"They want to destroy the Copts of Egypt but we will continue to pray here"

ALEXANDRIA - The fears of a minority who feels in danger, but that in the past has never had an easy life, linger in the church of Saints Peter and Mark. In the church where, three days after the massacre of the New Year's Eve, concentrate the hopes and anxieties of the Coptic community. Men and women of all ages, young and old sweatshirt sporting the classic skull-cap with high sides, ladies in black jeans and girls in the crowded lobby at the foot of the crucifix wrapped in a bloodstained sheet set all'inferriata inner scale.

Outside, the riot troops, came from Cairo to the need to continue to maintain the entire area off limits, "specially for the press", he lets slip an officer, unless corrected precipitously soon realizes the slip. But Christians who want to go to pray in their church, or visiting relatives in hospital Tues Morkos, which is right next to the site of the attack, those can not stop them.

Once inside, the first thing you notice is the pile of benches smashed, shattered glass, pieces of plasterboard riddled, torn iron gratings, shown around by the shock wave and now piled at the entrance. In the lobby of this that is not only a place of worship but the active center of a community that offers the faithful of the district a number of services for children from kindergarten to the hospice for the elderly, by the school for handicapped, to specialized courses for graduates in information technology, are seven or eight cars parked explosion damaged.

A rear window was smashed, another has no doors. A third party must take into full flame passes through the gate because the seats seem to have liquefied. These are the machines of the four priests who were officiating that night, under the guidance of Father Makar, and some employees of the various services.

In the church on the ground floor, where the night of December 31 flocked from 500 to 1000 people, spots of blood were cleaned from the floor on which they were lying mangled bodies of victims. Three buckets, a polisher, a battery of detergents to witness the work done. Now, the golden icons, the primordial simplicity, full of light that penetrates the windows screen.

And so even the brightly colored frescoes on the life of Jesus, who lined the entrance to the nave, are a counterpoint to the sober hues of the iconostasis. "The mass was ending, there was still a few minutes and faithful who were at the bottom were starting to leave when I heard the roar - says Yosri Zaglul Matta, owner of a small bazaar in Sharm el Sheik -.

For a moment everything became dark and but immediately after the church was lit by a blinding light. Of course, instinctively, I tried to quit, but I could not because as soon as I found myself in the doorway, a barrier of broken bodies, aggregates, conflict has prevented me . I think I will take years to forget this scene.

" "Instead we must not forget - replies Dina Al Masry, a blonde lady in black blouse stands on a Coptic cross of gold -. This was not an act of terrorism like any other. That suicide bomber wanted to target us specifically, Christians Egypt, for what we are and what we represent in the eyes of the most fanatical and extremist of the Islamic world.

" Dina recalls the numerous warnings, including, particularly impresses the statement posted on the website on December 2 Shamuk al Islam, which often hosts the delusions of the militants of Al Qaeda to strike where they invited about fifty Christian targets in England, Germany, France, Egypt.

And in Egypt, the Church of the Two Holy Alexandria. All this justifies the unprecedented anxiety with which expects to Coptic Christmas, which falls next Friday, Jan. 7. There are no festoons and lights, utilities and stratospheric gifts wrapped in special paper. Tradition has it that the Coptic Christmas is the occasion of solidarity with those less fortunate.

So in some monasteries are being killed a cow, whose meat is destined to feed the poor, whatever their faith, including Muslims. Now that New Year's attack may call into question the "festival of festivals", the faithful in the church of the Two Holy refuse to assume. "You will see that the church will be more crowded than before - emphasizes Zaglul Matta -.

If we become prayer would be like declaring that the terrorists have won." Makar father's office, a group of faithful waiting for the priest involved with his three brothers on a pilgrimage to support families affected by the attack. On his desk cluttered with papers a crucifix and a model of St.

Peter's memory of an international religious conference in Rome, still holding the paper. Here, among the people who sit on the chairs around in, tempers are even brighter than among the faithful gathered in the lobby. It faces much more worried. A couple of young men who bear the signs of mourning, urges us not to try to differentiate their views.

"We all have one thought about what has happened and that the threats do not frighten us." "Fear? - Heni engineer Mikhail prices rise, owner of a company that imports industrial machinery - Fear of what? To die? We celebrate the death. This is our philosophy." Then, switching to a more reflective attitude, he admits that "the attack was a disaster in every sense ...

And first of all, because the violence was directed against a peaceful community that has always reached out to all ". Perhaps, the purpose of those who sent the suicide bomber was to provoke a civil war between Egyptian Muslims and Coptic Christians? "I do not think - replies Mikhail -.

Many of my friends are Muslims and I can assure you that none of them rejoiced at what has happened. ... Maybe some fanatic rather say that terrorists, as they always have here in Egypt , want to challenge the government, the stability that is one of the prerogatives of Mubarak. But I do not think that will prevail.

" Outside, the police have doubled the cords. They expect the events of the afternoon. A special contingent will be deployed at the entrance of the mosque that stands in front of the Church of the Two Saints, and is in a sense a symbol of the competition between Copts and Muslims. "Our church - tells a Christian - was built in 1971 and, step by step, has developed along in what he sees now.

The mosque, however, came many years later, built without permits in the hospital garden public, because they do not need licenses. "

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