Terrorism hits Copts and Muslims together

By mohammed ali Ibrahim

At the beginning of this month a horrible massacre took the lives of more than 300 people in Alrowda mosque in northern Sinai.. This is the worst ever terrorist attack in Egypt since 1997 when 62 tourists were shot dead in Luxor by 4 Jihadi  militants..

On 29-12  two gunmen rushed into  Marmina church in Helwan ,a southern district near Cairo leaving nine dead including two police soldiers and one officer all belong to the  most advanced police force that are situated around many churches..

The strange thing about the attack is that how it was carried out..Nearly the same old style applied in the nineties through which the late People’s Assembly speaker Riffat Almahgoub met his end ..Both the then PM Atef Sidki and the famous writer Makram Mohamed Ahmed were about to face the same end yet the bullets were luckily deviated..

Strange enough is the  huge pile up of police patrol cars and motorcycles that roam the streets around the clock, but they did not notice the two attackers who roamed the streets of Helwan untouched or intercepted. This implicitly give a false impression that any gunman with a machine gun could break into any fortified site with a suicide bomb around his waist and explode the place.

ISIS group claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack on Helwan church via online website, reported newsagencies.

The gunman had opened fire outside the church, wounding five security guards, and tried to storm the building when police shot him dead, the officials said.

Earlier, MENA reporter on the ground said that three policemen were killed at the scene. She confirmed the arrest of a second identified gunman involved in the attack.

The Egyptian Ministry of Interior revealed on Friday the identity of the terrorist who executed the attack of the church of Marminna in Helwan, south of Cairo.

His name is Ibrahim Ismail Ibrahim Mustafa. He was born on July 4, 1984 and worked as handicraftsman.

He lived in Mansheyet El Sadd area in Helwan, Cairo, and used a number of agricultural areas in Upper Egypt as hiding places.

The statement added that he is one of the most wanted terrorists who was a dangerous fugitive involved previously in Helwan police bus attack in 2016 as leader of the perpetrators -killing one of the officers and 7 policemen.

A picture of the alleged gunman’s corpse published on the official Al-Ahram newspaper’s website showed a bearded man wearing a bulky ammunition vest sprawled on a street.

Finally it is the destiny of both Muslims and Copts to fight terrorism that targets them indifferently. If Copts falsely believe that Muslims hate them or consider them as non-believers,they have to bear in mind the massacre of Alrowda mosque in Sinai ..