Thousands of people rallied in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday calling for national unity, after attacks on Egyptian churches, and for solidarity with the Palestinians. Some held up crosses and others waved Palestinian flags as the numbers swelled in Cairo's iconic square, the epicentre of protests that overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in February after an 18-day uprising.
"If you attack a Christian, you're attacking all Egyptians," said one man delivering a speech at a podium. "The churches attacked in Imbaba are not less than the mosques attacked in Jerusalem," he said, linking the two themes of Friday's protest. "National unity was there during the revolt but the remnants of the old regime want to destroy the country," said Ahmed Muhanna, who wore a green headband bearing the words "the army of Mohammed." A Coptic priest took the podium, in front of a big banner that said "national unity" and "Palestinian reconciliation", to plead for tolerance.
"We all worship the same god in our churches and mosques," he said. But most Coptic protesters stayed away from Tahrir, choosing instead to gather in front of the nearby state television building, where Christians have staged a sit-in since clashes on Saturday.
The thousands of Coptic protesters outside the state television building held wooden crosses and chanted against hard-line Islamist fundamentalists. "We are going to church to pray, no matter what happens to us," they chanted. Fifteen people were killed in the weekend violence after Muslims surrounded a church in Cairo demanding the handover of a woman they said Christians had detained after she converted to Islam and left her Christian husband to marry a Muslim.
The Muslims also set fire to a second church. The woman who sparked the clashes was arrested on Thursday, along with the Muslim man said to be her husband. She is accused of having more than one husband, a judicial source said. The unrest threatened to drive Egypt's often tense religious tensions to the brink, prompting the military to arrest more than 200 people it said will swiftly be tried.
Activists had called for a mass show of unity on Friday, which has become a regular day of protest after the weekly Muslim prayers at noon. The demonstrators in Tahrir waved Palestinian flags as they listened to speeches denouncing Israel and chanted in support of Palestinians. A cleric who gave the Friday sermon accused Arab rulers of "selling" the Palestinians in order to keep their positions. One of the protesters, 17-year-old Mahmud Gamal, had painted the colours of the Palestinian flag on his face.
"We are all Arabs. We all need to be united," he said. Some other protesters held Tunisian and Syrian flags and chanted for pan-Arab solidarity. An Egyptian peace treaty with Israel is widely unpopular among Egyptians because of the Jewish state's policies towards Palestinians.
Activists have called for a march to neighbouring Gaza at the weekend to show solidarity with the Palestinians as they mark the "Nakba" or "catastrophe" which befell them following Israel's establishment in 1948. But authorities blocked access to the Sinai Peninsula bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip in anticipation of protesters who intend to set off from Tahrir on Saturday, an AFP correspondent said. Meanwhile, thousands protested outside the Israeli embassy in central Cairo to demand the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and the severance of ties with the Jewish state. Pointing to the Israeli flag, protesters chanted "Bring it down, Burn it!."
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