Posted on Facebook on April 9, 2013
This is the official comment from Essam el-Haddad, President Morsy’s Assistant on Foreign Affairs. It is a flagrant expression of how the President and his Muslim Brotherhood completely misread the dangerous situation in Egypt now, and how their discourse (and this statement is a good example of it), is biased and indeed incendiary.
First, they are not even getting their facts right: al-Khosous is not in Giza, it is in Cairo next to Shubra.
Second, the original incident had nothing to do with Christian symbols. Rather, it involved painting a swastika on a building that belongs to al-Azhar. When the Presidency identifies the swastika as a Christian symbol, it is (uncritically?) repeating the inflammatory rumors that Muslims in al-Khosous spread (“smearing crosses on a mosque?). If, on the other hand, the Presidency does not know the difference between the swastika and the cross, then we do have a serious problem, indeed.
Third, it is not true that on the 7th of April that the Cathedral was protected by the police. I was there myself and I attended the funeral. I did leave just before the bloody skirmishes started, though. Still, on entering the cathedral around 1 pm, and when leaving it around 3, I could see a total of about 10 policemen and officers.
Fourth, and more importantly, the Presidency is equating between both sides. Copts are a beleaguered community and their churches have been torched and attacked repeatedly. Whereas Muslims… well, Muslims are in power. Any assumption of parity between both sides is complicit in the violence.
Shame on you, Essam el Haddad. Shame on you, Mohamed Morsi.