Africa

Africa

Hundreds of Egyptians hold marches against recent sectarian violence

12 April 2013 23:42 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Hundreds of Egyptians staged a march Friday outside a church in Giza governorate, condemning the recent sectarian clashes that killed at least nine people, mostly Copts, and injured over a hundred, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The march outside the Virgin Mary Church in Giza's Imbaba neighborhood was organized by revolutionary April 6 Youth Movement and joined by some political activists and parties including the Popular Current and Al-Dostour Party, Sherif al-Roubi, a member of April 6 Movement's politburo, told Xinhua.

"The main goal of this march is to denounce the recent sectarian violence and to stress the value of national unity between the country's Muslims and Copts," Roubi continued.

Roubi added that the participants raised signs and chanted slogans against the recent bloody sectarian clashes.

"The march rejects categorizing the Egyptian people into Muslims and Copts," he noted, "We reject referring to Christians as a minority as Egypt was established by both Muslims and Christians as the backbone of the country."

Meanwhile, another march also set off from an Omar Makram Muslim Mosque to Qasr al-Dobara Coptic Church near Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo to voice support of national unity between all Egyptians regardless of their religion.

Mahmoud Rozza, one of the participants, told Xinhua that he joined the march to denounce the recent violence as "a politically- motivated plot," stressing that he never accepted any discrimination between Muslims and Christians.

Sectarian clashes erupted early Saturday following a brawl in northern Qalyubiya governorate which then extended to Cairo, killing at least nine people.

The recent bloodshed raised fears of renewed sectarian strife that would threaten the national unity, which is badly needed for the country's democratic and economic transition.

Copts constitute around 10 percent of Egypt's 91 million people of Muslim majority, with sectarian tension going up and down for three decades.