plus: Egypt's Sad Reality
By Elizabeth Kendal
When the Egyptian military, under the leadership of General Abdel Fatta el-Sisi, ousted the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government of President Mohamed Morsi on 3 July 2013, it triggered an explosion of violence against Copts (the Christian, indigenous people of Egypt) as Muslim Brotherhood (MB) elites and supporters blamed Copts / Christians for the coup.
See: Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) 218 (10 July 2013).
Once the Copts had been sufficiently terrorised and subjugated (i.e. put in their place), the MB got down to business, strategising on how to challenge the military head on.
In an article entitled, "Why the Ikhwan has not lost in Egypt, and why the challenge is just beginning" published in the July edition of Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy, terrorism analyst Yossef Bodansky writes: "The Ikhwan's [MB's] spiritual guides are now calling for a violent intifada against the military: a confrontation where the military's superior firepower would create numerous martyrs, thus reinforcing and affirming the Ikhwan's own claim of victimhood.
"The distance to an Algerian-style civil war is very short."
This is something I noted in June 2012.
See EGYPT: echos of Algeria as SCAF trumps Islamists
Bodansky elaborates (July 2013):
"Ikhwan leaders are actively preparing at the highest level for a rather imminent escalation of the fighting. On 14 July 2013, the Ikhwan's supreme leadership issued a formal guideline for the struggle against the military towards the restoration of Islamist governance.
"The document urges 'shedding blood and dividing the army'. The document states that 'emerging victorious over the enemy requires patience, faith and determination'. The main undertaking to attain the Ikhwan's ultimate goal are 'disbanding the Egyptian army, dividing it and distorting its image'. The document stresses the importance of 'sparking bloodshed' in the upcoming phases of the confrontation, with emphasis on encouraging 'martyrs' and 'sacrifices' from among the Islamist masses.
"The document then provides guidelines on how to restore 'the collective consciousness' and original goals of Egypt's Islamic revolution."
Bodansky writes that the document decries the army as a puppet of America, and its supporters as westernised. "The Ikhwan's objective," explains Bodansky, "is to portray the military coup as a US conspiracy against Muslim Egypt."
Bodansky notes that the document concludes with what is essentially a threat: "The Egyptian army in its current situation will not be able to provide stability." (emphasis mine)
Bodansky continues: "The imminence of the threat was clarified in a decree issued the same day by the Ikhwan's spiritual leader, Muhammad Badie which permitted all Islamist protestors to break the fast of Ramadan since they are in a 'state of jihad' and are 'waging a battle for the control of Egypt'.
"Badie compares the struggle against the Egyptian army to the Battle of Badr (the decisive battle waged between the forces of the Prophet Mohammed and the Jewish tribe of Quraish in 624). Badie compares Cairo's Rabia al-Adawiya Mosque -- the Ikhwan's centre -- to prophet Mohammed's camp in Medina. 'The ruling against those who leave Rabia al-Adawiya Square is akin to the ruling against those who flee the battle and jihad against the infidels,' Badie wrote. On the basis of the decree, Badie ordered Ikhwan leaders to prepare for 'the second Battle of Badr' on the battle's anniversary on Ramadan 17 (July 26, 2013)."
This provides the context for the two "sit-ins" in Cairo which drew thousands of MB supporters to camp in the streets for six weeks.
MB challenges military.
As noted by Amnesty International, these protest sites were dangerous, violent places, where those who voiced objections were beaten, raped, tortured and killed. The "sit-ins" comprised bands of violent, armed MB supporters who provoked the military from behind a screen of human shields: i.e. thousands of women and children.
Military moves against MB
What occurred on Wednesday 14 Aug, when the military went in as promised to disperse the "sit-ins" and clear the streets, was a massacre, a bloodbath. While it was doubtless much worse than the MB leadership imagined it would be -- with the army massacring over 900 Egyptians in four days -- a massacre was exactly they had sought. This would be great for propaganda; great for recruitment.
MB supporters react against Copts
The 14 August crackdown triggered another explosion of violence against Copts / Christians -- the worst anti-Christian violence Egypt has seen in contemporary times.
Over the next few days, churches, monasteries and other Christian properties, including schools and businesses, were torched and looted by rampaging MB supporters in Sohag, Minya, Beni Suef, Fayium, Asyut, Alexandria, Suez and Cairo. Bible Society bookshops in Assiut and Minia were destroyed. Three nuns taken out of the Franciscan school in Bani Suef were paraded 'like prisoners of war' through mob-filled streets on until a courageous Muslim woman rescued them and took them into her home. Two other Christian women who fled from the school were observed being hit, groped and spat on as they fought their way through the mob.
See: RLPB 224 (21 Aug 2013)
For more details see, Egypt: Mass Attacks on Churches
Christians Say Pleas for Protection Fell Largely on Deaf Ears
Human Rights Watch, 22 Aug 2013
While violence was recorded all across Egypt, Minya province in Upper Egypt was worst hit and Delga, the town nearest the Giza-Luxor highway, bore the brunt.
Samir Lamei Sakr, a prominent Christian lawyer, told The Guardian: "As soon as the crackdown in Cairo started [14 Aug], all the loudspeakers at the main mosques in Delga issued calls for jihad." Christian properties were marked. Sakr's home was attacked and he was hit with 13 shotgun pellets. His cousin, however, was killed by Islamists who then tied his body to a tractor and dragged it around the town. Bishop Macarius told The Guardian that though they called for help, "no one answered. Not the police, not the army, not the fire service." Even churches within sight of the provincial police headquarters were burned. More than 100 forcibly displaced Christian families fled Delga with nothing and have nothing to return to.
Emergency Law was established for one month, military officers were installed as governors and 14 governorates were placed under 7pm-6am curfews.
Suicide bombing challenges regime
On 5 Sept, Egypt's Interior Minister narrowly escaped a serious assassination attempt when a suicide bomber blew up his car as the minister's convoy drove through Nasr City. Ten police and eleven civilians were wounded in the massive explosion which ripped off the front of one building.
On 12 Sept, the state of emergency was extended for a further two months.
Security forces storm Delga
On Monday 16 September, heavily armed Egyptian troops stormed into Delga, arresting 56 and liberating the town from two months of Islamist control.
According to Stratfor Intelligence (16 Sept), the military could have liberated Delga from as early as 22 Aug, but instead spread "exaggerated rumors about the persecution of Copts to justify operations". Rather than spread "exaggerated rumors" of persecution, I would suggest that the military chose to "exploit" very real and very severe persecution "rather than prevent it, to legitimise military violence, military rule and requests for military aid" -- just as was anticipated in RLPB 224, 21 Aug 2013.
While Christians are understandably relieved, Ahmed Salah, a local human rights lawyer, believes the crackdown was less about protecting Christians and more about exploiting the state of emergency to take revenge on those who have attacked police and stolen their weapons. Officials from the Interior Ministry all but confirmed that the military action had nothing to do with protecting Christians. The New York Times reports (16 Sept): 'Interior ministry officials said the [military] expedition was an attempt to capture a single fugitive Islamist, and it may depart soon. The overwhelming force, they said, was merely for self-protection [as] the surrounding province of Minya is still considered a bastion of Islamist support for Mr. Morsi.'
See (recommended): In Islamist Bastions of Egypt, the Army Treads Carefully, and Christians Do, Too
By David Kirkpatrick for the New York Times, 16 Sept 2013
Copts / Christians fearful of backlash
The NYT article (above) both reports the experiences of Christians and gives voice to their fears. "Christian residents [in Delga] said opportunists in the town had tried to demand money to protect local Christians from further attack, recalling a tax [jizya] levied on Christians centuries ago. [see Qur'an 9:29]
"'The thugs are asking for money for protection,' said the Rev. Yoanas Shawki, 33. The security forces met no resistance when they arrived early Monday, interior ministry officials and local witnesses said, although a resident said the police later used tear gas to disperse an afternoon rally. Ministry officials said the expedition was hunting Assem Abdel Maged, a veteran leader of the Gamaa al-Islamiya, so far unsuccessfully.
"Magid Nessim, a Christian, said he feared the security forces might soon leave again. 'There could be retaliation attempts against Copts,' he said, 'from Islamists or other people who are angry now at the army's presence.'"
The violence in Egypt is settling into a pattern / a deadly cycle
(1) The MB challenges the military (resisting the coup),
(2) the military responds with force,
(3) MB supporters react with violence against Copts / Christians (who they blame for the coup).
Then the cycle starts again.
Recruiting for the "Free Egypt Army"
-- thousands of Algerians have already volunteered
Meanwhile, Bodnasky reports, "The Ikhwan [has] dispatched several leaders – both religious and former military – to Arab countries with strong jihadist traditions in order to recruit jihadist volunteers for the Ikhwan's 'Free Egyptian Army' to fight the Egyptian military, reverse Morsi's ouster, and unleash a jihad against Israel and for the liberation of al-Aqsa.'
"Algerian security officials warned that the Egyptian recruiters had already signed up a few thousand Algerian volunteers. Among then recruited Algerians are dozens of street leaders and commanders from the Algerian civil war."
With the MB recruiting jihadis in Algeria and beyond, we can only anticipate that terrorism against the state will escalate.
At first glance it might appear that Egypt is heading back to the 1990s, when terrorism was routine, the state was under emergency rule, and the jails were full of Islamic militants and MB provocateurs. But it is not so!
In the 16 years since al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya killed 58 foreign tourist at Luxor, a massive amount of grassroots radicalisation has occurred courtesy of Saudi Arabia's clerical establishment. Today, Egypt's Copts / Christians are at risk not only from militants and military, but from mobs -- mobs made up of their own neighbours -- radicalised grassroots Muslims -- MB supporters who blame Copts / Christians their victimisation. And of the three -- militants, military and mobs -- the mobs may well prove to be the most deadly.
Elizabeth Kendal is the author of
Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today
(Deror Books, Dec 2012)
------------------------------------
EGYPT'S SAD REALITY
------------------------------------
The present crisis results from the convergence of several strategic trends: in particular, the arrival of 'democracy' after decades of Saudi-sponsored Islamic radicalisation in a state that is hurtling towards collapse.
Egypt's population has exploded, doubling in one generation to more than 92 million; consequently the state is straining under weight of a massive youth-bulge. On top of this, Egypt has high unemployment (over 40 percent), high illiteracy (45 percent), high level of familial marriages (35 percent), as well as critical food and fuel shortages and looming bankruptcy.
As a desert nation with little arable land, Egypt must import most of its food. While bread is a staple of the Egyptian diet, 70 percent of wheat must be imported, as must fuel. And while the government has long subsidised the cost of bread and fuel, it can no longer afford to do so, for Egypt is running out of money.
Saudi money keeps Egypt afloat and the Saudis have long wanted their nemesis, the Muslim Brotherhood -- which advocates republicanism and rapprochement with Iran -- not just out of power, but crushed. In this, the interests of the Saudis, the Egyptian military and the Salafis converged. [Te profoundly anti-Shi'ite Salafis prefer the Saudi model, where Muslim bureaucrats / administrators run the state and bear the burden of governance while funding Muslims to get on with business of advancing Islam.]
Furthermore, despite Egypt being the most populous Sunni Arab state and a major centre of Sunni Islamic learning, Egypt is not as strategically significant as most Egyptians would like to think. In reality, Egypt's strategic significance begins and ends with its ability to secure the Suez Canal and the Sinai-Israeli border. The military know this; it gives them confidence to act as a law unto themselves. Had Morsi appreciated this he would not have antagonised the military.
