A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Wa'el ‘Abbas Talks to Al-Jazeera About Nag Hammadi

Egyptian blogger Wa'el ‘Abbas was interviewed by Al-Jazeera English today about a video that was E-mailed to him of the aftermath of the Christmas Eve shootings in Nag Hammadi last night:



If you want to see the full video with the Arabic background, here's Wa'el's upload to YouTube:



And elsewhere on YouTube, today's funeral:



Obviously a lot of outrage in play.

Impressive that information can get out so quickly. As I write this Al-Ahram's website headlines the story of the Egyptian border policeman killed at Rafah, followed by a report that the Copts are celebrating Christmas today. The independent media were posting stories last night; Al-Ahram will doubtless get around to it eventually, and I gather there may have been more in the print paper, though not headlined. [UPDATE: here on the website: Security says it wasn't sectarian. Nah, shooting Christians coming out of Christmas eve services and apparently hitting some of the bishop's deacon/escorts isn't sectarian. Thank you for clearing that up.] For those who read Arabic, Al-Yom al-Sabi‘ reviews how the various media are treating the story, including its own comments on Al-Ahram's relative silence.

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