tv Documentary RT July 30, 2013 1:29am-2:01am EDT
1:29 am
to escape from his tiny apartment onto the rooftops there you can see the crosses on top of the local church where policemen enjoy the intense a gypsy heat next to the entrance it's unlikely that mina realizes his father knows like a tia humble government employee was killed on this very roof. a sniper's bullet caught him in the chest on that april night of twenty thirty meters father was one of six christians who died sectarian violence. we were sitting here all together and i'm going up to the roof to check on the church he wanted to know what was going on there and if he had to go and defend it or moderate then he went up there twice the third time he left he didn't come back . he was brought back and lie down here.
1:30 am
also written here on my arm i have an image of jesus christ i like it a lot i also have one of pope shenouda and the madonna. every single tattoo is really important to me. the eldest son crossways short sleeved shirts to show off his tattoos openly displaying your affiliation to the christian minority in an islamic country can be seen as an act of defiance especially now when such tatoos might easily mark someone as a potential victim. an old fit weaves its way through cairo's ancient streets early in the morning. come up a priest of the archangel michael church is late for the first service. it
1:31 am
starts at six in the morning to enable believers to pray before they go to work sunday is not a day of rest in egypt. yeah. it . up close. well with people who come to the church today or are regular congregation they come here every sunday to pray. recently it has become very difficult to a boy's discussions about politics and violence between christians and muslims and i don't want that i really beg our church goes nuts to turn the house of god into a place of arguments on the fourth because i mean in regards to the religious conflicts of course we all worry about it not just the cult but the whole country does after the revolution and the overthrow of mubarak the church has been attacked
1:32 am
about ten times. but i will still keep saying that the muslims are all brothers who will follow. the cairo suburb of new sources similar to many of the capitals districts they will have a poor area of high rise buildings where cops and muslims live together. this neighborhood was quite peaceful until april fifth two thousand and thirteen when two coptic teenagers painted a swastika on the wall of an islamic school. the muslims were offended not by the nazi symbol but that it was him blazoned with the christian cross an angry mob started to gather near the church. at the time some. him from the mosque behind the church came and told us there was
1:33 am
some sort of fight he suggested that we all stay together all the christians gathered around the church to defend. in about fifteen to twenty minutes i saw some cars people got out and started shooting all over the place there are still bullet holes outside on the church. people we saw were people falling down beaten by other people there were a lot of injured somebody also threw take us grenades. during the conflict almost all of the christian men the full source went to protect the church they barricaded the surrounding streets and boarded up all of the churches windows and doors. if there had been no response to the shooting they would have broken into the church before six people were killed they were shot in the head or the heart because it means they were professionals let's be honest there are plenty of
1:34 am
weapons in this country. they had silenced firearms which hardly make a sound but they're still lethal. muggers kamil was shot during the attack his wife prefers to live with her relatives now because she is afraid to return to her apartment and. i wanted to stop him but he said the house of god is on fire and have to go and defend it we were at home and could smell the tear gas because of the bombs the police were throwing their own houses quite far from the church but we could still smell it that is why my husband closed all the doors and windows to protect us from the slogan added i try to stop him but he said that the church was on fire how after this he left. i got a call later they told me he had been shot in. the local cops asserting that the massacre was not started by the muslim neighbors but by foreign extremists to the
1:35 am
yes since the fall of mubarak's regime islamic radicals of all backgrounds have been growing in strength the minute the reason for the hate is because of sheikhs like abu slum stirring things up. he said from the start that he would like not just for seven cops dead in the hoose attack but seventy or seven hundred or even seven thousand. they say it's wrong to score in the islamic religion is that all but is it ok to despise us. and no more who knows what happened in full source was one of the christian muslim conflicts in egypt's that has been going on for the past thirty years missed christians are always the first ones to attack it is really difficult to make ordinary people come down and control themselves. must move the bullet for love is one of the most controversial figures in egyptian public life he calls himself
1:36 am
1:37 am
the egyptian population supported my viewpoint and today it is at least seventy five percent because the church has brought discredit upon itself with its actions they show their worst side they said that christians of muslims are neighbors but insulted allah drew crosses everywhere an extended tory and then bill charges on it here where people got angry when he then had the commissioner and now. the islam rose to notoriety after destroying a copy of the bible in front of the american embassy in cairo one year after the nine eleven attacks he has been taken to court but until recently i do islamic extremist acts of cost by without legal consequences. about ten percent of egypt's eighty million population
1:38 am
a cup to christiane's making them the biggest a nomination in the middle east the cup the community has always been a difficult issue with national politics this christian minority is defined by its higher level of education income and unity however for generations culp's of had to put up with the unspoken rules of them from holding senior positions in the government security services to the winter revolution of twenty eleven many christians hopes that religious segregation would disappear along with the regime. but i was the first woman in the history of egypt to be elected successfully that is. the percentage of cops in the muslim brotherhood parliament now is also very small less than half a percent. and one can be and if there's not a single coptic representative in the government of the muslim brotherhood comes.