Though the military deposed Morsi, it does not want to govern Egypt. The military doesn't want the burden of governance; it doesn't want to take the blame when Egypt's systemic economic and demographic problems can't be solved quickly and painlessly to the peoples' satisfaction. A puppet will do nicely for that! What the military wants is to control power in pursuit of its own interests. And because the military is the most strategically important institution in Egypt, it can act as a law unto itself.
While Christians are understandably delighted to see the Muslim Brotherhood out of power and repressed, they need to understand that the military is acting with Christians or secularism or religious freedom in mind. The military's interim constitution appeases the Salafis by retaining all the Islamist elements that have caused Copts and other Egyptian Christians so much grief.
The truth is, the military cares nothing for Christians and with money coming from Saudi Arabia it need have no interest in protecting Christians, only in protecting itself and crushing the MB. What's more, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have
promised to compensate Egypt for any losses they suffer on account of US and EU sanctions; so the miliary can crackdown as hard as it likes on whoever it likes.
Remember, this is the same military that drove tanks into Copts at Maspero in October 2011, killing 28, when the Copts led protests against the escalation in sectarian violence under the SCAF in the wake of the fall of Mubarak. This is the same military that fired live ammunition at Coptic monks and bulldozed the security walls of Coptic monasteries, removing their security so Arab raiders and jihadis could attack and plunder them. Remember, General al-Sisi is a Morsi-appointed, pro-Salafi Islamist, the same al-Sisi who gave approval to the practise of soldiers performing "virginity tests" on young women arrested in Tahrir Square.
The military will kill Christians in a flash if it believes it is in its interest to do so. It will also ignore or exploit the serious persecution of Christians, rather than prevent it, if it believes it is in its interests to do so. The situation in Egypt is incredibly serious.
---------------------------------------
Elizabeth Kendal is the author of
Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today
(Deror Books, Dec 2012)
Showing posts with label Copts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Copts. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Egyptian state security accused of torturing Christian youths. 23 Feb 2010
AINA reports: "Egyptian State Security has been accused by lawyers, rights activists and victims' families of torturing the Christian youths arrested in the aftermath of the Christmas Eve shootings of Copts on January 6, 2010. The shooting in the southern town of Nag Hammadi resulted in the death of six and the injury of nine Christians."
http://www.aina.org/news/20100223002532.htm
There is concern that Egyptian authorities might be trying to extract false 'confessions' from Coptic youths which will be used to corrupt the case against the Muslim killers. This is exactly what happen in the el Kosheh case (1998-99) as police sought to frame Copts for the murder of two Coptic youths, even though their Muslim killers had been identified. In that case, the impunity led to a subsequent massacre of Copts in el Kosheh between 30 Dec 1999 - 2 Jan 2000.
Ever since 2007 the Egyptian government has been appeasing Islamic fundamentalists and keeping cases of persecution out of the courts in line with the Sharia provision that prohibit Christians from testifying against Muslims. Christian victims of persecution are being forced into 'reconciliation' sessions, where charges of arson, assault, murder etc are dropped in exchange for peace (and the release of innocent Copts being held in detention as barganing chips). This impunity has led to a dramatic escalation in persecution.
Background see:
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin o38, Wed 13 Jan 2010
Massacre at Nag Hammadi
http://ea.org.au/default.aspx?id=cf849553-79bf-41b8-ac56-d9e765c1d6bf
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin 039, Wed 20 Jan 2010
What sort of justice?
http://ea.org.au/default.aspx?id=1fae380c-3fa0-43a3-b561-2851de6ab532
and
Keeping the Copts subjugated
WEA RLC News & Analysis 29 May2007
http://ea.org.au/default.aspx?id=0cbcb4c0-615c-4cac-9886-5cf079bc1be0
http://www.aina.org/news/20100223002532.htm
There is concern that Egyptian authorities might be trying to extract false 'confessions' from Coptic youths which will be used to corrupt the case against the Muslim killers. This is exactly what happen in the el Kosheh case (1998-99) as police sought to frame Copts for the murder of two Coptic youths, even though their Muslim killers had been identified. In that case, the impunity led to a subsequent massacre of Copts in el Kosheh between 30 Dec 1999 - 2 Jan 2000.
Ever since 2007 the Egyptian government has been appeasing Islamic fundamentalists and keeping cases of persecution out of the courts in line with the Sharia provision that prohibit Christians from testifying against Muslims. Christian victims of persecution are being forced into 'reconciliation' sessions, where charges of arson, assault, murder etc are dropped in exchange for peace (and the release of innocent Copts being held in detention as barganing chips). This impunity has led to a dramatic escalation in persecution.
Background see:
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin o38, Wed 13 Jan 2010
Massacre at Nag Hammadi
http://ea.org.au/default.aspx?id=cf849553-79bf-41b8-ac56-d9e765c1d6bf
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin 039, Wed 20 Jan 2010
What sort of justice?
http://ea.org.au/default.aspx?id=1fae380c-3fa0-43a3-b561-2851de6ab532
and
Keeping the Copts subjugated
WEA RLC News & Analysis 29 May2007
http://ea.org.au/default.aspx?id=0cbcb4c0-615c-4cac-9886-5cf079bc1be0
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Egypt to rule on apostasy
Date: Thursday 28 June 2007
Subj: Egypt to rule on apostasy - 1 July 2007
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
A hugely important appeal is presently being considered by Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court. The judgment is due to be handed down on Sunday 1 July 07.
This apostasy case has had virtually no coverage in English language media. The appeal, which bears striking similarity to Lina Joy's appeal in Malaysia, has been filed by 45 Copts (Egypt's indigenous, traditionally Christian people) who had either converted to Islam for various reasons or been deemed Muslim on account of their parents' conversion to Islam. These 45 Copts want to officially return to their Christian faith and be legally recognised as Christians on their national identity cards.
For Copts, this process of re-conversion to Christianity requires a court ruling. In more tolerant times the courts have been lenient towards the Copts and ruled to permit the re-conversion. But on 24 April 2007 these 45 Copts discovered that the times have definitely changed, because for them permission was denied. They decided to appeal.
During the 18 June appeal, the Copts' attorney, Coptic lawyer Naguib Gabriel, decried the fact that through the ruling of the lower court, "the government is forcing people to embrace beliefs against their free will. It is forcing them according to their official papers to belong to a religion they don't believe in." Meanwhile the attorney for the government argued that the initial verdict issued on 24 April by Judge Muhammad Husseini was "completely consistent with the principles of Islamic sharia law".
Egypt's Islamic scholars have been divided, with moderates advocating that apostasy should only be prohibited for those born Muslim; and fundamentalists maintaining that Islam decrees that any apostate should be executed. Egypt's Interior Minister Habib el-Adly takes the fundamentalist view and has publicly supported the initial ruling. Compass Direct reports, "The interior minister insisted that Islam, as the state religion of Egypt, demands that any Muslim man who abandons his faith should be killed. But a Muslim woman 'apostate' should only be imprisoned and beaten every three days until she returns to Islam."
Compass Direct notes: "Although there is no legal means for Egyptian Muslims who have converted to Christianity to register a change in religious status, this prohibition has yet to be tested in the courts."
But there can be little doubt that the prohibition on Muslim conversion to Christianity will be tested in the courts soon. Escalating Islamic radicalisation and intolerance, and the amazing and dynamic growth in Arab Christianity are destined to clash in the courts eventually. In the face of rising repressive intolerance, Arabs will demand their right to liberty.
Let the debate begin!
Elizabeth Kendal
------------------------------------------------------------
Egyptian Copts Appeal Religious Identity Ruling
Interior minister demands execution of Christian 'apostates.'
by Barbara G. Baker
ISTANBUL, June 25 (Compass Direct News) – Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court heard a final appeal last week for 45 Coptic Christian citizens who were denied their attempt to legally reclaim their Christian identities after officially converting to Islam.
Of the 45 plaintiffs, half were adults when they changed the required religion section on their national identity cards from Christian to Muslim. The remainder were children whose Coptic parents had become Muslims. All have declared they want to return to their Christian faith.
Arguing before presiding Judge Essam Eddin Abdel-Aziz on June 18, Coptic lawyer Naguib Gabriel declared that a lower administrative court's April ruling against his 45 clients' joint-action suit had "embarrassed the Egyptian government at an international level."
"This [refusal] says that the government is forcing people to embrace beliefs against their free will," Gabriel said. "It is forcing them according to their official papers to belong to a religion they don’t believe in."
Egyptian Christians can easily change their religious status to Muslim, which allows them to receive incentives ranging from employment and marriage options to custody of their children in divorce cases. But the nation's Muslims are not permitted to leave their religion for any other faith.
Gabriel presented an exhibit portfolio of 29 previous verdicts issued by the administrative courts to allow Copts to regain their Christian identities. None of these decisions handed down in the past three years had been challenged or appealed by the state.
The government's attorney, however, argued that the initial verdict issued on April 24 by Judge Muhammad Husseini was "completely consistent with the principles of Islamic sharia [religious law]." He accused the Coptic appellants of adopting Islam for the purpose of "religious manipulation."
Pending an expert legal opinion requested from a state commissar, the court declared it would announce its final verdict on Sunday (July 1). The higher court's ruling is not subject to further appeal.
'MANIPULATING' RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
In the initial court ruling, as reported by Al Ahram newspaper on April 26, the lower court had declared there was a "huge difference" between giving freedom of belief and "manipulating" this freedom by changing from one religion to another.
"Muslims have not forced anyone to believe in Islam, so they are not allowing anyone to desert Islam and leave it," the court was quoted as saying.
But in the same verdict, the court declared that according to the principles of Islamic law, no citizen can be forced to reveal his religious beliefs. It remained unclear whether this stipulation could allow Egyptian citizens to leave blank the religion section on their identity card.
According to a report published on May 8 in the weekly Sout el Oma newspaper, Interior Minister Habib el-Adly threw his support behind the ruling a week later.
In his May 1 memo to the administrative court, El-Adly requested blanket rejection of all cases involving Copts trying to return to their Christian identity after having converted to Islam.
The interior minister insisted that Islam, as the state religion of Egypt, demands that any Muslim man who abandons his faith should be killed. But a Muslim woman "apostate," he wrote, should only be imprisoned and beaten every three days until she returns to Islam.
The newspaper said El-Adly accused the several hundred Copts who have opened court cases to retain their Christian identity of "playing with religion" and disrupting national unity.
DANGEROUS DOUBLE STANDARD
But according to Dr. Muhammad el-Sayed, an expert in the Al Ahram Center for Strategic and Political Studies, such a verdict can be expected to fan religious hatred and sectarian strife in Egypt.
Quoted in Watani newspaper on April 29, El-Sayed stressed that the ruling contradicted the constitutional guarantee that all citizens are equal.
It is unclear whether the final ruling on July 1 will be enacted retroactively, cancelling previous court rulings that granted Coptic converts to Islam the right to return to their Christian birthright identity.
"We have to appeal this ruling," General Secretary Hafez Abu Saada of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights told Watani after the April ruling. "This is simply because we know that converting to Islam could be under pressure, such as getting a divorce or financial problems. So the individual has the right to choose his religion."
After the initial lower court ruling, Coptic lawyer Gabriel told Compass, "In practice, Egypt has a double standard for any citizen who wants to change his religion."
According to Article 47 of Law No. 143 of the Egyptian civil code, all citizens are required to carry on their person a national identity card. The law stipulates that a change in the citizen's name or religion can only be made by producing either a legal certificate or a court verdict authorizing the change.
