Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, said Friday that he expected decisive action over the recent shooting in Minya governorate, Upper Egypt.
A police guard shot dead two Orthodox Copts in Minya city on Wednesday, in front of the Church of Nahdet al-Qadasa.
Police arrested guard Rabea Mustafa Khalefa for the murder of the two copts.
The Diocese of Minya and Abu Qurqas stated that the guard shot at Emad Kamal Sadek, 49, and his son David Emad, 21 after a quarrel erupted between them when they were lifting house ruins in front of Church of Nahdet al-Qadasa.
“The matter is in the hands of the judiciary, and we await swift, decisive and strong measures over the painful incident,” the Pope said in televised remarks on Friday evening.
“We follow things with Anba Makarios (the general bishop of the Diocese of Minya and Abu Qurqas) and with the officials concerned. Emad and his son had good reputations and good relations with everyone,” the Pope continued.
The pope added that extremism combined with poverty and narrow-mindedness creates a fertile environment for terrorism.
He explained that Minya suffers from a lack of development and needs special treatment and intensification in projects, whether in education, culture or development, and that the recurrence of incidents and points of tension in Minya calls for the intervention of officials.
On the problems facing the Church and the Christians, he said: “We work calmly and things need to be rational and deal with every position within limits. God, the omnipotent, loves human beings without exception and grants us good deeds. The Church, through twenty centuries, is going through such events, but it is still strong. ”
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
