Coptic children sit in front of the ruins of a Christian home in Beni Ahmed, destroyed by Islamists on August 3, 2013. (Photo Credit: MCN Direct, Ramy Ramsy)
Islamist thugs continue to rule the day in Egypt. Although the Muslim Brotherhood government has been ousted, Copts and other Christians continue to suffer from Morsi’s supporters, Salafists, and other assorted jihadists and would-be jihadists. Churches, businesses, and homes of Christians are attacked and destroyed. Individual Christians are harassed, raped, abducted, or killed. The political system is weighted against Christians, with Christians being forced to participate in farcical “customary reconciliation sessions” in which abusive and violent Islamists are exonerated and their Christian victims receive no justice. In addition, Christians are being left out of the new leadership being established in Egypt.
Mideast Christian News (MCN) reports on some of the most recent serious attacks against Egypt’s Christians and the impunity enjoyed by the Islamists who perpetrated these attacks. One such attack took place on Saturday, August 3, in the village of Beni Ahmed, in Minya, Upper Egypt when hundreds of Muslim Brothers and Salafists attacked Christians with stones and Molotov cocktails, and fired on the local church. On August 5, 2013, MCN sent a team of journalists to interview the victims of this attack, which resulted in the burning of seven houses, twenty-four shops, and nine vehicles.
MCN reported that upon entering the village they found a number of burned vehicles at the side of the road. They met with the first Coptic family to be attacked, “as their house is located at the village’s entrance.” It was targeted after the Islamists noticed a Christian picture on the door. MCN quoted Magdi Youssef, a member of the family, who said:
After I went back home from work, I heard about Muslims rallying, after a fight had occurred between a young Christian and another Muslim supporter of Morsi over the new song dedicated to the armed forces. A while later, gunshots were heard and we found vehicles transporting bearded [men in] vehicles from neighboring villages, which started attacking our house.
We shut the door and tried to jam it with logs of wood, only for the perpetrators to break down the gate and then set the house on fire, they attacked us with stones and I was hit in the head and leg, and we ran out of the house’s back door, while perpetrators stole our belongings and lit the house on fire.
Youssef’s brother, Samuel, added that the attack took place in the presence of the police, who watched and “didn’t intervene.” Haggag Youssef explained that the Islamists came from seven neighboring village “opening fire at the church and other shops owned by Copts, as the police stood idly watching.” He said that they “reproach Col. Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who was delegated by millions of Egyptians to face violence, and yet citizens remain to be terrorized.”
MCN also spoke to Magdi’s wife, who said that the attack has “ruined our lives.” She added that the children were “in a state of shock” after witnessing their own neighbors directing the Islamists to Copts’ houses. The children are now having trouble sleeping, and are suffering from panic attacks.
The owner of a supermarket, Sami Karam, told MCN that his shop was completely burned. His loss is estimated at over 80,000 Egyptian pounds. Likewise, Dr. Magdi George’s pharmacy was destroyed after the Islamists broke in and stole equipment and large sums of money. His losses are estimated at 150,000 pounds. Karam said that they were “surprised by the attacks, as the perpetrators chanted ‘We will sacrifice our souls and blood for Islam.'” He added that the Islamists prevented fire trucks from reaching the blazes, “while police stood idly watching.”
Another recent attack took place on Sunday, August 11, in Diabiya el-Wousta village, Beni Suef, which is about 71 miles south of Cairo. Islamic militants set fire to Archangel and St. Anthony church and burned or otherwise destroyed twelve houses, two shops, and a meeting hall, all owned by Copts, reports MCN. The attack, which left five Copts and two Muslims wounded, was instigated by a dispute over a speed bump. A Christian villager, Fawzy Abu Saad Rizkallaha, set up a speed bump in front of his house to reduce the speed of passing cars and try to protect his children from being run over. A Muslim driver objected, and responded by calling together a mob to burn houses, shops, and other property of Christians, as well as to destroy the church.
In far too many of these egregious attacks, and others, such as the assassination of a Coptic priest in North Sinai, the beheading of another Christian, also in North Sinai, and in the shooting death of a ten year-old Christian girl, Jessica Boulous Eissa, on August 7 at the Evangelical Church in Ain Shams, there is little hope of justice or recompense for the victims. Even worse, frequently the Christians are the ones charged with rioting, disturbing the peace, or destruction of property! Christians are also forced to participate in the “customary reconciliation sessions,” which were explained by MCN as seeming to be “the only way that the state deals with attacks on Copts.” The news service added that “Coptic human rights activists have unilaterally criticized the sessions” because they do nothing to prevent further attacks by the Islamists and de-value the rights of the Copts by making perpetrator and victim morally equivalent.
Thankfully, there are many Egyptian Muslims that are vehemently opposed to this treatment of the Christians. They feel that the Christians are their allies who stood shoulder to shoulder with them in Tahrir Square as a part of the People’s Revolution. These non-Islamist/non-Jihadist Muslims are attempting to intervene for the Christians, and to help to those who have lost their businesses and homes. For example, Egyptian activist and writer Cynthia Farahat has reported that some Muslim women in Cairo went out and painted sections of a church in Heliopolis last weekend, August 11, after the jihadists vandalized it, writing offensive and hateful slogans on its walls.
Farahat adds, “Since 2010 New Years Eve terrorist attack on a church in Alexandria, every New Year’s Eve prayer, Christmas and Christian event ever since, hundreds and thousands of Muslim women stand protecting the church in solidarity with Christians. There are tremendous acts of heroism and bravery from Muslim women in Egypt that puts [Western] feminists to shame.”
Hopefully the courage and compassion of these women will inspire other Muslims to defend the rights of their Christian neighbors, rather than point them out to the marauding Islamists, like the bad neighbors in Beni Ahmed. Please continue to pray for Egypt’s Christians, and that a wise and just government, providing religious freedom for all people, would prevail.
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