Christian channel opens in Egypt

[frigidmagi]

BBC

The first Christian satellite channel in Egypt is due to start broadcasting on Monday.
Aghapy Television was established by the Coptic Christian church, the main church in Egypt.

Copts make up an estimated 10% of the Egyptian population and they complain of discrimination.

Three people died in Alexandria in October after Muslim demonstrators attacked a church which had put on a play seen as offensive to Islam.

Aghapy TV will be the first ever television channel in Egypt to broadcast programmes with a purely Christian outlook.

The Coptic channel will carry church services, family programmes and documentaries about ancient monasteries.

But some here are worried that the presence of a Coptic channel may exacerbate the tensions between Muslims and Christians which periodically flare up into violence.

Restrictions

The bishop in charge of Aghapy TV says the channel will not carry anything that could upset Muslims.

The aim, he says, is to provide a link with the church to all those Copts who may not have access to a place of worship or who live abroad, but in the current volatile atmosphere many will be watching closely to see if the new channel gives offence in any way.

Last month three people were killed when Muslims tried to storm a church in Alexandria because a play had been performed there two years earlier which was deemed offensive to Islam.

Egyptian Christians complain of discrimination in employment and of restrictions on the construction of churches.

The violence in Alexandria prompted an unusually frank debate in the press, with many commentators accusing the government of ignoring the festering problems between the two communities.