"Those who convert to Islam only have to produce a formal certificate of conversion from Al-Azhar [Egypt's official Islamic establishment]," Gabriel said. "But for those coming back to Christianity, a certificate from the Coptic Patriarchate is not enough. They are also required to request a court verdict."
"This process takes at least two years in court," the lawyer noted.
Moderate Islamic scholars in Egypt contend that only birthright Muslims who attack the Islamic faith can be judged as "apostates." They exclude from this category any converts to Islam who later return to their previous faith.
But the Muslim Brotherhood and other hardliners insist that anyone who embraces the Muslim religion and then abandons it is an apostate who should be executed.
LEGAL STALEMATE FOR NON-MUSLIMS
Although next week's verdict will directly affect citizens from Christian background, it will also impact the legal stalemate against both the tiny Baha'i religious community and Egypt's growing number of ex-Muslims who have become Christians.
"This verdict indirectly targets converts to Christianity, and the Baha'is, too," one former Muslim in Cairo told Compass.
"During the past three years, it had become so much easier for former Christians to change back," he said, referring to the first watershed decision in April 2004, which permitted a Coptic-born woman who had converted to Islam to recover her legal Christian identity.
"Now, this ruling is saying, indirectly, that it is impossible to let any Muslim change his religious identity."
Although there is no legal means for Egyptian Muslims who have converted to Christianity to register a change in religious status, this prohibition has yet to be tested in the courts.
When a Baha'i couple launched such a test case several years ago, a landmark lower court ruling in April 2006 recognized the right of Egyptian Baha'is to state their religion on official documents. But six weeks later, the Supreme Administrative Court suspended the verdict and cancelled its implementation, followed by a final overruling of the decision in December 2006.
END
*** A photograph of Coptic lawyer Naguib Gabriel is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
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Copyright 2007 Compass Direct News
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Subj: Egypt to rule on apostasy - 1 July 2007
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
A hugely important appeal is presently being considered by Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court. The judgment is due to be handed down on Sunday 1 July 07.
This apostasy case has had virtually no coverage in English language media. The appeal, which bears striking similarity to Lina Joy's appeal in Malaysia, has been filed by 45 Copts (Egypt's indigenous, traditionally Christian people) who had either converted to Islam for various reasons or been deemed Muslim on account of their parents' conversion to Islam. These 45 Copts want to officially return to their Christian faith and be legally recognised as Christians on their national identity cards.
For Copts, this process of re-conversion to Christianity requires a court ruling. In more tolerant times the courts have been lenient towards the Copts and ruled to permit the re-conversion. But on 24 April 2007 these 45 Copts discovered that the times have definitely changed, because for them permission was denied. They decided to appeal.
During the 18 June appeal, the Copts' attorney, Coptic lawyer Naguib Gabriel, decried the fact that through the ruling of the lower court, "the government is forcing people to embrace beliefs against their free will. It is forcing them according to their official papers to belong to a religion they don't believe in." Meanwhile the attorney for the government argued that the initial verdict issued on 24 April by Judge Muhammad Husseini was "completely consistent with the principles of Islamic sharia law".
Egypt's Islamic scholars have been divided, with moderates advocating that apostasy should only be prohibited for those born Muslim; and fundamentalists maintaining that Islam decrees that any apostate should be executed. Egypt's Interior Minister Habib el-Adly takes the fundamentalist view and has publicly supported the initial ruling. Compass Direct reports, "The interior minister insisted that Islam, as the state religion of Egypt, demands that any Muslim man who abandons his faith should be killed. But a Muslim woman 'apostate' should only be imprisoned and beaten every three days until she returns to Islam."
Compass Direct notes: "Although there is no legal means for Egyptian Muslims who have converted to Christianity to register a change in religious status, this prohibition has yet to be tested in the courts."
But there can be little doubt that the prohibition on Muslim conversion to Christianity will be tested in the courts soon. Escalating Islamic radicalisation and intolerance, and the amazing and dynamic growth in Arab Christianity are destined to clash in the courts eventually. In the face of rising repressive intolerance, Arabs will demand their right to liberty.
Let the debate begin!
Elizabeth Kendal
------------------------------------------------------------
Egyptian Copts Appeal Religious Identity Ruling
Interior minister demands execution of Christian 'apostates.'
by Barbara G. Baker
ISTANBUL, June 25 (Compass Direct News) – Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court heard a final appeal last week for 45 Coptic Christian citizens who were denied their attempt to legally reclaim their Christian identities after officially converting to Islam.
Of the 45 plaintiffs, half were adults when they changed the required religion section on their national identity cards from Christian to Muslim. The remainder were children whose Coptic parents had become Muslims. All have declared they want to return to their Christian faith.
Arguing before presiding Judge Essam Eddin Abdel-Aziz on June 18, Coptic lawyer Naguib Gabriel declared that a lower administrative court's April ruling against his 45 clients' joint-action suit had "embarrassed the Egyptian government at an international level."
"This [refusal] says that the government is forcing people to embrace beliefs against their free will," Gabriel said. "It is forcing them according to their official papers to belong to a religion they don’t believe in."
Egyptian Christians can easily change their religious status to Muslim, which allows them to receive incentives ranging from employment and marriage options to custody of their children in divorce cases. But the nation's Muslims are not permitted to leave their religion for any other faith.
Gabriel presented an exhibit portfolio of 29 previous verdicts issued by the administrative courts to allow Copts to regain their Christian identities. None of these decisions handed down in the past three years had been challenged or appealed by the state.
The government's attorney, however, argued that the initial verdict issued on April 24 by Judge Muhammad Husseini was "completely consistent with the principles of Islamic sharia [religious law]." He accused the Coptic appellants of adopting Islam for the purpose of "religious manipulation."
Pending an expert legal opinion requested from a state commissar, the court declared it would announce its final verdict on Sunday (July 1). The higher court's ruling is not subject to further appeal.
'MANIPULATING' RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
In the initial court ruling, as reported by Al Ahram newspaper on April 26, the lower court had declared there was a "huge difference" between giving freedom of belief and "manipulating" this freedom by changing from one religion to another.
"Muslims have not forced anyone to believe in Islam, so they are not allowing anyone to desert Islam and leave it," the court was quoted as saying.
But in the same verdict, the court declared that according to the principles of Islamic law, no citizen can be forced to reveal his religious beliefs. It remained unclear whether this stipulation could allow Egyptian citizens to leave blank the religion section on their identity card.
According to a report published on May 8 in the weekly Sout el Oma newspaper, Interior Minister Habib el-Adly threw his support behind the ruling a week later.
In his May 1 memo to the administrative court, El-Adly requested blanket rejection of all cases involving Copts trying to return to their Christian identity after having converted to Islam.
The interior minister insisted that Islam, as the state religion of Egypt, demands that any Muslim man who abandons his faith should be killed. But a Muslim woman "apostate," he wrote, should only be imprisoned and beaten every three days until she returns to Islam.
The newspaper said El-Adly accused the several hundred Copts who have opened court cases to retain their Christian identity of "playing with religion" and disrupting national unity.
DANGEROUS DOUBLE STANDARD
But according to Dr. Muhammad el-Sayed, an expert in the Al Ahram Center for Strategic and Political Studies, such a verdict can be expected to fan religious hatred and sectarian strife in Egypt.
Quoted in Watani newspaper on April 29, El-Sayed stressed that the ruling contradicted the constitutional guarantee that all citizens are equal.
It is unclear whether the final ruling on July 1 will be enacted retroactively, cancelling previous court rulings that granted Coptic converts to Islam the right to return to their Christian birthright identity.
"We have to appeal this ruling," General Secretary Hafez Abu Saada of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights told Watani after the April ruling. "This is simply because we know that converting to Islam could be under pressure, such as getting a divorce or financial problems. So the individual has the right to choose his religion."
After the initial lower court ruling, Coptic lawyer Gabriel told Compass, "In practice, Egypt has a double standard for any citizen who wants to change his religion."
According to Article 47 of Law No. 143 of the Egyptian civil code, all citizens are required to carry on their person a national identity card. The law stipulates that a change in the citizen's name or religion can only be made by producing either a legal certificate or a court verdict authorizing the change.
"Those who convert to Islam only have to produce a formal certificate of conversion from Al-Azhar [Egypt's official Islamic establishment]," Gabriel said. "But for those coming back to Christianity, a certificate from the Coptic Patriarchate is not enough. They are also required to request a court verdict."
"This process takes at least two years in court," the lawyer noted.
Moderate Islamic scholars in Egypt contend that only birthright Muslims who attack the Islamic faith can be judged as "apostates." They exclude from this category any converts to Islam who later return to their previous faith.
But the Muslim Brotherhood and other hardliners insist that anyone who embraces the Muslim religion and then abandons it is an apostate who should be executed.
LEGAL STALEMATE FOR NON-MUSLIMS
Although next week's verdict will directly affect citizens from Christian background, it will also impact the legal stalemate against both the tiny Baha'i religious community and Egypt's growing number of ex-Muslims who have become Christians.
"This verdict indirectly targets converts to Christianity, and the Baha'is, too," one former Muslim in Cairo told Compass.
"During the past three years, it had become so much easier for former Christians to change back," he said, referring to the first watershed decision in April 2004, which permitted a Coptic-born woman who had converted to Islam to recover her legal Christian identity.
"Now, this ruling is saying, indirectly, that it is impossible to let any Muslim change his religious identity."
Although there is no legal means for Egyptian Muslims who have converted to Christianity to register a change in religious status, this prohibition has yet to be tested in the courts.
When a Baha'i couple launched such a test case several years ago, a landmark lower court ruling in April 2006 recognized the right of Egyptian Baha'is to state their religion on official documents. But six weeks later, the Supreme Administrative Court suspended the verdict and cancelled its implementation, followed by a final overruling of the decision in December 2006.
END
*** A photograph of Coptic lawyer Naguib Gabriel is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
**********
Copyright 2007 Compass Direct News
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Tuesday, May 29, 2007
EGYPT: keeping the Copts subjugated
Date: Tuesday 29 May 2007
Subj: Egypt: keeping the Copts subjugated
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
On 11 May, Muslims in the village of Bimha (or Bamha) in Ayat district (around 70 kilometres south Cairo) left their mosques after Friday prayers, armed and zealous for jihad against the indigenous Coptic Christian community and their solitary, partially built church.
The violent Muslim pogrom in Bimha bears the same features of other anti-Christian pogroms of the past decade. These familiar elements indicate that the security situation for Egypt's indigenous Copts (who are Christian) is growing increasingly tenuous. For every time violence is rewarded with impunity it is emboldened.
As with other Muslim pogroms over the past decade, the pogrom in Bimha was premeditated, organised, very violent and perpetrated not by members of militant organisations ("extremists" and "outsiders") but by local "ordinary" Muslims who had been incited in local mosques during Friday "prayers" to wage jihad and terror against their Christian neighbours in order to ensure their subjugation.
As with other pogroms over the past decade, Egyptian security forces were at best tardy, and at worst complicit and actively involved in the violence; and the imposed settlement was designed to appease Muslims, not secure justice or true and lasting peace. The "reconciliation" agreement of Bimha disregards the Christians' legal and human rights, advancing only their status as "dhimmis".
The tragedy in Bimha takes Egypt another step backwards into religious apartheid as it further reinforces Egypt's indigenous Christian Copts not as equal citizens, but as a subjugated people – dhimmis. It also presents Egyptians with yet another precedent which demonstrates that Copts (Egypt's remnant indigenous peoples, the descendants of the Pharaohs, Christians for nearly 2000 years) can be terrorised, robbed and killed with impunity.
