Tensions rise in Egypt in aftermath of attack on Coptic church

Tensions rise in Egypt in aftermath of attack on Coptic church
Hossam Bahgat received the Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism from Human Rights Watch last fall.
Tensions rise in Egypt in aftermath of attack on Coptic church
Hossam Bahgat received the Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism from Human Rights Watch last fall.

Tensions rise in Egypt in aftermath of attack on Coptic church

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The New Year’s Day bombing at a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria, Egypt killed 21 people.

The bombing has set off days of protests by Egypt’s Christian community. In one incident Christian demonstrators pelted Egypt’s state minister for economic development with stones as he made a condolence call to the Coptic Pope.

Hossam Bahgat is with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. It’s a Cairo based human rights organization that recently completed a two-year study on sectarian violence in Egypt.

He says the anger the Coptic Christian community is feeling for the Egyptian State has multiple sources.