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 Egypt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Monday, June 18, 2012
EGYPT: echos of Algeria as SCAF trumps Islamists
Updating the previous post: Egypt: the military versus the Islamists (15 June 2012)
By Elizabeth Kendal
Dr Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood has claimed victory in Egypt's presidential elections. With around 95 percent of the vote counted, returns are showing Dr Morsi winning 52 percent of the vote (around12.7 million votes) with his opponent, the former air-force chief and Mubarak-era Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, winning 48 percent (around 11.84 million). The final official result is to be announced by Thursday.
However, on Sunday evening 17 June, before the polls had even closed, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) issued an Interim Constitutional Declaration with amendments that give the SCAF legislative power following the dissolution of the Islamists-led parliament. The interim constitution limits the president's powers, stripping him of any authority over the army. It also and gives the military the right to manage the budget and appoint the 100-member panel tasked with drafting a new and permanent constitution.
According to the SCAF's interim constitution, parliamentary elections will take place one month from the day the new constitution is approved by the national referendum.
See: Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi wins Egypt's presidential election
Associated Press, 18 June 2012
English text of SCAF amended Egypt Constitutional Declaration
Ahram Online summarises the military-authored revised Constitutional Declaration - outlining the powers of the coming Egyptian president
Ahram Online, Monday 18 Jun 2012
Revised constitutional chart stirs up controversy
Political experts and public figures denounce the newly announced addendum to the interim Constitutional Declaration, saying it gives the military council unfettered authorities
Sadek Jalal al-Azm et al Ahram Online, Monday 18 Jun 2012
SHOWDOWN LOOMS
Jack Shenker writes from Cairo for the Guardian: "Pro-change activists and human rights campaigners said the junta's constitutional declaration – which comes just days after judges extended the army's ability to arrest civilians and following the dissolution of Egypt's Brotherhood-dominated parliament by the country's top court – rendered the scheduled 'handover' of power to a democratically-elected executive 'meaningless'. The Brotherhood were quick to label the declaration 'null and unconstitutional', raising the prospect of a dramatic showdown within the highest institutions of the state."
Indeed, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is insisting that the "SCAF has no authority to dissolve the freely and democratically elected parliament, not without a public referendum".
Dr Mohamed Saad el-Katatni, the secretary general of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and Speaker of the People's Assembly, flatly rejected SCAF's Interim Constitutional Declaration. Katatni also deemed SCAF's decision to dissolve the parliament null and void because it is not based on any constitutional legitimacy, principle or procedure, according to the existing Constitutional Declaration. A statement on the MB's website, IkhwanWeb reads: "Dr. Katatni reiterated to SCAF members his categorical rejection of complementary constitutional declaration, as it infringes on the legislature which has the inherent right to legislate, adding that the Constitutional Declaration approved by popular referendum on March 19, 2011 and released on March 30, 2011 did not give SCAF the right to assume the power of legislation in the presence of an elected parliament."
See also: SCAF cannot execute High Court verdict: Defunct Egypt parliament speaker
Saad El-Katatni, the speaker of the People's Assembly, says the ruling junta does not have the right to implement a court verdict to dismantle the parliament's lower house - only the people do
Ahram Online, Saturday 16 Jun 2012
Analysts are drawing parallels with Algeria, where in 1991 the military cancelled a second round of elections when it became obvious that Islamists were set to win power. The move triggered a decade-long civil war.
Algerian Islamists are warning that Egypt could be following in Algeria's footsteps. El-Hachemi Sahnouni, a former leader and founder of Algeria's Islamic Salvation Front, told Al Arabiya that what has happened in Egypt is "similar to what happened in Algeria in 1991". Sahnouni is "worried that the biggest Arab country might plunge into violence similar to what occurred in Algeria. If this happens, it will be a catastrophe not only for Egypt but for all of the Arab countries."