MUSLIMS RAMPAGE AFTER FRIDAY PRAYERS
Despite the fact that the Christians of Bimha had been threatened on the Thursday and had alerted the police that an attack might be launched after Friday prayers, security was not tightened. Al-Ahram reports: "Observers have claimed that tardy responses are typical of the security forces' strategy, which seems to involve a wait and see approach to sectarian violence, after which they move in, but only after the violence has abated. Then, they begin to attempt to clean up the mess." (Link 1)
A report by "Free Copts" paints a more serious picture: "Bamha's Christians were shocked to discover that electricity, water supplies and phone lines were cut starting at 11:00 am [Friday morning], in spite of the police officials' knowledge of the expected riots. The police and security forces only acted after the burning and destruction of the Christians' properties ended. They
blocked the only bridge that leads to Bamha and established a cordon around the village, preventing journalists and correspondents from reaching it to cover the situation. While Muslims are free to dwell across the village, a curfew has been imposed on the Christians, who are either forced to stay inside their homes, or to remain on the streets in front of their destroyed houses." (Link 2: this report includes the names of those Copts hospitalised, and the names of those Muslims the Copts accuse of being the instigators and organisers of the violent rampage.)
Al-Ahram is unequivocal about this being a premeditated act: "The sectarian violence that erupted on Friday in the village of Bimha, in the Ayat district 70 kilometres south of Giza, seemed less a spontaneous outburst fuelled by wrangling among villagers than a premeditated act. Pamphlets had been distributed throughout the village before a mob, armed with everything from machetes to containers of kerosene, ran amok through the village. Within 40 minutes, 36 houses belonging to Christians had been burned and seven shops looted. Ten villagers were in hospital, two in a critical condition. At the time of going to press 35 alleged perpetrators were being questioned while another ten remain at large. A Christian man was subsequently detained,
charged with throwing a plastic bag filled with inflammable liquids into a Muslim prayer area on Sunday.
"Pamphlets distributed ahead of the violence called on Muslim villagers who wanted to 'protect' their religion to gather after Friday prayers, in order to stop the construction of a church in their village. The pamphlet included the rumoured location of the church and concluded by saying that the time to act had come: 'there must be no more laxity, no more laziness... it is necessary that every Muslim protects his religion otherwise all is lost.'"
Al-Ahram spoke with local Copt Raouf Abdallah, who was working in his fields when he heard women screaming in the village. He ran to his brother's house but was restrained by two Muslim men while his home was looted and then torched. "The mob, said Abdallah, comprised all age groups, from the very young, to elderly men. 'The ghafar [local guards] were also among rioters, they used their rifles to whip people,' he says. . .He also reports that in some incidents, Muslims tried to protect the property of their Christian neighbours."
Free Copts adds: "Copts accuse the village's mayor, as well as the member of the Egyptian parliament Ali el-Saudi, of promoting these attacks against Christians and by boasting about preventing Copts from extending and renovating their church.
"It is noteworthy that Ali el-Saudi was also accused by the Copts of the Wassef Ghali village to have encouraged the attacks that took place in their village a year and half ago, and which left many Christians injured."
THE CHURCH OF SAINT THEODORE
The Muslim violence against the Christians of Bimha was supposedly in defence of Islam, which was allegedly under immense and imminent threat on account of a church – the Church of St Theodore – Bimha's half-built solitary church in this village of 13 mosques.
Al-Ahram reports: "Bimha's Christian families had long gathered in the home of fellow congregation members Atif and Arian Youssef in order to worship. Following negotiations between the [Muslim] clergy and security forces, it was agreed that a place of worship could be built, though without any domes or crosses which might anger the local community. After the first floor of the building was completed in 2005, construction was halted by security officials
after complaints raised by local residents.
"Subsequently a compromise was reached, with Christians allowed to pray in their old place of worship, the home of Atif and Arian Youssef. To compensate the two congregation members, whose home would henceforth be a dedicated space for worship, Atif was to receive money and land, while Arian opted to finish the church's partially constructed building and make it his home."
According to Al-Ahram, during the Friday 11 May rampage some 2,000 people converged on the partially constructed building and attempted to demolish it.
According to Free Copts, the security forces have since circulated a fabricated story, claiming the Copts were attempting to enlarge the church complex over a disputed piece of land. "The Copts, however, reject this version of the story, insisting that the land is by no means disputed, and that it belongs to the church. Furthermore, the Copts of the village of Bamha accuse the Egyptian police of faking this story in order to cover up the human rights abuses that took place against the village's Christians."
"RECONCILIATION" ISLAMIC STYLE
The most soul-destroying aspect of this saga might be the subsequent "reconciliation" event held on Wednesday 16 May in the Ayat Sporting Club. Justice and rule of law were irrelevant and the Copts were pressured, under the shadow of terror, to submit to unreasonable and unjust terms.
Manar Ammar, writing in Cairo for All Headline News (AHN) reports: "Fifty Muslim sheikhs from the Ministry of Religious Affairs shook hands and smiled at 50 Coptic priests Wednesday in Ayat, about 30 minutes south of Cairo. . . Security forces were heavily present at the session." (Link 3)
AHN reports that a reconciliation committee ordered that the village's Muslim elders pay compensation to the church. However Coptic leaders, reluctant to accept any money from Muslims that could be used as leverage against them at a later date, declined to accept compensation.
Al-Ahram reports:"'Three people from each side sat together and calculated that the losses incurred by Christian villagers amounted to LE500,000. Then Father Hanna Makin, the parish priest, announced that the families concerned would waive their claims as a gesture of good will,' said Ali El-Soudi, Ayat's representative in the People's Assembly. The delegates also resolved that Bimha's Christian community should continue to worship in the homes of Atif and Arian Youssef as happened in the past." (Link 4)
According to Al-Ahram, "The majority of Bimha's Christians say they support the decision of the church leadership not to accept compensation. 'How can I accept money from someone who beat me and burned my house? It would be like being paid for the abuse. At the end of the day we all live together and we will continue to do so for generations to come.'" (Link 4)
The Copts also had to agree to not press charges against their attackers. Al-Ahram reports: "'Our Christian brethren have forfeited their complaints in the spirit of forgiveness, and we will take steps to release 20 detained Muslims'," said El-Soudi, who also gave assurances that all criminal charges would be dropped in order to pacify the village further.
As noted by Nabil Abdel-Fattah, deputy director of Al-Ahram's Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, this is no way to handle sectarian conflict. "'It [a local "reconciliation" effort whereby disputes are settled by elders and community leaders in a way that lacks due legal perspective and simply reflects the balance of power on the ground] effectively prevents the implementation of the rule of law." Abdel-Fattah insists wrong-doers must be held legally accountable if others are to be deterred from taking similar actions. (Link 4)
According to AHN, the Copts accepted the deal because, in the words of Annabious Jacoub, the high priest of Ayat's Church of the Virgin Mary, ". . they are afraid to be called the starters of sectarian tensions."
Photographs taken in the aftermath.
PERSISTENT PERSECUTION
The Catholic News Agency comments on research that clearly demonstrates how serious and persistent the persecution of Egypt's indigenous Coptic Christians has been over the last four decades. "The Ibn Khaldoun Research Center [which is headed by the human rights advocate Saad Eddin Ibrahim] has documented over 120 major attacks on the Copts during this period. Another study estimated that over 4,000 Copts were killed or injured in this period. They have also suffered material losses in the tens of millions of dollars." (Link 5)
The primary perpetrators of violence against Copts used to be militants from Islamic organisations seeking the establishments of an Islamic state. Their strategy was to use terrorism to extract political concessions from the government. During the last decade however, the trend has been for attacks to be incited in the mosques and perpetrated by "ordinary Muslims" who have become more and more intolerant and hostile as radicalistation and Islamic zeal have increased. Along with mosque sermons, media and the education curriculum are also sources of radicalisation and incitement.
"Researchers believe the violence takes place under the influence of hate propaganda emitted through the media, the education system and mosque preaching. They report that Egyptian authorities have yet to adequately punish a single Muslim perpetrator." (Link 5)
"'We ask all freedom-loving governments, Human Rights organizations and individuals of the world to intervene on behalf of the Coptic Christians of Egypt,' said the Coptic Christians press statement. 'The reprehensible failure of Egypt to guarantee religious freedom, justice and accountability towards the Copts simply amounts to an invitation to continue the same (violence) against them in the future.'" (Link 6)
And according to Free Copts, Muslims have warned Bimha's Christians that "what is to come will be much worse".
Elizabeth Kendal
rl-research@crossnet.org.au
Links
1) Fanning the flames
Al-Ahram. 17 - 23 May 2007. Issue No. 845
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/845/eg5.htm
2) Another episode of attacks against Copts in Egypt
Written by The Free Copts Saturday, 12 May 2007
http://freecopts.net/english/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=505&Itemid=9
3) Muslims, Copts Hold Reconciliation Session Over Sectarian Clashes
By Manar Ammar, Cairo, Egypt (AHN) 19 May 2007
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007393089
4) Damage limitation
Al-Ahram, 24 - 30 May 2007. Issue No. 846
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/846/eg11.htm
5) Egypt: Coptic Christians Call for End of Religious Persecution
Catholic Information Service for Africa. 25 May 2007. Cairo
http://allafrica.com/stories/200705250716.html
6) Protect Us, Say Egyptians Christians
http://www.aina.org/news/2007052394922.htm
Subj: Egypt: keeping the Copts subjugated
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
On 11 May, Muslims in the village of Bimha (or Bamha) in Ayat district (around 70 kilometres south Cairo) left their mosques after Friday prayers, armed and zealous for jihad against the indigenous Coptic Christian community and their solitary, partially built church.
The violent Muslim pogrom in Bimha bears the same features of other anti-Christian pogroms of the past decade. These familiar elements indicate that the security situation for Egypt's indigenous Copts (who are Christian) is growing increasingly tenuous. For every time violence is rewarded with impunity it is emboldened.
As with other Muslim pogroms over the past decade, the pogrom in Bimha was premeditated, organised, very violent and perpetrated not by members of militant organisations ("extremists" and "outsiders") but by local "ordinary" Muslims who had been incited in local mosques during Friday "prayers" to wage jihad and terror against their Christian neighbours in order to ensure their subjugation.
As with other pogroms over the past decade, Egyptian security forces were at best tardy, and at worst complicit and actively involved in the violence; and the imposed settlement was designed to appease Muslims, not secure justice or true and lasting peace. The "reconciliation" agreement of Bimha disregards the Christians' legal and human rights, advancing only their status as "dhimmis".
The tragedy in Bimha takes Egypt another step backwards into religious apartheid as it further reinforces Egypt's indigenous Christian Copts not as equal citizens, but as a subjugated people – dhimmis. It also presents Egyptians with yet another precedent which demonstrates that Copts (Egypt's remnant indigenous peoples, the descendants of the Pharaohs, Christians for nearly 2000 years) can be terrorised, robbed and killed with impunity.
