” “"The recent violence against Coptic Christians, as far as we know, is not related to confessional or religious reasons, but are acts of ordinary crime". Mgr. Giuseppe Sarraf, bishop of Cairo of the Chaldeians, is pouring oil on the troubled waters of the controversies that have arisen when a few days ago in Cairo a Christian goldsmith was killed with three assistants in his shop, another goldsmith in Alexandria was wounded and robbed, and three monks in the monastery of Deir Abu Fana were beaten up by some neighbours due to a litigation for the building of a wall of the monastery. "There is no evidence that might suggest religious violence says the bishop to SIR , even if the reasons for these despicable actions are not known yet. However, in Alexandria the authors of the robbery have already been arrested. The fact these events happened in a quick succession suggested there might be a confessional reason behind them". "We should say adds the bishop that the relations between Christians and Muslims in Egypt are friendly. The Egyptian Government takes care of preventing extremists entering the country and trying to manipulate the weaker and poorer strata of the population, triggering dangerous internal conflicts that would be difficult to eradicate later on. There are infiltrations, we can’t deny that, but there is relentless control and we too must be vigilant". (dnr)