Others believe violence is unlikely. "I don't see an Algeria scenario," said Mustafa Kamel al-Sayyed, professor of political science at Cairo University, in reference to the Algerian civil war in 1991 after the military took power following an Islamist legislative win. "It was a different context. In Algeria, there was violence from both sides. But in Egypt, for the moment there has only been threats through statements." Ibrahim al-Houdaiby, an expert on Islamist movements, also dismissed the prospect of widespread violence between the Brotherhood and the generals. "The Brotherhood will use a strategy of pressure to gain posts before finally adapting their politics," he said. (Egyptian Gazette 18 June)
But as Jon Alterman, head of the Middle East programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think-tank comments: "This is an opening scene in what is certain to be a drama. It’s hard to imagine how this can pass quietly."
By Elizabeth Kendal
Dr Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood has claimed victory in Egypt's presidential elections. With around 95 percent of the vote counted, returns are showing Dr Morsi winning 52 percent of the vote (around12.7 million votes) with his opponent, the former air-force chief and Mubarak-era Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, winning 48 percent (around 11.84 million). The final official result is to be announced by Thursday.
However, on Sunday evening 17 June, before the polls had even closed, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) issued an Interim Constitutional Declaration with amendments that give the SCAF legislative power following the dissolution of the Islamists-led parliament. The interim constitution limits the president's powers, stripping him of any authority over the army. It also and gives the military the right to manage the budget and appoint the 100-member panel tasked with drafting a new and permanent constitution.
According to the SCAF's interim constitution, parliamentary elections will take place one month from the day the new constitution is approved by the national referendum.
See: Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi wins Egypt's presidential election
Associated Press, 18 June 2012
English text of SCAF amended Egypt Constitutional Declaration
Ahram Online summarises the military-authored revised Constitutional Declaration - outlining the powers of the coming Egyptian president
Ahram Online, Monday 18 Jun 2012
Revised constitutional chart stirs up controversy
Political experts and public figures denounce the newly announced addendum to the interim Constitutional Declaration, saying it gives the military council unfettered authorities
Sadek Jalal al-Azm et al Ahram Online, Monday 18 Jun 2012
SHOWDOWN LOOMS
Jack Shenker writes from Cairo for the Guardian: "Pro-change activists and human rights campaigners said the junta's constitutional declaration – which comes just days after judges extended the army's ability to arrest civilians and following the dissolution of Egypt's Brotherhood-dominated parliament by the country's top court – rendered the scheduled 'handover' of power to a democratically-elected executive 'meaningless'. The Brotherhood were quick to label the declaration 'null and unconstitutional', raising the prospect of a dramatic showdown within the highest institutions of the state."
Indeed, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is insisting that the "SCAF has no authority to dissolve the freely and democratically elected parliament, not without a public referendum".
Dr Mohamed Saad el-Katatni, the secretary general of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and Speaker of the People's Assembly, flatly rejected SCAF's Interim Constitutional Declaration. Katatni also deemed SCAF's decision to dissolve the parliament null and void because it is not based on any constitutional legitimacy, principle or procedure, according to the existing Constitutional Declaration. A statement on the MB's website, IkhwanWeb reads: "Dr. Katatni reiterated to SCAF members his categorical rejection of complementary constitutional declaration, as it infringes on the legislature which has the inherent right to legislate, adding that the Constitutional Declaration approved by popular referendum on March 19, 2011 and released on March 30, 2011 did not give SCAF the right to assume the power of legislation in the presence of an elected parliament."
See also: SCAF cannot execute High Court verdict: Defunct Egypt parliament speaker
Saad El-Katatni, the speaker of the People's Assembly, says the ruling junta does not have the right to implement a court verdict to dismantle the parliament's lower house - only the people do
Ahram Online, Saturday 16 Jun 2012
Analysts are drawing parallels with Algeria, where in 1991 the military cancelled a second round of elections when it became obvious that Islamists were set to win power. The move triggered a decade-long civil war.
Algerian Islamists are warning that Egypt could be following in Algeria's footsteps. El-Hachemi Sahnouni, a former leader and founder of Algeria's Islamic Salvation Front, told Al Arabiya that what has happened in Egypt is "similar to what happened in Algeria in 1991". Sahnouni is "worried that the biggest Arab country might plunge into violence similar to what occurred in Algeria. If this happens, it will be a catastrophe not only for Egypt but for all of the Arab countries."