MUSLIMS RAMPAGE AFTER FRIDAY PRAYERS
Despite the fact that the Christians of Bimha had been threatened on the Thursday and had alerted the police that an attack might be launched after Friday prayers, security was not tightened. Al-Ahram reports: "Observers have claimed that tardy responses are typical of the security forces' strategy, which seems to involve a wait and see approach to sectarian violence, after which they move in, but only after the violence has abated. Then, they begin to attempt to clean up the mess." (Link 1)
A report by "Free Copts" paints a more serious picture: "Bamha's Christians were shocked to discover that electricity, water supplies and phone lines were cut starting at 11:00 am [Friday morning], in spite of the police officials' knowledge of the expected riots. The police and security forces only acted after the burning and destruction of the Christians' properties ended. They
blocked the only bridge that leads to Bamha and established a cordon around the village, preventing journalists and correspondents from reaching it to cover the situation. While Muslims are free to dwell across the village, a curfew has been imposed on the Christians, who are either forced to stay inside their homes, or to remain on the streets in front of their destroyed houses." (Link 2: this report includes the names of those Copts hospitalised, and the names of those Muslims the Copts accuse of being the instigators and organisers of the violent rampage.)
Al-Ahram is unequivocal about this being a premeditated act: "The sectarian violence that erupted on Friday in the village of Bimha, in the Ayat district 70 kilometres south of Giza, seemed less a spontaneous outburst fuelled by wrangling among villagers than a premeditated act. Pamphlets had been distributed throughout the village before a mob, armed with everything from machetes to containers of kerosene, ran amok through the village. Within 40 minutes, 36 houses belonging to Christians had been burned and seven shops looted. Ten villagers were in hospital, two in a critical condition. At the time of going to press 35 alleged perpetrators were being questioned while another ten remain at large. A Christian man was subsequently detained,
charged with throwing a plastic bag filled with inflammable liquids into a Muslim prayer area on Sunday.
"Pamphlets distributed ahead of the violence called on Muslim villagers who wanted to 'protect' their religion to gather after Friday prayers, in order to stop the construction of a church in their village. The pamphlet included the rumoured location of the church and concluded by saying that the time to act had come: 'there must be no more laxity, no more laziness... it is necessary that every Muslim protects his religion otherwise all is lost.'"
Al-Ahram spoke with local Copt Raouf Abdallah, who was working in his fields when he heard women screaming in the village. He ran to his brother's house but was restrained by two Muslim men while his home was looted and then torched. "The mob, said Abdallah, comprised all age groups, from the very young, to elderly men. 'The ghafar [local guards] were also among rioters, they used their rifles to whip people,' he says. . .He also reports that in some incidents, Muslims tried to protect the property of their Christian neighbours."
Free Copts adds: "Copts accuse the village's mayor, as well as the member of the Egyptian parliament Ali el-Saudi, of promoting these attacks against Christians and by boasting about preventing Copts from extending and renovating their church.
"It is noteworthy that Ali el-Saudi was also accused by the Copts of the Wassef Ghali village to have encouraged the attacks that took place in their village a year and half ago, and which left many Christians injured."
THE CHURCH OF SAINT THEODORE
The Muslim violence against the Christians of Bimha was supposedly in defence of Islam, which was allegedly under immense and imminent threat on account of a church – the Church of St Theodore – Bimha's half-built solitary church in this village of 13 mosques.
Al-Ahram reports: "Bimha's Christian families had long gathered in the home of fellow congregation members Atif and Arian Youssef in order to worship. Following negotiations between the [Muslim] clergy and security forces, it was agreed that a place of worship could be built, though without any domes or crosses which might anger the local community. After the first floor of the building was completed in 2005, construction was halted by security officials
after complaints raised by local residents.
"Subsequently a compromise was reached, with Christians allowed to pray in their old place of worship, the home of Atif and Arian Youssef. To compensate the two congregation members, whose home would henceforth be a dedicated space for worship, Atif was to receive money and land, while Arian opted to finish the church's partially constructed building and make it his home."
According to Al-Ahram, during the Friday 11 May rampage some 2,000 people converged on the partially constructed building and attempted to demolish it.
According to Free Copts, the security forces have since circulated a fabricated story, claiming the Copts were attempting to enlarge the church complex over a disputed piece of land. "The Copts, however, reject this version of the story, insisting that the land is by no means disputed, and that it belongs to the church. Furthermore, the Copts of the village of Bamha accuse the Egyptian police of faking this story in order to cover up the human rights abuses that took place against the village's Christians."
"RECONCILIATION" ISLAMIC STYLE
The most soul-destroying aspect of this saga might be the subsequent "reconciliation" event held on Wednesday 16 May in the Ayat Sporting Club. Justice and rule of law were irrelevant and the Copts were pressured, under the shadow of terror, to submit to unreasonable and unjust terms.
Manar Ammar, writing in Cairo for All Headline News (AHN) reports: "Fifty Muslim sheikhs from the Ministry of Religious Affairs shook hands and smiled at 50 Coptic priests Wednesday in Ayat, about 30 minutes south of Cairo. . . Security forces were heavily present at the session." (Link 3)
AHN reports that a reconciliation committee ordered that the village's Muslim elders pay compensation to the church. However Coptic leaders, reluctant to accept any money from Muslims that could be used as leverage against them at a later date, declined to accept compensation.
Al-Ahram reports:"'Three people from each side sat together and calculated that the losses incurred by Christian villagers amounted to LE500,000. Then Father Hanna Makin, the parish priest, announced that the families concerned would waive their claims as a gesture of good will,' said Ali El-Soudi, Ayat's representative in the People's Assembly. The delegates also resolved that Bimha's Christian community should continue to worship in the homes of Atif and Arian Youssef as happened in the past." (Link 4)
According to Al-Ahram, "The majority of Bimha's Christians say they support the decision of the church leadership not to accept compensation. 'How can I accept money from someone who beat me and burned my house? It would be like being paid for the abuse. At the end of the day we all live together and we will continue to do so for generations to come.'" (Link 4)
The Copts also had to agree to not press charges against their attackers. Al-Ahram reports: "'Our Christian brethren have forfeited their complaints in the spirit of forgiveness, and we will take steps to release 20 detained Muslims'," said El-Soudi, who also gave assurances that all criminal charges would be dropped in order to pacify the village further.
As noted by Nabil Abdel-Fattah, deputy director of Al-Ahram's Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, this is no way to handle sectarian conflict. "'It [a local "reconciliation" effort whereby disputes are settled by elders and community leaders in a way that lacks due legal perspective and simply reflects the balance of power on the ground] effectively prevents the implementation of the rule of law." Abdel-Fattah insists wrong-doers must be held legally accountable if others are to be deterred from taking similar actions. (Link 4)
According to AHN, the Copts accepted the deal because, in the words of Annabious Jacoub, the high priest of Ayat's Church of the Virgin Mary, ". . they are afraid to be called the starters of sectarian tensions."
Photographs taken in the aftermath.
PERSISTENT PERSECUTION
The Catholic News Agency comments on research that clearly demonstrates how serious and persistent the persecution of Egypt's indigenous Coptic Christians has been over the last four decades. "The Ibn Khaldoun Research Center [which is headed by the human rights advocate Saad Eddin Ibrahim] has documented over 120 major attacks on the Copts during this period. Another study estimated that over 4,000 Copts were killed or injured in this period. They have also suffered material losses in the tens of millions of dollars." (Link 5)
The primary perpetrators of violence against Copts used to be militants from Islamic organisations seeking the establishments of an Islamic state. Their strategy was to use terrorism to extract political concessions from the government. During the last decade however, the trend has been for attacks to be incited in the mosques and perpetrated by "ordinary Muslims" who have become more and more intolerant and hostile as radicalistation and Islamic zeal have increased. Along with mosque sermons, media and the education curriculum are also sources of radicalisation and incitement.
"Researchers believe the violence takes place under the influence of hate propaganda emitted through the media, the education system and mosque preaching. They report that Egyptian authorities have yet to adequately punish a single Muslim perpetrator." (Link 5)
"'We ask all freedom-loving governments, Human Rights organizations and individuals of the world to intervene on behalf of the Coptic Christians of Egypt,' said the Coptic Christians press statement. 'The reprehensible failure of Egypt to guarantee religious freedom, justice and accountability towards the Copts simply amounts to an invitation to continue the same (violence) against them in the future.'" (Link 6)
And according to Free Copts, Muslims have warned Bimha's Christians that "what is to come will be much worse".
Elizabeth Kendal
rl-research@crossnet.org.au
Links
1) Fanning the flames
Al-Ahram. 17 - 23 May 2007. Issue No. 845
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/845/eg5.htm
2) Another episode of attacks against Copts in Egypt
Written by The Free Copts Saturday, 12 May 2007
http://freecopts.net/english/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=505&Itemid=9
3) Muslims, Copts Hold Reconciliation Session Over Sectarian Clashes
By Manar Ammar, Cairo, Egypt (AHN) 19 May 2007
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007393089
4) Damage limitation
Al-Ahram, 24 - 30 May 2007. Issue No. 846
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/846/eg11.htm
5) Egypt: Coptic Christians Call for End of Religious Persecution
Catholic Information Service for Africa. 25 May 2007. Cairo
http://allafrica.com/stories/200705250716.html
6) Protect Us, Say Egyptians Christians
http://www.aina.org/news/2007052394922.htm
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Egypt: Riots, threats and a stabbing in Alexandria.
Date: Wednesday 26 October 2005
Subj: Egypt: Riots, threats and a stabbing in Alexandria.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
Massive Muslim riots, Islamist web threats, and the stabbing of a Coptic nun have forced Egyptian authorities to place an armed guard around St George (St Girgis) Coptic Orthodox Church in Muharram Bik, Alexandria on the Egyptian Mediterranean coast. The sudden eruption of aggression against the Church demonstrates the extremely fragile nature of religious harmony in Egypt where Muslim hostility and contempt towards the Christian minority simmers just below the surface and very little provocation is required to make the volcano blow. In this case, the provocation consisted of totally unsubstantiated reports that a theatrical production performed in St George Coptic Orthodox Church had defamed Islam.
As the Egyptian weekly 'Al-Ahram' explains, "...the sectarian tension in Alexandria began in much the same way previous Muslim-Christian disputes had: with the publication of a tabloid story. This time, the newspaper in question -- Al-Midan -- published an article about a church play that defamed Islam." (Link 1)
According to Al-Ahram, "Waleed Orabi, the journalist who wrote the Al-Midan story, said he had obtained a CD of the performance from a source inside the Alexandria church where the play took place. He refused to provide any other details on the matter." Orabi goes on to describe Muharram Bek, where the protests took place, as "a hotbed of Islamism".
INCITEMENT
On Friday 14 October, the day after the article was published, a group of Muslims allegedly from Cairo entered the neighbouring mosque with copies of the article and incited the worshippers to protest. Al-Ahram describes what happened: "An angry crowd of about 100 people promptly marched towards the neighbouring church. As word spread around, the crowd got bigger, with some 3,000 people eventually taking part. Some were there to support the demonstrators' demands, while others were just curious about the goings on. Local police were quickly deployed in the hundreds; and by three in the morning, had dispersed the angry demonstrators."
Adnkronos International (AKI) reports that the protesters shouted slogans such as, "Oh Islam, we will defend you with our body and soul!", and "Christians and Jews, the army of Mohammed will return". Jihad groups linked to al-Qaeda posted video footage of the protest on their websites along with exhortations to follow this example and attack Christians. (Link 2)
On 18 October, the Islamist group "mujahadeen of Egypt", which claimed responsibility for the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings, posted a notice on the Internet inciting Muslims to take action against Christians in revenge for the alleged offence against Mohammed.
