yahwehyadayada

Jerusalem(Reuters)--The rooftop compound of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre bore scars of conflict on Monday after Egyptian Coptic & Ethiopian monks traded blows over a chair at the traditional site of the crucifixion of Jesus.
About 11 monks were taken to hospital after clerics from the rival sects that jealously share the courtyard on the roof of the Jerusalem shrine threw rocks, metal rods & chairs at each other in the latest chapter of a centuries old dispute.
For the six Christian sects that jealously guard their rights at the church, enshrined in a 1757 Ottoman "status quo" law, the movement several weeks ago by one denomination of a chair into a spot claimed by another was a declaration of war.
"They are trying to force us out," said an Ethiopian monk, who declined to give his name, about the rival Egyptian Coptic sect, one of whose elderly monks crossed boundaries by moving a chair into the shade at the third century Byzantine church.
The Ethiopians & Egyptian Coptics have been warring for more than a century over the roof of the shrine which the Ethiopians call the House of Sultan Solomon because they believe the biblical King Solomon gave it as a gift to the Queen of Sheba. The Ethiopians lost control of the roof during an epidemic in the 19th century which enabled the Copts to take over.
But in 1970, during a brief absence by Coptic priests from a rooftop chapel, the Ethiopian clerics returned & have been squatting there ever since.
An Ethiopian monk huddles in the corner of the chapel day & night to guard the squatters' claim.
The Egyptian monk, who has been living with them on the roof since the 1970 takeover to assert the Copts' rights, decided to move his chair out of the sun during a hot Jerusalem day.
"They (the Ethiopians) teased him," said Father Afrayim, an Egyptian Coptic monk at the next door Coptic monastery. "They poked him & brought some women who came behind & pinched him," he said. Each side accuses the other of throwing the first blow in the fist fight & stone throwing that ensued. Police eventually broke up the brawl but by all accounts many of the protagonists were already wounded.
At least 7 Ethiopian clerics & 4 Egyptians were hurt in the fracas. The Ethiopians say one monk is still unconscious in hospital & the Egyptian Copts say one of their clerics sustained a broken arm.
Tempers flared a day later on the rooftop which was littered with the remnants of the battle--rocks & pieces of broken chairs.
One Egyptian monk shouted out catcalls to an Ethiopian cleric & then moved his hand across his throat in a brutal slashing gesture.
"They want to kill us. They don't want us to live here," the Ethiopian monk said in a voice laced with hysteria. "What have we done that God is punishing us like this?"
A few Ethiopian monks sat on a row of chairs placed defiantly next to the Egyptian cleric's seat.
Inside the concrete shacks on the church's roof lay more Ethiopian monks nursing their bruises & worrying about how the impoverished community would cover its ambulance bills. Israel's Religious Affairs Ministry said it would mediate between the sides later in the week to resolve the conflict.

Starspun

One side or the other should hire the services of the Shaolin monks.

Freemind

HA HA HA HA HA! This is totally ridiculous! I hope the 'fracas' shows up on funniest home videos!

On the one hand its real funny, on the other hand real sad that these dolts think a rooftop is sacred.

BigJim

Jesus fucking Christ, what a bunch of maroons. Get a life, you idiots!!!

Denshuu

11 hospitalized monks?!
This could only have been the work of...

Denshuu