Anger grows at Egypt military in deaths

Associated Press

CAIRO

Videos of military armored vehicles plowing through Christian protesters and images of their flattened bodies are fueling rage against the ruling army generals, even beyond Egypt’s Christian community. Activists accused the military of fomenting sectarian hatred as a way to end protests and halt criticism.

Anger also was turning on state television, blamed for inciting attacks on Coptic Christians as the military crushed a Christian protest late Sunday, leaving 26 dead in the worst violence since the February fall of Hosni Mubarak.

The bloodshed was seen by many activists as a turning point in Egypt’s already chaotic transition: the deadliest use of force against protesters by the military, which has touted itself as the “protector of the revolution.” Criticism has been mounting that the military, which took power after Mubarak’s ouster, has adopted the same tactics as the former regime and has been slow to bring real change.

The repercussions began to hit the interim civilian government. Finance Minister Hazem El-Beblawi handed in his resignation over the government’s handling of Sunday’s protest. El-Beblawi, who also is deputy prime minister, effectively told Prime Minister Essam Sharaf that “he can’t work like this,” said an aide to the minister who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Christians vented their fury at the overnight funeral at the Coptic Christian Cathedral for 17 of the at-least 21 Christians killed in the army attack.

Egypt’s Christians, who represent about 10 percent of the 85 million people in this Muslim-majority nation, long have complained that they are second-class citizens. In recent years, increasingly influential ultraconservative Muslims, known as Salafis, have spread rhetoric that Christians are trying to take over, protesting against the building of churches and accusing Christians of hoarding stocks of weapons. Violence against Christians, the majority of whom belong to the orthodox Coptic Church, has mounted since the fall of Mubarak as state control has loosened.