AKI reports, the mujadadeen described their posting on the Internet as, "an urgent message to the followers of the cross living in Egypt". The message made specific reference to the "crusaders' church", which it deemed guilty of staging a theatre performance offending the Prophet Muhammed. According to AKI, the "mujahadeen of Egypt" decided to destroy the church, but found the security too tight to perpetrate an attack. As the militants explain in their Internet statement: "After hearing this news, we had decided without hesitation to destroy that church. The mujahadeen prepared themselves but found what they were expecting. The ... police, secret services and internal security forces had surrounded the area of Muharram Bik, protecting the church. If those responsible for the offence do not admit their guilt, then every Christian holding a sermon in the incriminated church will become a target of the mujahadeen." (Link 3)
NUN STABBED
On 19 October, the day after the incitement from "mujahadeen of Egypt", a Muslim student in his early 20s entered St George Church as a prayer service was finishing. He shouted "Allah akbar" (God is great) and stabbed a novitiate nun in the chest with a knife. The nun, aged in her mid-40s, required surgery for her wounds. One other worshipper, Ali al-Jani, was wounded as he intervened to protect the nun. Father Augustinous, head of St George Church was not present during the attack. However, it was reported to him by eye witnesses that after stabbing the nun, the attacker knelt and prayed "as if he was thanking God for finishing a task". (Link 4)
MASSIVE DEMONSTRATION AND MOUNTING ANGER
Following Friday prayers on 21 October, after the ultimatum demanding an apology from Coptic Pope Shenouda III had expired, more than 5,000 angry Muslims demonstrated outside the front of St George Church. They brandished sticks and threw rocks. Around 90 people were injured as police fired tear gas and fought to disperse the angry crowd. Twenty police officers were amongst those injured. Two protesters and two policemen died in the violence – one protester being trampled to death. Nine cars and seven Christian-owned businesses were torched and a gold store was looted. (Link 5)
Seven churches in Alexandria were attacked by a violent mob of Muslim youths that Friday evening. Reports are coming from Alexandria that tell of significant damage to church property, including broken gates, doors, windows, and furniture. Pews were reportedly burned and Bibles were thrown into the street to be trampled by angry crowds. Families, especially pastoral families who live in the churches, have been traumatised. Many from the congregations were too afraid to meet on Sunday.
New York Times (NYT) reports, "In Alexandria, several shopkeepers and pedestrians spoke of their waning patience for their Christian neighbors, and of a sense that their tolerance has been taken for granted and abused." (Link 6)
Ahmed Ali Mahmoud, 25, a pharmacist whose shop is opposite St George's Coptic Orthodox Church told the NYT , "People are very, very provoked. They are boiling. Did we make plays that insult the Christians? They will pay the price in terms of their security, comfort, and now no priest will be able to walk in the streets."
NYT also spoke to a shoemaker who said his name was Muhammad Abdo. He said that police first fired tear gas into the crowd, which only served to anger those in the streets. They then went wild, turning over cars and setting them on fire, smashing storefronts and looting a gold shop. " 'No one will stop until they give a formal apology,' Mr. Abdo said, adding that he heard the play denied a central tenet of the Islamic faith - that Muhammad was God's prophet."
THE PLAY
The play which Muslims allege defamed Islam is called, "I Was Blind but Now I See". It was based on a 1990s movie called The Terrorist, which starred Egyptian comedian Adel Imam. It is the story of a poor Coptic University student who converts to Islam after a group of Muslim men offer him money to do so. However, the young convert becomes disillusioned after the local sheikh exhorts him to kill priests and destroy churches. Abused and maltreated by the sheikh and his group, the young man eventually abandons Islam and returns to Christianity. His apostasy enrages the Islamists who then seek to kill him. His life, however, is ultimately saved by his faithful Muslim friend.
According to Coptic leaders, the play was a statement against extremism and radicalism. However, Islamic voices are claiming that the play "defamed" Islam. Osama Gado, of the Muslim Brotherhood claimed the play "clearly harms the image of Islam". Tamer Harfush also lambasted the play saying, "The play compares Islam and Christianity, Jesus and Prophet Muhammad, presenting the first as a man who sacrificed his life and the second as more preoccupied with earthly pleasures." (Link 7)
The most critical thing about this play is that it was performed once, TWO YEARS AGO!
QUESTIONS
Apart from the standard questions: "Does this defame Islam?" (the dictionary defines "defame" as: To damage the reputation, character, or good name of by slander or libel), and "Why riot?", the most obvious question is: Why now? Considering the play was performed once, TWO YEARS AGO, why is this sectarian hatred, specifically anti-Copt hatred, being whipped up now?
1) ELECTIONS
Legislative elections commence on 9 November. Already the trouble in Alexandria has driven Maher Khella, the local Coptic candidate of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), to withdraw from the parliamentary race "to defuse tensions". Maher Khella was one of only two Copts amongst the 444 candidates fielded by the ruling NDP. (Link 7)
According to Al-Ahram, Al-Midan is not the only newspaper inflaming Islamic sentiments. Al-Ahram reports, "Sameh Fawzi, the editor of Watani (My Nation), a prominent Coptic newspaper, says that 'reading a number of tabloid newspapers will clearly reveal how a sensitive topic like religion is often manipulated to pit Muslims and Christians against each other.' Several newspapers, for instance, have recently been running stories claiming that churches are doing intensive missionary work among university students across the country."
On Thursday 20 October, supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood marched in Cairo in an effort to encourage Egyptians to vote for their Islamist candidates in next month's parliamentary elections. As noted by Reuters, the Muslim Brotherhood sidesteps its ban by fielding candidates as independents. As they marched they chanted "Islam is the Solution" as well as other slogans such as "We make the pledge and guard the dhimma...".(Link 8)
2) COPTIC CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON
Al Ahram reports, "A US-government sponsored conference on Coptic grievances in Egypt is scheduled for 16 November in Washington. Participants will reportedly press for the Egyptian government to provide more freedoms for Copts. They will also demand the amendment of a constitutional article that considers Islam 'Egypt's official religion and main source of legislation'. The meeting is seen as a means for Washington to exercise more pressure on the Egyptian government, and for Copts to extract more concessions at home."
Some analysts believe that State Security Forces have orchestrated the Alexandria protests in order to embarrass and discredit the Copts at home and abroad before the Washington Conference so as to limit, or even cripple, its effectiveness.
INCENDIARY SITUATION
Even though more than one hundred rioters have been detained for 15 days pending investigations, Christians in Alexandria are afraid and are staying home indoors.
Several facts indicate that this situation has potential to escalate and spread like wildfire:
Elizabeth Kendal
--------------------------------------------------
For an excellent and most insightful comment, see:
Alexandria, Yesterday and Today
By Mona Eltahawy, 25 October 2005
---------------------------------------------------
Links
1) One step forward, two steps back
Mustafa El-Menshawy, in Alexandria
Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 October 2005. Issue No. 765
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/765/eg6.htm
2) Web video incites attacks against Christians. 21 October 2005.
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.221749664&par=0
3) New Threats Against Coptic Community. Cairo, 18 October 2005.
(AKI)http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Religion&loid=8.0.220123440&par=0
4) Stabbing of nun sparks tension in Alexandria
By Maamoun Youssef, 20 October 2005
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=85&art_id=qw1129782066324B221
5) Christian DVD sparks riot. Saturday, 22 October 2005
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/10/21/egypt.church.riot.ap/index.html
ALSO
Three killed in Egypt church riot. Saturday, 22 October 2005.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4366232.stm
6) Egyptian Police Guard Coptic Church Attacked by Muslims
By. Michael Slackman in Alexandria, Egypt. 22 October 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/international/africa/23egypt.html
7) Coptic Play Shadows Egypt’s Legislative Polls
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, 23 October 2005
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2005-10/23/article05.shtml
SEE ALSO
Deadly protest adds to grievances of Egypt's
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=19561
8) Islamists hit streets in Egypt election campaign
By Tom Perry in Cairo. REUTERS. 24 October 2005
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=2348
Subj: Egypt: Riots, threats and a stabbing in Alexandria.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
Massive Muslim riots, Islamist web threats, and the stabbing of a Coptic nun have forced Egyptian authorities to place an armed guard around St George (St Girgis) Coptic Orthodox Church in Muharram Bik, Alexandria on the Egyptian Mediterranean coast. The sudden eruption of aggression against the Church demonstrates the extremely fragile nature of religious harmony in Egypt where Muslim hostility and contempt towards the Christian minority simmers just below the surface and very little provocation is required to make the volcano blow. In this case, the provocation consisted of totally unsubstantiated reports that a theatrical production performed in St George Coptic Orthodox Church had defamed Islam.
As the Egyptian weekly 'Al-Ahram' explains, "...the sectarian tension in Alexandria began in much the same way previous Muslim-Christian disputes had: with the publication of a tabloid story. This time, the newspaper in question -- Al-Midan -- published an article about a church play that defamed Islam." (Link 1)
According to Al-Ahram, "Waleed Orabi, the journalist who wrote the Al-Midan story, said he had obtained a CD of the performance from a source inside the Alexandria church where the play took place. He refused to provide any other details on the matter." Orabi goes on to describe Muharram Bek, where the protests took place, as "a hotbed of Islamism".
INCITEMENT
On Friday 14 October, the day after the article was published, a group of Muslims allegedly from Cairo entered the neighbouring mosque with copies of the article and incited the worshippers to protest. Al-Ahram describes what happened: "An angry crowd of about 100 people promptly marched towards the neighbouring church. As word spread around, the crowd got bigger, with some 3,000 people eventually taking part. Some were there to support the demonstrators' demands, while others were just curious about the goings on. Local police were quickly deployed in the hundreds; and by three in the morning, had dispersed the angry demonstrators."
Adnkronos International (AKI) reports that the protesters shouted slogans such as, "Oh Islam, we will defend you with our body and soul!", and "Christians and Jews, the army of Mohammed will return". Jihad groups linked to al-Qaeda posted video footage of the protest on their websites along with exhortations to follow this example and attack Christians. (Link 2)
On 18 October, the Islamist group "mujahadeen of Egypt", which claimed responsibility for the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings, posted a notice on the Internet inciting Muslims to take action against Christians in revenge for the alleged offence against Mohammed.
AKI reports, the mujadadeen described their posting on the Internet as, "an urgent message to the followers of the cross living in Egypt". The message made specific reference to the "crusaders' church", which it deemed guilty of staging a theatre performance offending the Prophet Muhammed. According to AKI, the "mujahadeen of Egypt" decided to destroy the church, but found the security too tight to perpetrate an attack. As the militants explain in their Internet statement: "After hearing this news, we had decided without hesitation to destroy that church. The mujahadeen prepared themselves but found what they were expecting. The ... police, secret services and internal security forces had surrounded the area of Muharram Bik, protecting the church. If those responsible for the offence do not admit their guilt, then every Christian holding a sermon in the incriminated church will become a target of the mujahadeen." (Link 3)
NUN STABBED
On 19 October, the day after the incitement from "mujahadeen of Egypt", a Muslim student in his early 20s entered St George Church as a prayer service was finishing. He shouted "Allah akbar" (God is great) and stabbed a novitiate nun in the chest with a knife. The nun, aged in her mid-40s, required surgery for her wounds. One other worshipper, Ali al-Jani, was wounded as he intervened to protect the nun. Father Augustinous, head of St George Church was not present during the attack. However, it was reported to him by eye witnesses that after stabbing the nun, the attacker knelt and prayed "as if he was thanking God for finishing a task". (Link 4)
MASSIVE DEMONSTRATION AND MOUNTING ANGER
Following Friday prayers on 21 October, after the ultimatum demanding an apology from Coptic Pope Shenouda III had expired, more than 5,000 angry Muslims demonstrated outside the front of St George Church. They brandished sticks and threw rocks. Around 90 people were injured as police fired tear gas and fought to disperse the angry crowd. Twenty police officers were amongst those injured. Two protesters and two policemen died in the violence – one protester being trampled to death. Nine cars and seven Christian-owned businesses were torched and a gold store was looted. (Link 5)
Seven churches in Alexandria were attacked by a violent mob of Muslim youths that Friday evening. Reports are coming from Alexandria that tell of significant damage to church property, including broken gates, doors, windows, and furniture. Pews were reportedly burned and Bibles were thrown into the street to be trampled by angry crowds. Families, especially pastoral families who live in the churches, have been traumatised. Many from the congregations were too afraid to meet on Sunday.
