that were reinforced in the period just after the revolution have deteriorated.

“Today, Islamic fundamentalists have come out of the woodwork, and there are recurring attacks on Christians,” Cardinal Naguib said.

The attacks left dozens dead and “created a gulf between Muslims and Christians, which is being continually widened under the influence of fanatical leaders,” he said during the event organized by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

The cardinal said the unity that existed during the revolution, which saw Christians and Muslims praying together in churches and mosques for peace and a return to order, has virtually ended.

Cardinal Naguib pointed to the 2010 Synod of Bishops on the Middle East decision not to apply the word “persecution” to the plight of Christians in the region and said they have faced “prohibitions imposed by the Quran and Islamic Shariah law.”

Earlier, in an interview with the Aid to the Church in Need news agency, Coptic Orthodox Bishop Estaphanos of Beba, Samasta and El Fashn said “daily vexations” have included demands for a boycott of Christian shops and refusal to employ people “without veils over their heads.” He said he believed attempts were under way for a general expulsion of Christians.

“Christians in Egypt are experiencing their worst period in centuries,” he told news agency.