Others believe violence is unlikely. "I don't see an Algeria scenario," said Mustafa Kamel al-Sayyed, professor of political science at Cairo University, in reference to the Algerian civil war in 1991 after the military took power following an Islamist legislative win. "It was a different context. In Algeria, there was violence from both sides. But in Egypt, for the moment there has only been threats through statements." Ibrahim al-Houdaiby, an expert on Islamist movements, also dismissed the prospect of widespread violence between the Brotherhood and the generals. "The Brotherhood will use a strategy of pressure to gain posts before finally adapting their politics," he said. (Egyptian Gazette 18 June)
But as Jon Alterman, head of the Middle East programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think-tank comments: "This is an opening scene in what is certain to be a drama. It’s hard to imagine how this can pass quietly."
Friday, June 15, 2012
EGYPT: The military versus the Islamists
By Elizabeth Kendal
Updating Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) 163
EGYPT: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 16-17 JUNE
------------------------------------------------------------------
In April 2012, the Islamist-dominated parliament passed the Political Isolation Law which disqualified senior officials of Mubarak's regime from holding political posts. The law would have prevented Ahmed Shafiq (former air-force chief and Mubarak's last Prime Minister) from contesting the presidency had he not won an appeal against the law. At that point the Political Isolation Law was deferred to Egypt's Mubarak-appointed Supreme Constitutional Court.
On Wednesday 13 June, the day before the Constitutional Court was due to hand down its decision, Egypt's Justice Ministry issued a decree giving military police and intelligence officers permission to arrest civilians suspected of "crimes" such as activities deemed "harmful to the government", destruction of property, "obstructing traffic" and "resisting orders". The decree restores some of the powers of the decades-old emergency law which expired just two weeks ago. Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh, reporting from Cairo, "said Egyptian activists see the current order as 'much worse than the [previous] emergency law', in that it is seen as expanding the military's power".
Then, on Thursday 14 June, the Constitutional Court -- an institution in which the military maintains significant leverage -- unsurprisingly deemed the Political Isolation Law unconstitutional, thereby freeing Ahmed Shafiq to contest the presidential run-off this weekend.
In what activists and academics have described as a "soft military coup", the Constitutional Court also ruled the country's parliament illegitimate, paving the way for the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) -- the military body that ruled after the first military coup ousted Mubarak -- to resume legislative powers.
According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the court found "that part of the law under which the parliament was elected was illegal, as it allowed parties to field nominees for [the one third of] seats earmarked for independent candidates. That ruling is irreversible and means the entire legislature is illegitimate, court spokesman Maher Sami said. . . . The court said parliament has no 'standing under law'."
Former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, an independent Islamist, decried the two court rulings, saying they amount to "a complete coup". Writing on his Facebook page, Fotouh raged, "Keeping the military candidate [in the race] and overturning the elected parliament after granting the military police the right to arrest is a complete coup and whoever thinks that millions of youth will let it pass is deluding themselves,"
See: Egypt Court Dissolves Parliament in 'Soft Coup'
By Tarek El-Tablawy, Abdel Latif Wahba and Mariam Fam
Bloomberg News, 14 June 2012
Egypt supreme court calls for parliament to be dissolved
BBC, 14 June 2012
At this point in time, the Islamists are refusing to dissolve the parliament and have vowed to win the presidency. And despite the threat posed by the Justice Ministry's repressive decree, protests have begun and are expected to intensify after Friday prayers and across the weekend.
See: Egyptians protest as court dissolves parliament, confirms Shafiq candidacy
Mohammed Morsi: Millions over the weekend will say 'no' to tyrants
14 June 2012
Stratfor sees strategy
In a report entitled "Egypt's Military Delivers Ultimatum to Muslim Brotherhood" (14 June 2012), Stratfor Global Intelligence surmises that the legal manoeuvres are part of a military strategy to intimidate and contain the Muslim Brotherhood.
"Egypt's military has the least amount of control when the country goes to the polls. Through parliamentary elections the MB, together with Egypt's Salafist faction, the al-Nour Party, came to dominate parliament. And MB candidate Mohammed Morsi had a strong chance of beating Shafiq at the presidential election polls.