New York Times (NYT) reports, "In Alexandria, several shopkeepers and pedestrians spoke of their waning patience for their Christian neighbors, and of a sense that their tolerance has been taken for granted and abused." (Link 6)
Ahmed Ali Mahmoud, 25, a pharmacist whose shop is opposite St George's Coptic Orthodox Church told the NYT , "People are very, very provoked. They are boiling. Did we make plays that insult the Christians? They will pay the price in terms of their security, comfort, and now no priest will be able to walk in the streets."
NYT also spoke to a shoemaker who said his name was Muhammad Abdo. He said that police first fired tear gas into the crowd, which only served to anger those in the streets. They then went wild, turning over cars and setting them on fire, smashing storefronts and looting a gold shop. " 'No one will stop until they give a formal apology,' Mr. Abdo said, adding that he heard the play denied a central tenet of the Islamic faith - that Muhammad was God's prophet."
THE PLAY
The play which Muslims allege defamed Islam is called, "I Was Blind but Now I See". It was based on a 1990s movie called The Terrorist, which starred Egyptian comedian Adel Imam. It is the story of a poor Coptic University student who converts to Islam after a group of Muslim men offer him money to do so. However, the young convert becomes disillusioned after the local sheikh exhorts him to kill priests and destroy churches. Abused and maltreated by the sheikh and his group, the young man eventually abandons Islam and returns to Christianity. His apostasy enrages the Islamists who then seek to kill him. His life, however, is ultimately saved by his faithful Muslim friend.
According to Coptic leaders, the play was a statement against extremism and radicalism. However, Islamic voices are claiming that the play "defamed" Islam. Osama Gado, of the Muslim Brotherhood claimed the play "clearly harms the image of Islam". Tamer Harfush also lambasted the play saying, "The play compares Islam and Christianity, Jesus and Prophet Muhammad, presenting the first as a man who sacrificed his life and the second as more preoccupied with earthly pleasures." (Link 7)
The most critical thing about this play is that it was performed once, TWO YEARS AGO!
QUESTIONS
Apart from the standard questions: "Does this defame Islam?" (the dictionary defines "defame" as: To damage the reputation, character, or good name of by slander or libel), and "Why riot?", the most obvious question is: Why now? Considering the play was performed once, TWO YEARS AGO, why is this sectarian hatred, specifically anti-Copt hatred, being whipped up now?
1) ELECTIONS
Legislative elections commence on 9 November. Already the trouble in Alexandria has driven Maher Khella, the local Coptic candidate of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), to withdraw from the parliamentary race "to defuse tensions". Maher Khella was one of only two Copts amongst the 444 candidates fielded by the ruling NDP. (Link 7)
According to Al-Ahram, Al-Midan is not the only newspaper inflaming Islamic sentiments. Al-Ahram reports, "Sameh Fawzi, the editor of Watani (My Nation), a prominent Coptic newspaper, says that 'reading a number of tabloid newspapers will clearly reveal how a sensitive topic like religion is often manipulated to pit Muslims and Christians against each other.' Several newspapers, for instance, have recently been running stories claiming that churches are doing intensive missionary work among university students across the country."
On Thursday 20 October, supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood marched in Cairo in an effort to encourage Egyptians to vote for their Islamist candidates in next month's parliamentary elections. As noted by Reuters, the Muslim Brotherhood sidesteps its ban by fielding candidates as independents. As they marched they chanted "Islam is the Solution" as well as other slogans such as "We make the pledge and guard the dhimma...".(Link 8)
- (Dhimmis are second-class citizens in historic, orthodox Islam, with limited rights and no equality before the law. Dhimmitude (see http://www.dhimmitude.org/ ) is based on Islamic theology and is an Islamic form of religious apartheid. Historically, in the context of Islamic imperialism, it has permitted the preservation of Jews and Christians for the purpose of exploitation. To receive and maintain "protection"/right to life, dhimmis must live in subjugation and submission, eternally grateful for and humbled by the "protection" afforded them.)
2) COPTIC CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON
Al Ahram reports, "A US-government sponsored conference on Coptic grievances in Egypt is scheduled for 16 November in Washington. Participants will reportedly press for the Egyptian government to provide more freedoms for Copts. They will also demand the amendment of a constitutional article that considers Islam 'Egypt's official religion and main source of legislation'. The meeting is seen as a means for Washington to exercise more pressure on the Egyptian government, and for Copts to extract more concessions at home."
Some analysts believe that State Security Forces have orchestrated the Alexandria protests in order to embarrass and discredit the Copts at home and abroad before the Washington Conference so as to limit, or even cripple, its effectiveness.
INCENDIARY SITUATION
Even though more than one hundred rioters have been detained for 15 days pending investigations, Christians in Alexandria are afraid and are staying home indoors.
Several facts indicate that this situation has potential to escalate and spread like wildfire:
- The approaching legislative elections will arouse further sectarian zeal and tension, especially as media provocation and the Alexandria riots have already ignited hostility and fractured unity.
- In the light of the troubles and controversies in Alexandria, the Washington Conference on Coptic grievances will doubtless now receive more attention on the street in Egypt than it otherwise might have, and the Muslim response will probably be further anger and resentment.
- The involvement of al-Qaeda linked organisations with their calls for jihad against Christians and churches is extremely worrying.
- and Ramadan, which because of the fasting and restrictions required can tend to raise Islamic zeal and cause frustration and irritability to overpower tolerance, is not over yet!
Elizabeth Kendal
--------------------------------------------------
For an excellent and most insightful comment, see:
Alexandria, Yesterday and Today
By Mona Eltahawy, 25 October 2005
---------------------------------------------------
Links
1) One step forward, two steps back
Mustafa El-Menshawy, in Alexandria
Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 October 2005. Issue No. 765
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/765/eg6.htm
2) Web video incites attacks against Christians. 21 October 2005.
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.221749664&par=0
3) New Threats Against Coptic Community. Cairo, 18 October 2005.
(AKI)http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Religion&loid=8.0.220123440&par=0
4) Stabbing of nun sparks tension in Alexandria
By Maamoun Youssef, 20 October 2005
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=85&art_id=qw1129782066324B221
5) Christian DVD sparks riot. Saturday, 22 October 2005
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/10/21/egypt.church.riot.ap/index.html
ALSO
Three killed in Egypt church riot. Saturday, 22 October 2005.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4366232.stm
6) Egyptian Police Guard Coptic Church Attacked by Muslims
By. Michael Slackman in Alexandria, Egypt. 22 October 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/international/africa/23egypt.html
7) Coptic Play Shadows Egypt’s Legislative Polls
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, 23 October 2005
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2005-10/23/article05.shtml
SEE ALSO
Deadly protest adds to grievances of Egypt's
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=19561
8) Islamists hit streets in Egypt election campaign
By Tom Perry in Cairo. REUTERS. 24 October 2005
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=2348
Friday, November 14, 2003
Egypt: Christians imprisoned - Islamists released.
Date: Friday 14 November 2003
Subj: Egypt: Christians imprisoned - Islamists released.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
The Egyptian government recently released around 1,000 members of the Islamist fundamentalist group Gammaa el-Islamiya, and then moved to detain and torture Christians (apostates; i.e. former Muslims) for changing their Muslim names to Christian names.
A 26 September 2003 Stratfor Global Intelligence Report entitled, "Egypt: Internal Focus and Political Stability", provides a basis for analysis. Stratfor says, "Egypt's ruling party is touting economic and political reform, signalling Cairo's renewed focus on domestic issues.
"Egypt plays a pivotal role in the region. The country has seen slow but steady economic growth in the past decade, with purchasing power parity rising steadily from 1992 to 2002. This has eased internal pressures on the government, despite widespread anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment and opposition to Cairo's relationship with Washington. Instability in Egypt would resonate throughout an already troubled region, encouraging instability in states such as Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. In a bid to prevent such instability, Cairo is focusing almost all of its attention inward."
According to this Stratfor report, the government's main problems at present are "anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment and opposition to Cairo's relationship with Washington". This might go some way to explaining the recent prisoner movements in Egypt.
PRISONERS IN -
CRACKDOWN ON APOSTATES
On 20 October, Egyptian police commenced a crackdown on apostates. According to the U.S. Copts Association (26 Oct), "The assault started with the arrest of a husband and wife who secretly converted from Islam to Christianity. Yousef Samuel Makari Suliman, whose former Muslim name was Muhammad Ahmad Imam al-Kurdi and his wife Mariam Girgis Makar formerly Saher El-Sayid Abd al-Kani and their two daughters, Sarah and Marina (formerly Sarah and Shaymaa), had all secretly converted to Christianity and had been living as Christians in hiding."
Compass Direct reports that Yousef and Mariam told the prosecutor "that they did not know it was illegal for them to change their religious identity. Since it was commonly known that Christians in Egypt could convert to Islam and change their identity papers, they assumed that Muslims had the same rights." (Link 1 - has picture.)
The U.S. Copts report (26 Oct) continues, "Following the arrest of Yousef and Mariam, the police arrested individuals who helped them secure new ID cards with new Christian names. Under severe torture; the police were able to extract the names of some 100 other converts who secured new ID cards with Christian names. Immediately, thereafter, 20 more converts were arrested in Alexandria alone.
"Officially the 22 arrested converts are being charged 'with falsifying ID papers,' because they obtained new ID cards with their Christian names."
The most recent report from the Barnabas Fund (12 Nov) states that 17 of those arrested have been released on bail, whilst five (including Mariam) remain in prison. The Barnabas Fund report on the torture inflicted upon the prisoners is harrowing reading. Torture is said to have contributed to the death in custody of one of the Muslims arrested for allegedly 'falsifying' the Christian's ID cards. Mariam is reportedly being held in the same quarters as prostitutes and being told that while they will be released, she, as an apostate, will never be released. She is under great pressure to return to Islam (Link 2).
According to Barnabas Fund the detention of the five remaining in prison comes up for review on 20 November.
The Institute on Religion and Public Policy has expressed outrage that the Egyptian government could abuse religious liberty after signing the "Declaration of the Interparliamentary Conference on Human Rights and Religious Freedom" in Brussels in September. The Declaration has a very strong statement concerning religious freedom.
Only days later, representatives from Cairo participated in the Congress of World and Traditional Religions in Astana, Kazakhstan and signed a concluding declaration which affirmed, among other things, "the right of each human person to freely be convinced, choose, express, and practice his/her religion."
Institute President Joseph K. Grieboski declared, "These actions of the Egyptian government have demonstrated that they have little interest in adhering to documents or principles to which they have signed, in essence making liars of their own people." (Link 3)
PRISONERS OUT -
AMNESTY FOR GAMMAA EL-ISLAMIYA MILITANTS
On 6 October 2003, Egyptian president Husni Mubarak released nearly 3,000 prisoners under an amnesty to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur war with Israel.
