A suicide attack on Friday that killed 21 and injured dozens outside an Alexandria church has provoked condemnation by the city’s Salafists.
A statement by the Salafist Call labeled the explosion at St. Mark and St. Peter Church in Sidi Beshr district as a “source of evil and corruption” for society. The statement said the attack will help fuel accusations that Islam is a violent religion.
“The Islamic approach we adopt opens up the path to God through logic and good advice. It rejects the use of violence that only serve the interests of people bent on damaging Egypt”
Many experts brand the Salafist trend as hostile to Christianity and influenced by Al-Qaeda, which is widely believed to have carried out the attack.
Experts believe the statement seeks to divert attention away from Alexandria as a Salafist hub. The church attack is the bloodiest since explosions targeted Sinai resorts in 2005.
The group’s statement pointed to a centuries-old state of co-existence between Egypt’s Muslims and Copts “except for rare incidents that only served to strengthen the relationship.”
The Salafist movement, on the other hand, attacked calls for foreign intervention by the US or Israel to protect Egyptian Copts. It warned against the using the incident as a pretext for retaliation against Muslims and their mosques.