"The military's authority instead comes from its institutional leverage. The MB may have had nominal control over the parliament, but the military's influence over the judiciary effectively has nullified any parliamentary move the MB attempted. Similarly, the military is using its institutional strength to keep the drafting of the country's constitution out of the MB's control.
"The SCAF [Supreme Council of the Armed Forces] could not be confident that its preferred candidate, Shafiq, would beat Morsi in the presidential runoff. The SCAF may be contemplating that the best way to protect its authority in the system is to back the MB [Muslim brotherhood] against a wall, first by pushing ahead Shafiq as a legitimate candidate, then by threatening to dissolve the MB-controlled parliament and finally by establishing itself as the final arbiter in the constitution-drafting process.
"The main question moving forward is whether the MB is ready for the grand bargain that the SCAF is trying to impose on the Islamist party. The SCAF appears willing to risk an MB presidency, so long as the MB cedes primary authority to the military in drafting the constitution, which will ultimately decide the balance of power among the military, parliament and presidency. The dissolution of parliament is a threat directed at the MB: If the MB accepts the military's demands on the constitution, then the SCAF could allow the parliament to remain as is; if not, it could dissolve parliament and schedule another round of parliamentary elections. In another round of elections, the MB would likely come out with another strong win. Only this time, the elections would theoretically take place within a constitutional framework shaped by the SCAF."
-----------
The first military coup -- in which military power was leveraged to oust Mubarak -- rode on the back of youth-driven pro-democracy protests in Tahrir Square. In this second military coup, military-controlled legal instruments are being leveraged against the parliament while military power will be leveraged against the street with the aim of asserting military control over the Islamists as they stand on the threshold of controlling both the parliament and the presidency.
The battle between the military and the Islamists has begun in earnest, leaving Egyptians who had dreamed of progress and liberty lamenting what might have been and questioning why it was not achieved.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
EGYPT: "more radicalised than we realised"; Islam, Dhimmitude and the Maspero Massacre
By Elizabeth Kendal
Islam is a materialistic, imperialistic and political religion. Its aim is to achieve dominance -- demographically or through military or political conquest -- so that Muslims might rule and Sharia (Islamic Law / the law of Allah) might be applied.
Where Islam is dominant, atheists and polytheists have two choices: convert to Islam or die. Jews and Christians (the People of the Book), however, have a third choice: dhimmitude -- i.e. they may pay for their "protection" (i.e. right to life) with "jizya" / tax / protection money (religiously santioned extortion) and by submitting to Islamic rule and Sharia law in total subjugation and abject humiliation (Sura 9:29).
The subjugated peoples are known collectively as the dhimma (singular: dhimmi). The state of subjugation -- a state of immense insecurity, vulnerability, perpetual anxiety and psychological trauma -- is known as dhimmitude. The rules under which the dhimma must live are codified in the dhimma pact. If at any time, the dhimma violate the dhimma pact, then "protection" is withdrawn and jihad (Islamic holy war) resumes -- meaning the dhimmis may be killed and their properties plundered.
Europe's rise and Islam's decline -- commencing in the late 17th Century and culminating in defeat for Islam in the 20th Century's two world wars -- saw dhimmitude wane. Today, however, Islam is back and so too is dhimmitude. And nowhere is this more evident than in Egypt.
This is unsurprising considering the results of a recent survey by Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. For according the the study, while 61 percent of those living in cities support a civil state, 48.5 percent of rural residents support an Islamic state. When asked what state they wished to see Egypt resemble, 48.9 percent of rural Egyptians and 31.5 percent of urban residents named Saudi Arabia. Turkey was a distant second with 11.9 percent of urban residents looking to it as a model, and only 6.5 percent of rural residents. Further to this, some 40.1 percent of Egyptians classified themselves as Islamists. As one observer remarked: "I think Egypt has become more Islamized than we realized."
See:
Al-Ahram Center releases extensive political survey.
Tuesday Aug 23, 2011
Talking about secularism when Egypt looks to Saudi Arabia as a model
Hurriyet Daily News (Turkey), Monday, October 17, 2011
It is little wonder that some 93,000 Coptic Christians have left Egypt since 19 March. This figure comes from a report by the Egyptian Federation of Human Rights (EFHR). Furthermore, Naguib Gabriel, the head EFHR, estimates that the figure could increase to 250,00 by the end of 2011.
