Clashes this past Saturday (May 7, 2011) between Muslims and Copts outside the St. Mina Church in the Imbaba neighborhood, in Cairo's Al-Giza Governorate, left 12 dead and dozens wounded. The violence broke out when Muslims gathered outside the Coptic church demanding the release of Abir Tala't Fakhri, a young woman whose Muslim husband claimed she was being held there against her will after converting from Christianity to Islam. In an online interview, Fakhri admitted that she had converted to Islam and married a Muslim man after leaving her abusive Copt husband. She added that following her conversion she had been kidnapped by relatives and held in various churches, and was only released when she pretended to have converted back to Christianity. Fakhri's attorney reported that, fearing for her safety, she had subsequently turned herself over to the Supreme Council of the Egyptian Armed Forces, which is currently governing the country. [1]
In an article in the Egyptian government daily Al-Gumhouriyya, journalist Safaa Saleh wrote that the Jews had orchestrated the clashes between the Muslims and the Copts in order to keep Egypt's youth from marching through Sinai toward Gaza to help spark a third Palestinian intifada.
Following are excerpts from Saleh's article:[2]
"There is no disaster in the world that was not caused by the Jews. Hitler said: 'I could have exterminated all of the Jews, but I left some of them [alive] so that the world would know why I exterminated them.' When I witnessed the events in Imbaba, I realized [the Jews were behind them]. The proof came from Israel's Channel 2 on Sunday, May 8, 2011, when the presenter of the morning show, Yonit Levi, asked former Mossad director Meir Dagan about the intifada [planned to commence on] May 15, 2011, in which the Arab youth hope to break the siege on Palestine – and he answered with a broad smile: 'Thank goodness for sectarian strife'... When I saw the flames and the Muslim and Christian victims [in Imbaba], I understood that the abusive hand of the Jews was hiding among us, causing fitna [civil strife]...
"They are the ones who killed Jesus and who tried to kill the Prophet [Muhammad]. The Arab revolutions that have taken place one after another, in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Syria... are the realization of the Koranic verses [which say] that the Arabs will gather together and fight the Jews, that Arab Jerusalem will return to its sons, and that we will pray at the first qibla [i.e.], the Al-Aqsa mosque. I recall that, in the past, we [Muslims and Copts] lived as neighbors, friends, and colleagues without questions of religion [coming between us]. We had a [single] homeland... We [Muslims] prayed in Al-Tahrir Square while the Christians stood like a wall to protect us from the fire hoses [that sprayed us with] hot water.
"Our hands are clean of the [Copts'] blood. Our tolerant teachings affirm the love [between the Muslims and Christians, as said] in the Koranic verse: 'And thou wilt find the nearest of them in affection to those who believe to be those who say: Lo! We are Christians. That is because there are among them priests and monks... [Koran 5:82]' and in the will of the Prophet [Muhammad, as it appears in the hadith]: 'Whosoever has harmed a dhimmi [a Jew or Christian living in a Muslim country, who is protected under Muslim law], it is as if he has harmed me'... Friends, we must launch the battle against the true enemy – America and Israel."
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