Egyptian Army Plays Cavalry: Takes Town Back from Islamists

on September 17, 2013

Under the “better late than never” category, Egyptian security forces entered the town of Delga in the Upper Egypt region of Minya on Monday, September 16, 2013, wresting control quickly from Muslim Brotherhood Islamists that had held Delga hostage for five weeks. In this case, better late than never is quite true. Although help for the beleaguered Copts in Delga should have been offered weeks ago, when Islamists began a virulent targeting of Christians for what they perceived as their participation in the “People’s Coup” against the Muslim Brotherhood government of Mohamed Morsi, the intervention of Egypt’s military and police forces in Delga is very welcome to those who have been living in fear of the Islamists.

World Watch Monitor (WWM) reports that the counterinsurgency raid on Delga began at dawn (5 a.m.) on Monday, with the army and police “moving in armored personnel carriers.” The Turkish news source World Bulletin adds a statement from Minya security chief  Osama Metwalli who said that the troops “surrounded the village from all directions while military choppers hovered over the village.”

WWM said that the security forces were engaged in only about ten minutes of “intense gunfire,” and then sporadic shooting as the security forces went house to house. According to MidEast Christian News Service (MCN), “the troops arrested 50 suspects wanted on charges of incitement to murder.” Other accounts of the arrests say “at least 45,” or as many as 88 (AP quoting security officials in Minya). In the late afternoon, Monday, Minya governor, General Salah Zyada, told state television that the security forces had taken complete control of Delga and that “most of the criminal elements” had been arrested, according to Mada Masr news service.

Islamists have made the living situation unbearable for Christians, who number about 20,000 out of Delga’s population of 120,000. A September 9 report from MCN said that the Copts living in Delga had been subjected to a blockade by the Islamists “who harass them and force them to pay ‘jizya’ and extortion fees.” MCN explains that jizya is the “religious tax that was forced on non-Muslims who refused to convert to Islam beginning in the early Islamic conquests of the Middle East.” In the case of Egypt, the jizya was repealed in 1855 by Egyptian ruler Said Pasha, but Islamists in Egypt are now trying to revive this form of religious bigotry and oppression. Copts were offered two choices: to either pay jizya “ranging from 200 to 500 EGP paid at gunpoint daily or on a weekly or monthly basis, or to migrate from the village, leaving their homes and land and allowing relatives to pay jizya for them instead.” If the payment were not made, says MCN, “their property would be looted and burned.” More than half of Delga’s Copts have been displaced by the violence and persecution.

Fadi Hannah, a Coptic Christian from Delga, told MCN that during this takeover of Delga the Copts could “barely leave their homes to buy supplies or go to work.” He added that “fear overshadows Copts both young and old, and they expect death at any time.” The siege of Delga by the Islamists, which just ended, began when the Egyptian military forces broke up the demonstrations that followed the ouster of Mohamed Morsi. Hannah revealed to MCN that more than 30,000 people from Delga had participated in the demonstrations. After they were broken up by the interim government forces, “they returned to the village and stormed the police station, destroying it completely.” He continued that the Islamists had “set up a platform” in front of the destroyed police station and “announced from the stage that Delga had become an Islamic state.” During this time period Islamists carried out brutal attacks on the town’s Copts. Says Hannah, “they set fire to 62 houses, and all the churches, except for the Evangelical Church.”

St. George Coptic Catholic Church was set upon by over 500 jihadists on July 3, just after the successful “People’s Coup” against Morsi. The priest in charge, Father Ayoub Youssef, reported that the church was “systematically” looted — down to the toys and electrical wiring from the walls. “After they made sure they looted everything, they poured gasoline on foam mattresses and 3,000 books in the library, and set the place on fire,” he recounted. Amazingly, after the August 14 crackdown on the Islamists’ demonstrations, “they were much harsher,” he said. At that point calls were sent via mosque loudspeakers “urging Muslims to wage jihad in support of Muslims.” They attacked and destroyed the Virgin Mary and St. Abram Monastery in Delga, and beheaded a Coptic barber, Iskander Tous, and mutilated his body.

“The situation for Copts in the village is deplorable and death, devastation, and destruction are everywhere.” Hannah had told MCN. “Deplorable” is what Secretary of State John F. Kerry called the Egyptian military government’s August crackdown on Islamist factions. Arutz Sheva has reported that the United States government on Thursday, September 12, “once again called on Egypt’s interim authorities to lift a state of emergency which has been in force since August.” State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf to reporters that the U.S. was pressing Cairo “to create an atmosphere where Egyptians on all sides can peacefully exercise their right to freedom of assembly and expression.” Sadly, the State Department has not exhibited as vigorous defense of Egypt’s Christians as they have of the Muslim Brotherhood.

 

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