Amid heightened feelings of both anger and sorrow, a funeral service held for Fathi Saeed Ebeid–the 71-year-old Coptic man shot dead by an off-duty policeman aboard a train in Upper Egypt yesterday–was held in the Mar Youhana Church in Cairo's Zeitoun district on Wednesday evening.
Friends and relatives of the deceased, along with those of the five other Copts injured in the shooting, wept throughout the service.
Coptic Christians, thousands of whom have staged angry protests countrywide since the New Year's Eve bombing of an Alexandria church, have accused Egyptian security services of criminal negligence for failing to protect them. And following Tuesday's train shooting, many Copts have accused the Interior Ministry of involvement in targeting the country's Christian minority.
Hundreds of riot police, officers and plainclothes security personnel surrounded the church where the funeral took place. Troop transport trucks and armored vehicles were stationed along the main street leading to the church.
Journalists and mourners alike were subject to stringent security searches. A large green banner bearing the crescent and cross–respective symbols of Islam and Christianity–was hung up outside the church, courtesy of a neighboring mosque. "The Quran and the Bible are in the hearts of all Egyptians," the banner read.
The priest presiding over the funeral, meanwhile, delivered a thoroughly apolitical sermon that steered well clear of any criticisms of the ruling regime.
"We celebrate the memory of the martyrs; the body dies while the soul ascends to God," he said. "We would like to convey the condolences we received from [Coptic] Pope Shenouda III and [Presidential Chief-of-Staff] Zakariya Azmi.”
Following funerary rites and prayers, the coffin was placed into a van and transported to a nearby cemetery for burial. A police escort followed.
Ebeid's daughter left the church in tears. "Why this injustice? Why is Egypt killing its children, the Christians?" she asked, visibly angry. "My father did nothing to deserve this!"
A veiled Muslim neighbor accompanied her, and, in a gesture of solidarity, placed her arm over the grieving woman's shoulders.
"Egypt's Muslims and Christians are all in the same boat,” said Fatma, another veiled Muslim woman who stood outside the church.
One elderly Christian mourner, who declined to give his name for fear of police retaliation, asked: "How could President Mubarak and Interior Minister Habib el-Adly have allowed these repeated attacks to occur?"
"Is the Interior Ministry complicit in these crimes of terrorism and murder, or isn't it?" he wondered aloud.
He went on to question claims by authorities that the crime had been committed by a disgruntled and/or mentally disturbed policeman. "If he was mentally disturbed like they say, why did they give him a pistol?"
