Maspero demonstrations

Maspero demonstrations
Part of Timeline of the 2011 Egyptian revolution under Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
Some of the victims of the Maspero Massacre
Location	Maspiro, Cairo, Egypt
Date	9–10 October 2011
Target	Coptic Christians
Deaths	28
Non-fatal injuries	212

Maspero Massacre initially started as demonstrations on October 2011 by a group dominated by Egyptian Copts in reaction to the demolition of a church in Upper Egypt claimed to be built without appropriate license. The peaceful protesters who intended to stage a sit-in in front of the Maspiro television building were attacked by security forces and the army, resulting in 28 deaths, mostly among the Coptic protestors, and 212 injuries, most of which were sustained by Copts.

The peaceful protesters gathered in peaceful chants, angered by a statement made publicly by Aswan’s governor, Mustafa Kamel el-Sayyed, who, after the destruction of the church in Aswan, denied the existence of the church, and then later retracted his statements, and claimed instead that the construction of the church was illegal. It was later revealed that extremist followers of the Salafist Islamic sect had pronounced threats and made demands for Aswan’s Christian congregation not to have any loudspeakers in the church and to limit the visibility of any Christian symbols such as crosses on the church structure. In order to defuse tensions, the Aswan governorate organized a meeting between Salafist and Coptic leaders, wherein the Copts refused the latter demand of eliminating crosses and steeples. The threats eventually escalated to actual destruction of the church by the extremists, and to the subsequent statements by the Aswan governor. It was this incident that led to the protest, which is presented in the following details based on a number of credible sources.

The march set out towards Maspiro from the downtown poverty-stricken neighborhood of Shubra, densely populated by both Muslims and Christians. Reporters agree that it was a sizeable demonstration comparable to the numbers at the 28 January protest, the day when Mubarak sent army vehicles to confront protesters. Protesters were also angry about injury sustained by a Christian priest during the violent confrontation by army and police at Wednesday’s demonstration at Maspiro, when a smaller group had been demonstrating against the situation in Aswan.

When the protests started, Egyptian state television anchor Rasha Magdy, urged "honorable" citizens to go "protect" the military.

Reports suggest that the army began using violence even before the protesters reached Maspiro. Gunshots were heard from the end of Shubra Street and rocks were thrown from a nearby bridge. The protesters responded in chants against the Field Commander. The attacks suddenly stopped as the protesters proceeded on Galaa Street. As they crossed the Al Ahram headquarters, one rock was thrown at the building. Reports suggest this was in response to Al Ahram’s poor coverage of violence against Copts in a recent issue.