Word: cairo
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Tensions between Egypt's 37 million Muslims and 6 million Coptic Christians had been mounting in an ever more violent spiral for months. In June, fighting erupted among rival worshipers in a Cairo slum and left at least 14 dead. Soldiers were posted in front of Coptic churches but failed to thwart a bomb attack in August, on a Coptic wedding party, that killed three, including two Muslim guests. Last week President Anwar Sadat made good on his threat to deal harshly with what his government has described as "sectarian sedition." In the most sweeping crackdown since he took...
Egyptian police launched the roundup with late-night calls on leading political dissidents and religious militants. Mohammed Heikal, author, journalist and confidant of the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser, was roused at 3 a.m. at his summer villa in Alexandria and escorted -"gently," said an aide-to Cairo's Tora Prison. Sheikh Abdel Hamid Kishk, a blind fundamentalist preacher renowned for his rigid Islamic orthodoxy, was jailed for his vitriolic sermons against Copts. Five other Muslim imams were also arrested, along with seven activist members of the Coptic clergy...
...response to the arrests, several hundred Muslim zealots marched on a Coptic cathedral in Cairo, but were repulsed by riot police firing volleys of tear gas. Sadat's political response was equally firm. Late last week, he announced that he would show "no mercy" to Muslim groups involved in the strife and vowed to strip all powers from Pope Shenouda III, 117th Patriarch of the Coptic Church of Egypt...
...which the Egyptians had broken off in May 1980 after Israel took steps to declare its sovereignty over Arab East Jerusalem. Begin bluntly asked Sadat when he thought the talks should be resumed. "Why not immediately?" declared Sadat, and the two quickly agreed to have ministerial delegations meet in Cairo on Sept. 23 and 24, soon after Begin's return from talks with President Ronald Reagan in Washington...
...from the army in 1973 to seek a political career. When his reserve unit was activated during the October 1973 war, he saved the day for Israel by leading a task force to attack the Egyptian Second Army, helping to bring Israeli tank columns to within 63 miles of Cairo...