NGO report: 93,000 Copts left Egypt since March
Almasry Alyoum, 25 Sept 2011
The Maspero Massacre
In Elmarinab village in Egypt's Aswan Province on 30 September, thousands of Muslims went on a pogrom after having been incited in their mosques during Friday prayers. The military watched on without intervening while the Muslims destroyed St. George's church and other properties owned by Coptic Christians. Subsequently the state-run media whitewashed the incident. [NOTE: the Copts are the indigenous people of Egypt; the true descendents of the Pharoahs. They have been Christian for 2,000 years.] The Muslim pogrom was launched in response to church renovations. Though the Christians had legal permission to repair their dangerously dilapidated church, church repair is nevertheless prohibited by the dhimma pact, for the Christians must not only be humiliated, they must be seen to be humiliated lest they become a source of fitna (strife / temptation / anything that could shake the faith of a Muslim and thereby cause "chaos").
On Sunday 9 October, around 1,000 Christians, plus numerous sympathetic Muslims, peacefully protested outside Cairo's Maspero building -- the home of Egyptian state television and radio -- calling for an end to religious discrimination and sectarianism. However, to demand equity and justice instead of accepting subjugation and humiliation is yet another violation of the dhimma pact. This time the reprisal came first and formost from the Egyptian military.
See:
Egypt On Edge After Army Kills 20 Coptic Christians At Protest
Associated Press, Sun, 10/16/2011
The night Maspero turned into a war zone: A firsthand account
Reem Abdellatif, October 16, 2011
Violence and Bloodshed in Egypt: An Eyewitness Account
Sharif Abdel Kouddous, for the Pulitzer Center, Cairo, Egypt, October 10, 2011
Maspero survivors finally testify: army shot at unarmed demonstrators without provocation
Multiple eyewitness survivors of 'Bloody Sunday' at Maspero answer SCAF [Supreme Council of the Armed Forced], say military police shot at unarmed Coptic and Muslim demonstrators, APC's [Armoured Personnel Carriers] crushed people repeatedly, and afterwards police searched for 'Christians'.
Nada Hussein Rashwan, Thursday 13 Oct 2011
Stunned by bloodshed, Egyptians torn over army
By SARAH EL DEEB - Associated Press | AP – Sat, Oct 15, 2011
As violence escalated outside Maspero, state media falsely reported that armed Coptic protesters had attacked the military, killing three soldiers. The state media urged loyal Muslims to rise up in defence of their military, an appeal to which thousands of angry Muslims responded.
Egypt's State Media Implicated In Violence Against Christian Demonstrators
AINA, 13 Oct 2011
The Maspero Massacre left 26 dead and more than 300 wounded. On Sunday 16 Oct. Magdy Fahim Mosaad became they 27th Christian protestor to die when he succumbed to the injuries he received on Sunday 9th when he was run over by an armored personnel carrier.
Eye witnesses have testified that police and military shot, beat and chased Christians who they abused as 'infidels' and 'sons of dogs'. And so that truth could not be reported, the military attacked the studios of al-Hurra ('The Free One'), a United States-based Arabic-language satellite TV channel funded by the U.S. Congress, targeting Christian reporters and forcing its closure.
While the state media did apologise for its false report (blaming a 'nervous reporter') the military publically denied that they had killed any Christians -- this despite volumes of video and mobile phone footage showing armoured vehicles ploughing through the protesting Christians, running them over, crushing and tearing them, to cries of 'Allahu Akbar' (Allah is great).
Furthermore, a committee of "experts" appointed by the Minister of Information himself, Osama Heikal (who has praised the state media's coverage of the Maspero violence), has determined that while state television may have committed "professional errors" it did not intentionally incite violence against unarmed protesters.
Committee: State TV's Maspero coverage did not incite violence
Nada Hussein Rashwan, Monday 17 Oct 2011
And so we have yet more whitewashing and impunity.
