Protest around Maspero Broken Up; al-Tayyeb Condemns Church Attack


In the morning, hundreds of Coptic demonstrators were forcibly evacuated from outside the Maspero state television building by military police. The sit-in, which followed a march from the Shubra neighborhood of Cairo to the downtown area, had been called for by the Maspero Youth Union and Free Copts in response to the September 30 attack on a church in Aswan. Some demonstrators were injured in the clearing of today’s protest.

Condemnation of the September 30 attack came today from Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayyeb, who called for severe punishment for those promoting sectarian tensions.