AJE Interview with Paul Sedra on Copts in Egypt and Recent Attack on Protesters

The following interview with Paul Sedra aired live on Sunday 10 October 2011. Paul discusses the build up to and context of the protest of over 10,000 Egyptians (mainly Copts), which was attacked by plain clothed thugs as well as military personnel on Sunday 9 October. The attacks left at least seventeen dead and many more injured.

The protest that was to take place yesterday in front of the Radio and Television Building at Maspero was ostensibly about the failure of Egypt’s military government to hold those responsible for attacking churches (most recently in Aswan) for their actions.  But the massacre of protesters that ultimately came to pass, and the involvement of the military police therein, raise serious questions about the commitment of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to the transition to democratic governance in Egypt.  Although Copts have legitimate grievances to raise regarding discrimination along sectarian lines in contemporary Egypt, the attacks that took place were much less about ‘sectarianism’ than about the failure of Egypt’s current civilian government and of SCAF to uphold arguably the principal aim of the revolution – an Egypt in which free and open political discourse is not only possible, but welcome and protected.