By Monday 17 Oct. Egyptian newspapers were shifting the blame, from the military, onto Coptic priests and leaders. "Coptic religious leaders, clergy and intellectuals are responsible not only for the Maspero violence but also for threatening national unity, according to several papers."
Monday's papers: Editorial pages shift Maspero blame
Almasry Alyoum, 17 Oct 2011
Though an independent civilian prosecutor had begun looking into the Maspero Massacre, the military has now taken over the investigation. Military officials claim that the army must conduct the investigation on its own and in private due to the sensitivity of the clashes and in order to preserve troop morale. The head of the military judiciary, General Adel El-Morsi, has called for all evidence to be handed to the military.
Egypt military takes over inquiry of Coptic unrest
By AYA BATRAWY - Associated Press | AP – Thu, Oct 13, 2011
SCAF alone to investigate Maspero clashes
The head of military judiciary said Thursday armed forces alone will investigate Sunday's deadly clashes . . .
Ahram Online , Thursday 13 Oct 2011
No doubt the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) will call for "reconciliation" -- by which they mean the military will agree to make peace with the Christians in exchange for the Christians dropping all charges. Such "reconciliation" has been standard practise in Egypt since mid 2007. It provides the ruling regime with a win-win solution, for while it deceives and appeases the West it is actually a consession to politically powerful Islamists who insist on upholding the Islamic order which instutionalises legal discrimination / religious aparthide by prohibiting Christians / dhimmis from testifying against Muslims in court.
-----------
The West's reluctance to challenge the immoral religious aparthide inherent in Islam is both immoral and short-sighted. If the West truly believes in the principle of universal human rights, then religious and cultural rights can never trump human rights. Furthermore, silence in the face of Islamic religious aparthide is discriminatory; for why should these victims be less worthy of our moral outrage? Anyone who maintains that the systematic religious aparthide inherent in Islam is the religious right of Muslims, is clearly no defender of universal human rights.
See also:
A Double-Bind Upon the Copts: dhimmitude in action.
Rev Dr Mark Durie, Monday, October 10, 2011
Quote: "The Copts are in a double bind. If they protest against the abuses brought upon their heads by the dhimma system, they are treated as rebels, and the value of their blood and possessions discounted accordingly: the more they protest, the less right they have under Islamic law even to exist. On the other hand, the more they acquiesce, the more voracious and emboldened their persecutors will become. [. . .] The international community will be held accountable if they do not act swiftly on the brutal attacks towards Egypt’s Coptic Christians who are suffering under a modern day form of apartheid where institutionalised discrimination and deadly attacks have a become a way of life for Egypt’s 15 million Copts."
The forgotten Christians of the East
By Caroline B. Glick, Jerusalem Post, 10 Oct 2011
Quote: "JUST AS the Jews of the Islamic world were forcibly removed from their ancient communities by the Arab rulers with the establishment of Israel in 1948, so Christians have been persecuted and driven out of their homes. Populist Islamic and Arab regimes have used Islamic religious supremacism and Arab racial chauvinism against Christians as rallying cries to their subjects. These calls have in turn led to the decimation of the Christian populations of the Arab and Islamic world. [. . .] It is unclear what either Western governments or Western churches think they are achieving by turning a blind eye to the persecution and decimation of Christian communities in the Muslim world. As Sunday’s events in Egypt and other daily anti-Christian attacks by Muslims against Christians throughout the region show, their behavior is not appeasing anyone. What is clear enough is that they shall reap what they sow."
Islam is a materialistic, imperialistic and political religion. Its aim is to achieve dominance -- demographically or through military or political conquest -- so that Muslims might rule and Sharia (Islamic Law / the law of Allah) might be applied.
Where Islam is dominant, atheists and polytheists have two choices: convert to Islam or die. Jews and Christians (the People of the Book), however, have a third choice: dhimmitude -- i.e. they may pay for their "protection" (i.e. right to life) with "jizya" / tax / protection money (religiously santioned extortion) and by submitting to Islamic rule and Sharia law in total subjugation and abject humiliation (Sura 9:29).