1:39 am
however muggeridge victory didn't last too long when mubarak's place was taken by president morsi with the parliament practically dominated by islamic parties there was no place for her. vision for most. there's no doubt that copts in egypt are living in fear because every day we hear some extremist announcements which are into a country we expected that the cops just like all egyptians here woodgate their rights or at least get freedom and social justice all of them but now they're terrified even more because they're more islamic fact was. they want to make us pay the g.c.i. slotnick tax they want to put a tax on christianity make us where they hit and reduce the minimum age of marriage if i look at the final thing they want to legitimize is the matter of keeping kidnapped christian women so they don't have to return them to their parents for
1:40 am
the have. them on honey prays every day for the sixteen year old daughter's life and health she hasn't seen up for almost a year. where she was sixteen years old this is what i have no idea why she left. i was at work she was at home with her brother she told him she was going out with her muslim girlfriend to. and would be back home soon that she went away and didn't come back i don't know anything about that friend of hers but i'm sure she took her somewhere. in her no is convinced her daughter didn't run away but was kidnapped she is certain that the police barely even tried to find her daughter. that was the model i went to the police and declared her missing they call me
1:41 am
periodically asking whether or not i've solved the problem i always answer is it me who has to solve it maybe they also told me i have to cooperate with them how come they didn't question that muslim girl. documented about five hundred cases of girls disappearing off to the revolution the case of fourteen year old abdul malik is one of the most famous i don't remember the name of the man who was accused in the kidnapping he was the owner of a bookstore. she went out and didn't come back. called the hospitals and declared her missing cording to witnesses the last place she was seen was that exact but store. owner was accused and there was a warrant to arrest him but it wasn't carried out. abraham lewis the coptic civic organization that investigates cases of christian
1:42 am
girls who have disappeared most of the time the girls do run away with their muslim fiance but kidnappings do occur the police try not to get involved especially if there's information of the missing girl had already converted to islam. but wearing a hit job is their choice they talk about it frankly on the internet and these are not rare cases there are hundreds and thousands of them it is evident that the church has some social and cultural problems provoking the christian girls to convert to islam nobody's being kidnapped. the people who died in the houses attack
1:43 am
including those that idea and marcus scammell were buried two days after the tragedy the funeral began in the center of cairo next to some coptic orthodox cathedral like many other large gatherings in the past two years the several thousand strong funeral procession erupted into a massive protest resulting in confrontations the funeral lead to further violence and two more people died in. the priest you know it's come out asks everyone in the church to pray for peace between muslims and copts to remind his congregation that god is patient and kind that is why all christians have to be patient and to enjoy.
1:44 am
1:45 am
on our reporters twitter. and instagram. could be in the. unlocked. but i will only react to situations i haven't read the reports so let me put the no i'll leave that to the state department to comment on your latter point the monkey say it's ok because i'm going to. say no more weasel words and when you made a direct question be prepared for a change when you run should be ready for a. pretty tough speech and down to freedom to cost.
