Mohamed Muslemany
Protesters show solidarity with Egypt's Coptic Christians during a demonstration in Cairo.
By Charlene Gubash, NBC News producer
CAIRO ? What a difference five days make.?
Just last Sunday, Egyptian soldiers clashed with mainly Coptic Christian demonstrators protesting the demolition of a church in Aswan. Twenty-five people were killed, either shot to death or run over as army trucks sped through the crowds.
Friday night, party boats decked with colored lights plied the Nile, blaring disco music in front of Egypt?s state TV building, scene of the recent tragedy.?In a show of unity, about 200 people, Christians and Muslims, gathered on a street median to protest last week?s violence. Muslim worshippers bowed in prayer.?They had marched five miles from Al Azhar Mosque to the Coptic Cathedral to the TV building.
The poor attendance at the demonstration indicated that, despite a week?s worth of angry rhetoric in the newspapers, talk shows and coffee shops, the country has not turned against its provisional military rulers yet. The army?s attack, whether provoked or not, shocked the nation and tarnished the image of the army, regarded as heroes who took the side of the people instead of the dictator who ruled them, brought the revolution to a quick and peaceful conclusion, and put an end to the chaos. The deadly clash, in which most of the victims were Christians, also raised the specter of full-blown sectarian strife.
But those who did attend the small demonstration voiced what appears to be a minority opinion.?
Do?a Mohamed, a high school student, declared that Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, head of Egypt?s interim military government, ?must step down and leave it to a civilian government.?
?Tantawi must be held responsible for the people who were killed here and be tried, just like [former President] Mubarak,? said Abdul Basset al Fashley, who had come to pray for those who had died. ?We are here to take back our rights,? said Peter Aziz, a law student.?He fingered the wooden cross hanging from his necklace.??I came today because of what happened here.?We were martyred because of (the army).?
?The army is creating sectarian conflict. They have to go. The leaders are the same corrupt figures as before,? complained taxi driver Mohamed Salawy.
?Their armored personnel carriers were being stolen, the army said so themselves.?If they can?t protect themselves, what can they protect?? asked Mohamed el Sayed, a pharmaceutical employee.
Dr. Emira Edris, a pediatrician, also saw the vulnerable side of the army. She has a clinic on a street where protesters and soldiers fought. ?We saw soldiers cry,? she recalled. ?The people were attacking them and they were shocked, and they found themselves fighting fellow Egyptians, not enemies, but fellow Egyptians.?
Clinic staff slipped one soldier ? a Christian ? into the lobby of their building and gave him street clothes to wear so that he could safely escape. ?For us the army is a symbol of pride and success,? Edris said. ?But this incident created a great rift between the civilians and the army.?
She, and many other Egyptians, believe there was an orchestrated attempt to turn citizens against the army in order to create chaos.??The soldiers are our last defense,? Edris said. She still believes only the military can steer the country safely through the instability of the next six months, before parliamentary and presidential elections. "Egypt is like a (religious) mosaic. If we lose that, it will be catastrophic," she insisted. "We have to cool down. We have to have a vision. We have to look for the future."
Charlene Gubash is an NBC News producer based in Cairo.
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