Shock, Alarm, Foreboding

"The United States strongly condemns the steps that have been taken by Egypt's interim government and security forces. We deplore violence against civilians. We support universal rights essential to human dignity, including the right to peaceful protest. We oppose the pursuit of martial law, which denies those rights to citizens under the principle that security trumps individual freedom or that might makes right. And today the United States extends its condolences to the families or those who were killed and those who were wounded."
U.S. President Barack Obama

"We think the interim government is dealing with some terrorist elements in the country. A lot of this is being led by senior officials in the Muslim Brotherhood."
John Baird, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs

Father Shenouda Boutros watches as MPs Royal Galipeau, Pierre Poilievre and John Baird light candles at St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in Ottawa.  Photograph by: Chris Mikula , The Ottawa Citizen

Having met in emergency session, European leaders have spoken about the need for a  co-ordinated EU response to the frightening degree of violence taking place in Egypt. French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have agreed, a meeting of the EU's foreign ministers is a must. They call for an end to violence, a resumption of dialogue. Germany is prepared to re-evaluate its status as one of Egypt's biggest trading partners.

As for France, its foreign minister Laurent Favius stated no options would be off the table, including possibly a suspension of aid. Echoes of the United States whose 'aid' to Egypt is somewhere in the region of $1.5-billion annually. A veritable pittance compared to the $15-billion recently pledged by Saudi Arabia to help Egypt lift its bootstraps out of its current financial peril. And what's $15-billion to the Saudis? Not an awful lot.

Saudi Arabia's top religious cleric has called on Egyptians to restrain themselves, not to attack police "as they are the ones who protect the country". Grand Mufti Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al-Sheik stated it would represent "a great loss for the Muslim nation if Egypt, the big Islamic country, is destroyed". He knows whereof he speaks; should a civil war break out in Egypt it would make the 100,000 who have perished in Syria over the past 2-1/2 years look peevish in comparison.

In Tunisia, the first country of the 'Arab Spring' which chose to remove a tyrant in favour of an Islamist government proving to be equally stifling to liberty, mosques emptied themselves of thousands who gathered to shout support for Mohammed Morsi; a peaceful hour-long protest which condemned General al-Sissi and the United States.

Italy has followed France urging its citizens from travelling to all of Egypt. Its foreign minister decried the "brutal and unacceptable" use of force by the interim authorities as a "worrying picture of violation of human rights". The Muslim Brotherhood, Emma Bonino advised, must act to stop "the extremist and sectarian drifts and to calm down the use of violence."

Spain's foreign ministry has summoned its Egyptian Embassy's charge d'affaires to urge that the state of emergency be revoked and security forces be reined in. The avoidance of additional bloodshed and respect for human rights must be paramount; all sides to be included in "a broad national and inclusive dialogue" for the restoration of institutional normality.

"My message was to prevent a bloodbath, that the security forces must comply with international human rights obligations, and that all parties must show restraint", the Norwegian foreign minister Espen Barth Eide said in conveying the gist of his telephone conversation with Egypt's interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi.

In Austria a demonstration of about 500 organized by Ali Ibrahim of the Egyptian Community in Austria chanted the name of the deposed president of Egypt, not in support of Mr. Morsi, said Mr. Ibrahim, but "for democracy and the protection of freedom". The gathering in Vienna's downtown on St. Stephens Square duly noted.

In the most populous of all Muslim countries thousands took to the streets in Indonesia after Friday prayers. Bloodshed in Egypt must end. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyona in his annual state-of-the-nation address said that the excessive force to disperse demonstrations in Egypt was a betrayal against humanity and democratic values.

Canada -- ah, Canada! Foreign affairs minister John Baird said: "Dozens of churches have been burned or vandalized. Even nuns paraded through the streets like prisoners of war. The former president became autocratic and did not want to build a peaceful, inclusive society. We're certainly not calling for them to be restored to power."

A-men!