2006年VOA标准英语-Third Day of Sectarian Violence Rocks Egyp

By Challiss McDonough
Cairo
17 April 2006

 
An Egyptian Coptic protester, center, is beaten by plain-clothed policemen outside the St. Maximus Church in Alexandria 
  

A second person has died in the Egyptian city of Alexandria after clashes between Muslims and Christians². The violence erupted when a man with a knife attacked worshipers at several churches Friday, killing³ one man and wounding up to 16 people. Fighting between the two religious groups continued for a third day on Sunday, and a man died of injuries he received in fighting on Saturday.

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Police in Alexandria fired tear gas into crowds of rioting Muslims and Christians as a third day of sectarian violence rocked the ancient Mediterranean⁴ city.

Friday's knife attacks in several Coptic Christian¹ churches set off a cascade⁵ of violence on Saturday, after the funeral of an elderly man who was stabbed to death in church. The clashes continued on Sunday, when Orthodox Copts were marking the Palm Sunday holy day.

Police have arrested a man they say carried out all of Friday's knife attacks by himself, moving from church to church. They describe him as mentally ill.

Reporter Vivian Salama of the Daily Star Egypt newspaper is in Alexandria. She says there are many questions about what exactly happened on Friday, and the doubts are fueling Coptic anger.
 

Coptic protesters carrying sticks run past a line of riot policemen outside the St. Maximus Church in Alexandria, Egypt Sunday, April 16, 2006   
  
Parishioners who witnessed the attack at one church say the description of the man the police have in custody⁶ does not match the man they saw with the knife. And, they told Salama, the two churches are on opposite sides of town, 45-minutes to an hour away from each other. "So they were saying that it was absolutely impossible that he could have run [between them] in such a short time. They believe, several of them actually said to me that they believe this is a cover-up, a conspiracy⁷ by the government so that they don't instigate⁸ further tensions, [and] by saying that he's someone who is insane, someone who is mentally ill as well," she said.

Salama says despite the violence, residents of Alexandria are not looking at this as a sign of larger problems between Muslims and Christians. "Generally speaking the Copts seem to think, as they were coming out of Palm Sunday mass, that really this is not even a sectarian issue, they feel like there is a serious issue with security here in Alexandria… They seem to think that their security is not a priority for the police and for the Egyptian government," she said.

That feeling of insecurity is especially high in the wake of the anti-Christian violence that rocked Alexandria in October after Muslims attacked churches for allegedly distributing a DVD that they deemed offensive to Islam.

Salama says most of the Alexandria Muslims she has spoken to about the latest attacks are just as shocked and appalled⁹ as their Christian neighbors. "They all feel they have actually been sort of victimized by this entire thing," she said. "They all insist that, one man told me, quote, these are outside forces coming to ruin relations within Egypt and to destroy the peace that we have had."

Despite the renewed clashes on Sunday, a leading Coptic columnist¹⁰ for the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper, Milad Hanna, believes things will settle down soon. "The Christians are not [an] aggressive group. They are, on the contrary, they are over-patient, more than what they should have done. And the Muslims, in the last analysis, they like the Copts, and the back history of the relations between the two main religions, Islam and Christianity, is healthy and good. Therefore I think things will cool off," he said.

Coptic Christians are about nine percent of Egypt's population of 78-million. They are the largest Christian population in the Middle East.

1 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

2 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

3 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

4 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

5 cascade   

n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下

参考例句：

• She watched the magnificent waterfall cascade down the mountainside.她看着壮观的瀑布从山坡上倾泻而下。
• Her hair fell over her shoulders in a cascade of curls.她的卷发像瀑布一样垂在肩上。

6 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

7 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

8 instigate   

v.教唆，怂恿，煽动

参考例句：

• His object was to instigate a little rebellion on the part of the bishop.他的目的是，在主教方面煽起一场小小的造反。
• It would not prove worthwhile to instigate a nuclear attack.挑起核攻击最终是不值得的。

9 appalled   

v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• They were appalled by the reports of the nuclear war. 他们被核战争的报道吓坏了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。