The subjugated peoples are known collectively as the dhimma (singular: dhimmi). The state of subjugation -- a state of immense insecurity, vulnerability, perpetual anxiety and psychological trauma -- is known as dhimmitude. The rules under which the dhimma must live are codified in the dhimma pact. If at any time, the dhimma violate the dhimma pact, then "protection" is withdrawn and jihad (Islamic holy war) resumes -- meaning the dhimmis may be killed and their properties plundered.
Europe's rise and Islam's decline -- commencing in the late 17th Century and culminating in defeat for Islam in the 20th Century's two world wars -- saw dhimmitude wane. Today, however, Islam is back and so too is dhimmitude. And nowhere is this more evident than in Egypt.
This is unsurprising considering the results of a recent survey by Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. For according the the study, while 61 percent of those living in cities support a civil state, 48.5 percent of rural residents support an Islamic state. When asked what state they wished to see Egypt resemble, 48.9 percent of rural Egyptians and 31.5 percent of urban residents named Saudi Arabia. Turkey was a distant second with 11.9 percent of urban residents looking to it as a model, and only 6.5 percent of rural residents. Further to this, some 40.1 percent of Egyptians classified themselves as Islamists. As one observer remarked: "I think Egypt has become more Islamized than we realized."
See:
Al-Ahram Center releases extensive political survey.
Tuesday Aug 23, 2011
Talking about secularism when Egypt looks to Saudi Arabia as a model
Hurriyet Daily News (Turkey), Monday, October 17, 2011
It is little wonder that some 93,000 Coptic Christians have left Egypt since 19 March. This figure comes from a report by the Egyptian Federation of Human Rights (EFHR). Furthermore, Naguib Gabriel, the head EFHR, estimates that the figure could increase to 250,00 by the end of 2011.
NGO report: 93,000 Copts left Egypt since March
Almasry Alyoum, 25 Sept 2011
The Maspero Massacre
In Elmarinab village in Egypt's Aswan Province on 30 September, thousands of Muslims went on a pogrom after having been incited in their mosques during Friday prayers. The military watched on without intervening while the Muslims destroyed St. George's church and other properties owned by Coptic Christians. Subsequently the state-run media whitewashed the incident. [NOTE: the Copts are the indigenous people of Egypt; the true descendents of the Pharoahs. They have been Christian for 2,000 years.] The Muslim pogrom was launched in response to church renovations. Though the Christians had legal permission to repair their dangerously dilapidated church, church repair is nevertheless prohibited by the dhimma pact, for the Christians must not only be humiliated, they must be seen to be humiliated lest they become a source of fitna (strife / temptation / anything that could shake the faith of a Muslim and thereby cause "chaos").
On Sunday 9 October, around 1,000 Christians, plus numerous sympathetic Muslims, peacefully protested outside Cairo's Maspero building -- the home of Egyptian state television and radio -- calling for an end to religious discrimination and sectarianism. However, to demand equity and justice instead of accepting subjugation and humiliation is yet another violation of the dhimma pact. This time the reprisal came first and formost from the Egyptian military.
See:
Egypt On Edge After Army Kills 20 Coptic Christians At Protest
Associated Press, Sun, 10/16/2011
The night Maspero turned into a war zone: A firsthand account
Reem Abdellatif, October 16, 2011
Violence and Bloodshed in Egypt: An Eyewitness Account
Sharif Abdel Kouddous, for the Pulitzer Center, Cairo, Egypt, October 10, 2011
Maspero survivors finally testify: army shot at unarmed demonstrators without provocation
Multiple eyewitness survivors of 'Bloody Sunday' at Maspero answer SCAF [Supreme Council of the Armed Forced], say military police shot at unarmed Coptic and Muslim demonstrators, APC's [Armoured Personnel Carriers] crushed people repeatedly, and afterwards police searched for 'Christians'.
Nada Hussein Rashwan, Thursday 13 Oct 2011
Stunned by bloodshed, Egyptians torn over army
By SARAH EL DEEB - Associated Press | AP – Sat, Oct 15, 2011
As violence escalated outside Maspero, state media falsely reported that armed Coptic protesters had attacked the military, killing three soldiers. The state media urged loyal Muslims to rise up in defence of their military, an appeal to which thousands of angry Muslims responded.
