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Egypt Copts decry attempt to "Islamize" Cairo
Egypt's leading Christians have accused the governor of Cairo of trying to Islamize the streets by changing the names of some of the country's oldest areas from Christian ones to Islamic ones.

The advisor of the Coptic Pope Shenouda III, Dr. Naguib Gebrael, filed a lawsuit against Governor Abdul-Azim Wazir for changing street names without any legal or historical reason.

Gebrael cited the example of Victoria Square in Cairo's densely populated Coptic area called Shubra whose name was changed to Nasr al-Islam or the victory of Islam, the name of a fundamentalist association that offers charity services in the area.

" This is an attempt at Islamizing the districts of Cairo...These decisions infuriate Copts and prove there is a plan by the government to Islamize Egypt...There is a committee in charge of naming streets and squares and its members include university professors of geography and history. Did fundamentalism infiltrate this scientific committee? "
Dr. Naguib Gebrael
"This is an attempt at Islamizing the districts of Cairo," Gebrael told AlArabiya.net. "These decisions infuriate Copts and prove there is a plan by the government to Islamize Egypt."

"There is a committee in charge of naming streets and squares and its members include university professors of geography and history. Did fundamentalism infiltrate this scientific committee?" he added.

Gebrael stressed that Copts have nothing against Islamic names and that the lawsuit is not out of fanaticism for Christianity, but rather keenness to preserve the history of Egypt and promote tolerance and multiplicity. Shubra is one of the oldest districts in Cairo and has a considerable Coptic population.


Posted by: Fred 2009-02-16
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=262648