1:46 am
zero was a small village two hours drive from cairo typifies the egyptian provinces unemployment and poverty are rife coptic christians make up a fifth of the local population in this small church they used to thank god but the sectarian clashes were happening far from the quiet village that was until the day a muslim man got into a fight on the street with a cult. what's happened that day is nothing out of the ordinary between neighbors there was this move fight because of a dog that was bothering them one of them asked them to get rid of the dog the
1:47 am
other refused one thing led to another and they fought it's nothing special. friends and relatives of the cult and the muslims soon began to gather where the fight taken place. the domestic conflict can easily escalate into widespread violence in egypt. someone was hit the others responded there were casualties on both sides. as always happens between farmers they gather to clear up the situation and understand who was right or wrong. peacefully at the end of the day in our village no one wants to make things complicated and aggravate the problem is that we're not used to making something out of nothing blowing things out of proportion. in turn touches era local elders and the priest managed to settle the conflict however violence could not be avoided in autumn of two thousand and eleven in the southern city of us one
1:48 am
muslims attacked a christian church and tried to burn it down they said it had been built without permission. two days later ten cells outraged cops went out to protest in the center of cairo right in front of the miss barrow state television building they claim against us once local governor and. all for an independent inquiry into the church attack me. just when this happened in my spare office i wasn't far away from the egyptian television broadcasting center i worked there video cairo suddenly we could hear gunfire i saw military trucks going back and forth a great speeder on my spirit people were forced either to the side of the road or towards the nile i saw a lot of bodies it was awful people whose arms and legs have been ripped off other people tried to cover the body somehow my colleagues and i tried to escape to the
1:49 am
televisions office buildings but they attacked us you know if we tried to shore documents i was one of the first layer of the officer figured out from my name that i was a christian he started yelling at me and hit me on the head and i got both of them up and i thought. twenty lives were tragically lost in the midst of the incident one about another two hundred people were injured. there this was an attack from the regime. the interior power against the christian again of the world using the bullets using to get all
1:50 am
the snow and we're not talking about the citizens normal things of the about the army it for forces for the interior ministry who is also for this for sure morsi which we call the brilliant. little. not be happy man. michaud is a member of the must better movement it was formed by young copts after the tragedy the goal is to achieve christian rights through nonviolent means. the works of the dream about one hundred and four. thousand years not twenty years and more that is home to live in christians and injure. after the revolution.
1:51 am
one hundred and one hundred four families have been forced to immigrate. after mubarak things got worse for the copts neither the pro islamic government nor parliament focused on protecting religious minorities for fundamentalists couplet christians are an ideal scapegoat there's the enemy within. christians are deprived of rights i would love to have the same rights christians have in egypt that was exactly the thing i asked abdul ali mussa the former interior minister i still want this because christians here have many more rights than muslims to and. so on and. so on. while recording this interview of the islam received some unfortunate news.
1:52 am
that the hyena trial court had sentenced him to eleven years for extremism if any. travelling from the center of egypt's capital to those in district is like traveling back in time the words of a lean means rubbish people here they're all christians. no one can tell exactly how many people live in this area that was founded in the middle of the twentieth century. there is from hundreds of thousands to half a million rescue says their lives they collected from all around cairo bring it back here and pick through it by hand. but the
1:53 am
process has five stages that of the first one is on the ground they have to separate the garbage from. the second starts after they wash it down i want to go after washing we have to use this machine to heat it up but i don't know what if it requires a really high temperature on my bottom it heats the refuse i'm not going to do this is the third stage of the whole procedure so first you have to wash it and then to heat it by a good after all that it goes to the factory to be recycled. this is the view of the cairo citadel from those of a lean leaders health he doesn't pick up rubbish from the streets unable but he knows all the details of the trade perfectly.
1:54 am
adds a better garbage collectors working day go something like. this out of he starts work at four am he knows which part in which area he has to cover with his children he gathers garbage until nine or ten in the morning then he returns home with all of it his children and wife help them to separate all the material once a week people come to this place to buy the garbage this is how he earns a living for his family. even took part in municipal elections but failed to become a deputy. what he regrets most is that the revolution supported by there's a berlin has done nothing for his people in fact this situation has become worse they've slowly been hounded out of business by big companies who are now collecting the garbage radical islamic preachers even want to kick them out of the area.
1:55 am
the bible and jesus teaches that religion and god means loving by fellow man christians do not want power or senior positions we don't want to rule egypt all we want is to preserve our country were born and raised where we drank the nile's water and where our forefathers died defending egypt christians died on top here square during the revolution just like many others we want to live raise our children in safety and we want our church to be safe we have a right to ask for it because we have the same rights as muslims in this country. the archangel michael church was built not long ago its priest insists that a cultic church already existed on this exact spot at the beginning of the third century. at that time christian suffered persecution from the romans even their own
1:56 am
calendar stuff from two hundred eighty four a deed to so-called era of mud. those. we are in a state of psychological war right now it is tough of course they try to intimidate and terrorize christians if they kidnap young girls down the christian shops and pharmacies but the situation is different from the one under the roman empire but not period of time they tried to kill the christians with it as for us i'm speaking as a cultic church priest we are not courting the emigration somebody wants to leave let them go but i want everyone to know that we will die but we will never leave our country.
1:57 am
1:59 am
2:00 am
the u.s. whistleblower bradley manning will soon hear his sentence he could face life in prison if found guilty of aiding the enemy. all talk as israeli palestinian negotiations resume after years of failed peace at first we take a look at the roots of the deadlock. and a slowdown in the world's workshop as china post's modest growth figures we find out whether those predicting a major financial debt are justified. on this account of and you are watching our team well let's get right to.
39 Views
Uploaded by TV Archive on
