Those who worry that the Egyptian revolution is merely a cover for hardline Islamists might see last weekends trouble in Cairo as some sort of Militant Islamic attack on Christians in pursuance of the same cause.
A Moslem blogger that I follow sees it as a conservative move by Egyptian security services (SCAF) and an attempt by them to creat discord in order to bolster their own position.
In his first post for a month
Sandmonkey describes the events thus
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a huge demo held by Coptic Christians & muslim supporters protesting against yet another fight over the building of a Church was attacked by the Egyptian armed forces there to protect it and plainclothed thugs. Shots were fired at protesters killing them, rocks were thrown by protesters in return, protesters were overrun by armored vehicles, the Egyptian State TV issued a plea asking Egyptian citizens to come to the Demo and “protect the army from Christian thugs”, and a street battle that resulted in over 24 dead and 150 injured. The street battle after a while turned into Egyptian citizens fighting each other, without any of them being able to figure out who was fighting who. Pandemonium, for a lack of a better word."Pandemonium, Recidivist military types love a bit of that especially when it is sectarian.
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(SCAF) After believing the political street to be dead, and that the revolution is almost dying, they figured they now have the power to put “people in their proper place” like the old days. So, they went down yesterday to terrorize the Christians, counting that they won’t put up a fight (because they never really did before).
"This was obviously planned, so what the hell was the SCAF thinking? How could they attack and kill Egyptians on the street so casually, while their sole purpose is to protect them from getting killed? How could they risk enflaming the country into a huge sectarian battle by having state Media so conscientiously attacking the Christians and promoting violence against them? How did they not see that the choice they made is an inherently flawed one that it could spell their doom?."
Happily Sandmonkey then goes on to give four good reasons why their actions will backfire.
For any that are interested in what is going on in Egypt I urge you to read this account from a Moslem on the Cairo street.
Sandmonkey, The last choice
