Alexandria's Christians bear scars of bomb attack (News Feature)

Jan 2, 2011, 19:23 GMT

Alexandria, Egypt - Amira Maurice is in the intensive care unit of the German Hospital in Alexandria.

Until Friday night, the 27-year-old was looking forward to getting married. On Sunday she was fighting for her life and her fiance is dead - victims of a suicide bombing that targeted Christians.

Her mother, Mary, seated in the hospital waiting room, recalled the horror when the attacker detonated a nail-packed bomb outside the Coptic Church of the Saints, where she and Amira were attending a New Year's Eve mass.

The attack, which killed 21 and injured nearly 100, rocked Alexandria, a city on the Mediterranean once known for its diversity.

Mary was with her husband on the third floor of the church. Her daughter and fiance were on the ground floor, near the pulpit.

Within seconds of hearing the blast, Mary rushed outside.

'I saw a body far away without any clothes on it. Before I knew it, my legs took me to see how I could help, and then I saw a familiar piece of clothing,' Mary told the German Press Agency dpa.

'I looked closely and said, 'is it you my daughter, Amira?' She said, 'yes, mom it's me'.'

Amira's hair had been burnt to an orange crisp, her face seared blue and red, her legs disfigured.

But even those lucky to escape injury are bearing scars of that horrific night.

The attack is still raw in the minds of the young men guarding the doors of the Church of the Saints, barring journalists from entering; possibly protecting the church from outsiders in a way they argue the government did not.

'We've reached boiling point and are on fire,' said Romani, who asked not to give his full name.

'I was here that day. I was picking up the flesh with my bare hands, carrying the pieces,' he cried.

Nirmeen, who also declined to give her full name, said she lives down the street from the church. She was interviewed just before going inside to pray at a mass being held two days after the attack.

'I want to leave this country. My children and I cannot stay here. We want to feel safe and we don't,' she said.

Resentment, anger, fear and a sense of injustice permeates Egypt's minority Christian community, which makes up about 10 per cent of the population.

Hundreds of security men now line the streets surrounding the church where the attack too place - adjacent to an equally large mosque - but many here say, it is too little, too late.

'The government needs to know we pay taxes and we have rights to protection too. We are Egyptians, not second class citizens,' said Mary.

But unlike the angry young men outside the church, who fought with police and even with one another, Mary, who has a master's degree in Islamic Studies, said she loves Egypt.

'No matter what they do to it, we are not leaving. We are staying,' she said.

Seated next to her was her Muslim neighbour Laila Ahmed, who came to the hospital to lend her support.

'We don't think Christian and Muslim. Religion is for God and the nation is for everybody,' said Laila, struggling to hold back the tears welling in her eyes.

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