VZCZCXYZ0013
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHEG #2336/01 1081512
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 181512Z APR 06
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7521
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS CAIRO 002336 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC STAFF FOR SINGH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KIRF EG
SUBJECT: AFTERMATH OF SECTARIAN STRIFE IN ALEXANDRIA 
 
REF: CAIRO 2267 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Summary.  Alexandria has been peaceful since the 
April 14 attacks and April 15-16 clashes reported reftel. 
There continues to be considerable speculation about whether 
the man who was arrested after the fatal church attacks was 
operating alone.  Protesters in Alexandria on April 16 as 
well as a nationalist member of Parliament have accused the 
USG of interfering in Egyptian domestic politics.  The 
Parliament and the National Council for Human Rights have 
launched inquiries into the violence.  President Mubarak has 
called for national unity and tolerance.  In a late-breaking 
development Pope Shenouda III has indicated that he will not 
travel to Alexandria for his customary Holy Week visit.  Many 
observers are looking toward Friday, April 21 (which will be 
Good Friday according to the Orthodox calendar, as well as 
the Muslim day of prayer) as an indicator of whether this 
latest sectarian crisis has passed.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  There has been a noticeably high-profile security 
presence in Alexandria, particularly around churches, since 
the GOE managed to contain sectarian demonstrations and 
clashes on April 16.  In addition to the arrested suspect in 
the April 14 slaying (a young Muslim man, Mahmoud Salaheddin 
Abdul Razzak, accused in the murder of the aged Noshi Atta 
Guirgis, a Christian), the GOE has arrested more than 50 
persons (both Muslim and Christian) suspected of 
participating in sectarian riots on April 15-16.  The GOE's 
Public Prosecutor in Alexandria has launched a formal 
investigation into the murder of Guirgis. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Initial speculation by many GOE critics--that it 
was highly implausible that the accused killer could have 
acted alone--now seems to be diminishing.  There have been 
several reliable media reports that suspect Mahmoud Abdul 
Razzak did indeed have a history of mental illness, and had 
previously made threats against Christians and churches in 
Alexandria.  Adel Hamouda, the editor of the influential 
opposition weekly Al-Fagr, has reported that Abdul Razzak had 
in fact been released from GOE detention last year after his 
mother appealed to the Coptic Church, which interceded on 
Abdul Razzak's behalf with the GOE.  Note:  Knowledgeable 
Christian contacts of the Embassy have not been able to 
confirm Hamouda's public assertion that Abdul Razzak was 
released after the church's intercession.  End note.  Despite 
the new details that are emerging about the accused's 
background, other observers continue to insist that Abdul 
Razzak must have had co-conspirators, or at least 
accomplices, to conduct the three separate attacks.  Certain 
statements by Church officials as well as the Ministry of 
Interior about the need to prosecute any and all 
"perpetrators" in the slaying have further fueled the 
suspicion that an additional suspect(s) remains at large. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  In another development, on the evening of April 
16, a crowd of more than 1000 (both Muslims and Christians) 
demonstrated peacefully in Alexandria, calling for calm and 
national unity.  Some in the crowd, however, shouted slogans 
denouncing USG intervention in Egypt's internal affairs. 
Comment:  Nationalist Egyptian critics of the USG's support 
for religious freedom in Egypt have in the past protested 
that the USG is "taking the side of the Copts."  For example, 
in late 2005, when Coptic activists convened a conference in 
Washington to discuss religious freedom and democracy in 
Egypt, the nationalist-xenophobic element in Egypt's media 
denounced the meeting as an example of USG interference in 
Egypt's internal affairs, simply on the basis that the 
meeting took place in Washington.  End comment. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Maverick independent parliamentarian, Mustafa 
Al-Bakry, editor of the tabloid weekly Al-Osbua, has also 
decried what he alleges is USG "interference" (i.e, the USG 
reaction to the Alexandria violence).  Other MPs have 
announced the formation of a special committee to look into 
the events in Alexandria.  The quasi-governmental National 
Council for Human Rights (NCHR) has also announced that it 
too will hold an inquiry into the attacks. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  In an April 18 meeting with parliamentarians, in 
his first public remarks on the events in Alexandria, 
President Mubarak stated that the Egyptian people have lived 
throughout their history not differentiating between Muslim 
and Christian, all living in peace, with common pains, common 
ideas, a common past and a common future, and added that no 
force could affect this national unity.  Mubarak further 
stressed the sanctity of places of worship, and asserted that 
the Egyptian people have always believed that "religion is 
for God while the nation is for everyone."  Also, late on 
April 18, Church contacts informed us that Pope Shenouda III, 
who has spent the Holy Week in his customary prayer and 
contemplation at the Wadi Natroun monastery, will not be 
traveling to Alexandria, as has been his past practice, for 
an Easter week service.  Comment:  Although the reasons 
behind Shenouda's decision to remain in Wadi Natroun are not 
clear, we suspect that many observers will interpret his 
actions as some sort of protest or signal to the GOE.  End 
comment. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Looking ahead, the Minister for Religious 
Endowments, Hamdi Zaqzouq, has urged the nation's Muslim 
preachers to devote their sermons on Friday, April 21 to the 
subject of Egypt's national unity and long history of 
religious tolerance.  Many Egyptians, both Christian and 
Muslim, will be watching closely to see if indeed April 21 
(Orthodox Good Friday and the Muslim day of prayer) passes 
peacefully. 
RICCIARDONE