About 1,000 of those set free were members of the Islamist fundamentalist group Gammaa el-Islamiya. Three of the group's leaders, Karam Zohdi, Fou'ad El-Dawalibi and Assem Abdel-Maged, convicted for their involvement in the 6 October 1981 assassination of former President Anwar Sadat, were among those released. Anwar Sadat was assassinated for signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. Thus the timing is very significant. These men were amnestied on the anniversary of the assassination for which they were imprisoned - an assassination committed in protest of a peace treaty with Israel.
Gammaa el-Islamiya is known for the terror campaign it has waged against the Egyptian government. Gammaa el-Islamiya's aim had been to establish a fundamentalist Islamic state. They were infamous for killing of tourists (i.e. the Luxor massacre), but they also killed and terrorised Christians, whose very existence conflicted with their ideals of an Islamic state. The Gammaa el-Islamiya militants have allegedly been released because their leaders have declared that they have renounced violence.
However, as Michael Meunier, the Executive Director of the Center for Freedom in the Middle East in Washington, D.C., points out, the leaders of the Gammaa el-Islamiya may have issued statements of repentance, but they have not shown any remorse concerning the killings and terror inflicted upon Copts (Egypt's Christians), Jews, and Westerners during their campaign of violence.
Meunier says, "The discriminatory Islamist ideology that propelled the group's members to violence against the Copts appears to remain ingrained within its new, revised philosophy. We hear no remorse for the brutality demonstrated against the infidels (Christians and Jews) - they are once again sidelined as acceptable victims of violence." (Link 4)
An article in the Cairo weekly Al-Ahram reports that the Gammaa el-Islamiya leaders explain their change of heart as the result of "ijtihad", or independently reasoned interpretation of the Holy Qur'an and Sunna (teachings of Prophet Mohamed)". They are saying that interpretation must be "suited to exigencies, and changing realities".
Al-Ahram reports, "In their books Al-Gama'a's leaders stressed the inevitability of 'sincere Muslims', including Al-Gama'a, reviewing their stance on resistance due to the situation in Iraq, external pressures on Arab governments and the global order of power, all of which threaten 'national autonomy itself'."
Al-Ahram notes that some commentators have suggested that Gammaa el-Islamiya's call for an end to Islamist violence is purely tactical, and some expatriate Al-Gama'a members have suggested that the incarcerated leaders were enticed by a government offer for early release.
In response to such accusations Karam Zohdi says, "While an agreement with Jews can be temporary, until war against them is resumed, in a peace agreement between Muslims there can be no exit." (Link 5)
We can take this to mean that Gammaa el-Islamiya will honour its agreement with the Egyptian government, but an agreement regarding non-violence against Jews or Christians need not be honoured if war is declared against them.
That statement by Gammaa el-Islamiya puts weight behind this statement by Michael Meunier: "The release of more than 1,000 members of the Gamma el-Islamiya and al-Jihad organization, including several top leaders may very well serve the surge of international terrorism. In this context, therefore, it should serve as no surprise that Egypt has granted the Gamma el-Islamiya a new lifeline."
The security situation for Christians and Jews in (and possibly beyond) Egypt looks set to deteriorate.
- Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) EGYPT: Egypt cracks down against converts to Christianity.
http://www.compassdirect.org/en/breaking.php?idelement=119
2) Barnabas Fund NEWS
http://www.barnabasfund.org/news.htm
3) Institute Outraged by Egyptian Crackdown on Converts
Washington, DC, 30 October 2003
http://www.religionandpolicy.org/show.php?p=1.1.875
4) Egypt's Dangerous Game. By Michael Meunier
FrontPageMagazine.com, 11 November 2003
http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=10737
5) A New Page?
By Jailan Halawi, for Al-Ahram
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/659/eg5.htm
Subj: Egypt: Christians imprisoned - Islamists released.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
The Egyptian government recently released around 1,000 members of the Islamist fundamentalist group Gammaa el-Islamiya, and then moved to detain and torture Christians (apostates; i.e. former Muslims) for changing their Muslim names to Christian names.
A 26 September 2003 Stratfor Global Intelligence Report entitled, "Egypt: Internal Focus and Political Stability", provides a basis for analysis. Stratfor says, "Egypt's ruling party is touting economic and political reform, signalling Cairo's renewed focus on domestic issues.
"Egypt plays a pivotal role in the region. The country has seen slow but steady economic growth in the past decade, with purchasing power parity rising steadily from 1992 to 2002. This has eased internal pressures on the government, despite widespread anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment and opposition to Cairo's relationship with Washington. Instability in Egypt would resonate throughout an already troubled region, encouraging instability in states such as Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. In a bid to prevent such instability, Cairo is focusing almost all of its attention inward."
According to this Stratfor report, the government's main problems at present are "anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment and opposition to Cairo's relationship with Washington". This might go some way to explaining the recent prisoner movements in Egypt.
PRISONERS IN -
CRACKDOWN ON APOSTATES
On 20 October, Egyptian police commenced a crackdown on apostates. According to the U.S. Copts Association (26 Oct), "The assault started with the arrest of a husband and wife who secretly converted from Islam to Christianity. Yousef Samuel Makari Suliman, whose former Muslim name was Muhammad Ahmad Imam al-Kurdi and his wife Mariam Girgis Makar formerly Saher El-Sayid Abd al-Kani and their two daughters, Sarah and Marina (formerly Sarah and Shaymaa), had all secretly converted to Christianity and had been living as Christians in hiding."
Compass Direct reports that Yousef and Mariam told the prosecutor "that they did not know it was illegal for them to change their religious identity. Since it was commonly known that Christians in Egypt could convert to Islam and change their identity papers, they assumed that Muslims had the same rights." (Link 1 - has picture.)
The U.S. Copts report (26 Oct) continues, "Following the arrest of Yousef and Mariam, the police arrested individuals who helped them secure new ID cards with new Christian names. Under severe torture; the police were able to extract the names of some 100 other converts who secured new ID cards with Christian names. Immediately, thereafter, 20 more converts were arrested in Alexandria alone.
"Officially the 22 arrested converts are being charged 'with falsifying ID papers,' because they obtained new ID cards with their Christian names."
The most recent report from the Barnabas Fund (12 Nov) states that 17 of those arrested have been released on bail, whilst five (including Mariam) remain in prison. The Barnabas Fund report on the torture inflicted upon the prisoners is harrowing reading. Torture is said to have contributed to the death in custody of one of the Muslims arrested for allegedly 'falsifying' the Christian's ID cards. Mariam is reportedly being held in the same quarters as prostitutes and being told that while they will be released, she, as an apostate, will never be released. She is under great pressure to return to Islam (Link 2).
According to Barnabas Fund the detention of the five remaining in prison comes up for review on 20 November.
The Institute on Religion and Public Policy has expressed outrage that the Egyptian government could abuse religious liberty after signing the "Declaration of the Interparliamentary Conference on Human Rights and Religious Freedom" in Brussels in September. The Declaration has a very strong statement concerning religious freedom.
Only days later, representatives from Cairo participated in the Congress of World and Traditional Religions in Astana, Kazakhstan and signed a concluding declaration which affirmed, among other things, "the right of each human person to freely be convinced, choose, express, and practice his/her religion."
Institute President Joseph K. Grieboski declared, "These actions of the Egyptian government have demonstrated that they have little interest in adhering to documents or principles to which they have signed, in essence making liars of their own people." (Link 3)
PRISONERS OUT -
AMNESTY FOR GAMMAA EL-ISLAMIYA MILITANTS
On 6 October 2003, Egyptian president Husni Mubarak released nearly 3,000 prisoners under an amnesty to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur war with Israel.
About 1,000 of those set free were members of the Islamist fundamentalist group Gammaa el-Islamiya. Three of the group's leaders, Karam Zohdi, Fou'ad El-Dawalibi and Assem Abdel-Maged, convicted for their involvement in the 6 October 1981 assassination of former President Anwar Sadat, were among those released. Anwar Sadat was assassinated for signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. Thus the timing is very significant. These men were amnestied on the anniversary of the assassination for which they were imprisoned - an assassination committed in protest of a peace treaty with Israel.
Gammaa el-Islamiya is known for the terror campaign it has waged against the Egyptian government. Gammaa el-Islamiya's aim had been to establish a fundamentalist Islamic state. They were infamous for killing of tourists (i.e. the Luxor massacre), but they also killed and terrorised Christians, whose very existence conflicted with their ideals of an Islamic state. The Gammaa el-Islamiya militants have allegedly been released because their leaders have declared that they have renounced violence.
However, as Michael Meunier, the Executive Director of the Center for Freedom in the Middle East in Washington, D.C., points out, the leaders of the Gammaa el-Islamiya may have issued statements of repentance, but they have not shown any remorse concerning the killings and terror inflicted upon Copts (Egypt's Christians), Jews, and Westerners during their campaign of violence.
Meunier says, "The discriminatory Islamist ideology that propelled the group's members to violence against the Copts appears to remain ingrained within its new, revised philosophy. We hear no remorse for the brutality demonstrated against the infidels (Christians and Jews) - they are once again sidelined as acceptable victims of violence." (Link 4)
An article in the Cairo weekly Al-Ahram reports that the Gammaa el-Islamiya leaders explain their change of heart as the result of "ijtihad", or independently reasoned interpretation of the Holy Qur'an and Sunna (teachings of Prophet Mohamed)". They are saying that interpretation must be "suited to exigencies, and changing realities".
Al-Ahram reports, "In their books Al-Gama'a's leaders stressed the inevitability of 'sincere Muslims', including Al-Gama'a, reviewing their stance on resistance due to the situation in Iraq, external pressures on Arab governments and the global order of power, all of which threaten 'national autonomy itself'."
Al-Ahram notes that some commentators have suggested that Gammaa el-Islamiya's call for an end to Islamist violence is purely tactical, and some expatriate Al-Gama'a members have suggested that the incarcerated leaders were enticed by a government offer for early release.
In response to such accusations Karam Zohdi says, "While an agreement with Jews can be temporary, until war against them is resumed, in a peace agreement between Muslims there can be no exit." (Link 5)
We can take this to mean that Gammaa el-Islamiya will honour its agreement with the Egyptian government, but an agreement regarding non-violence against Jews or Christians need not be honoured if war is declared against them.
That statement by Gammaa el-Islamiya puts weight behind this statement by Michael Meunier: "The release of more than 1,000 members of the Gamma el-Islamiya and al-Jihad organization, including several top leaders may very well serve the surge of international terrorism. In this context, therefore, it should serve as no surprise that Egypt has granted the Gamma el-Islamiya a new lifeline."
The security situation for Christians and Jews in (and possibly beyond) Egypt looks set to deteriorate.
- Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) EGYPT: Egypt cracks down against converts to Christianity.
http://www.compassdirect.org/en/breaking.php?idelement=119
2) Barnabas Fund NEWS
http://www.barnabasfund.org/news.htm
3) Institute Outraged by Egyptian Crackdown on Converts
Washington, DC, 30 October 2003
http://www.religionandpolicy.org/show.php?p=1.1.875
4) Egypt's Dangerous Game. By Michael Meunier
FrontPageMagazine.com, 11 November 2003
http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=10737
5) A New Page?
By Jailan Halawi, for Al-Ahram
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/659/eg5.htm