Egypt's State Media Implicated In Violence Against Christian Demonstrators
AINA, 13 Oct 2011
The Maspero Massacre left 26 dead and more than 300 wounded. On Sunday 16 Oct. Magdy Fahim Mosaad became they 27th Christian protestor to die when he succumbed to the injuries he received on Sunday 9th when he was run over by an armored personnel carrier.
Eye witnesses have testified that police and military shot, beat and chased Christians who they abused as 'infidels' and 'sons of dogs'. And so that truth could not be reported, the military attacked the studios of al-Hurra ('The Free One'), a United States-based Arabic-language satellite TV channel funded by the U.S. Congress, targeting Christian reporters and forcing its closure.
While the state media did apologise for its false report (blaming a 'nervous reporter') the military publically denied that they had killed any Christians -- this despite volumes of video and mobile phone footage showing armoured vehicles ploughing through the protesting Christians, running them over, crushing and tearing them, to cries of 'Allahu Akbar' (Allah is great).
Furthermore, a committee of "experts" appointed by the Minister of Information himself, Osama Heikal (who has praised the state media's coverage of the Maspero violence), has determined that while state television may have committed "professional errors" it did not intentionally incite violence against unarmed protesters.
Committee: State TV's Maspero coverage did not incite violence
Nada Hussein Rashwan, Monday 17 Oct 2011
And so we have yet more whitewashing and impunity.
By Monday 17 Oct. Egyptian newspapers were shifting the blame, from the military, onto Coptic priests and leaders. "Coptic religious leaders, clergy and intellectuals are responsible not only for the Maspero violence but also for threatening national unity, according to several papers."
Monday's papers: Editorial pages shift Maspero blame
Almasry Alyoum, 17 Oct 2011
Though an independent civilian prosecutor had begun looking into the Maspero Massacre, the military has now taken over the investigation. Military officials claim that the army must conduct the investigation on its own and in private due to the sensitivity of the clashes and in order to preserve troop morale. The head of the military judiciary, General Adel El-Morsi, has called for all evidence to be handed to the military.
Egypt military takes over inquiry of Coptic unrest
By AYA BATRAWY - Associated Press | AP – Thu, Oct 13, 2011
SCAF alone to investigate Maspero clashes
The head of military judiciary said Thursday armed forces alone will investigate Sunday's deadly clashes . . .
Ahram Online , Thursday 13 Oct 2011
No doubt the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) will call for "reconciliation" -- by which they mean the military will agree to make peace with the Christians in exchange for the Christians dropping all charges. Such "reconciliation" has been standard practise in Egypt since mid 2007. It provides the ruling regime with a win-win solution, for while it deceives and appeases the West it is actually a consession to politically powerful Islamists who insist on upholding the Islamic order which instutionalises legal discrimination / religious aparthide by prohibiting Christians / dhimmis from testifying against Muslims in court.
-----------
The West's reluctance to challenge the immoral religious aparthide inherent in Islam is both immoral and short-sighted. If the West truly believes in the principle of universal human rights, then religious and cultural rights can never trump human rights. Furthermore, silence in the face of Islamic religious aparthide is discriminatory; for why should these victims be less worthy of our moral outrage? Anyone who maintains that the systematic religious aparthide inherent in Islam is the religious right of Muslims, is clearly no defender of universal human rights.
See also:
A Double-Bind Upon the Copts: dhimmitude in action.
Rev Dr Mark Durie, Monday, October 10, 2011
Quote: "The Copts are in a double bind. If they protest against the abuses brought upon their heads by the dhimma system, they are treated as rebels, and the value of their blood and possessions discounted accordingly: the more they protest, the less right they have under Islamic law even to exist. On the other hand, the more they acquiesce, the more voracious and emboldened their persecutors will become. [. . .] The international community will be held accountable if they do not act swiftly on the brutal attacks towards Egypt’s Coptic Christians who are suffering under a modern day form of apartheid where institutionalised discrimination and deadly attacks have a become a way of life for Egypt’s 15 million Copts."
The forgotten Christians of the East
By Caroline B. Glick, Jerusalem Post, 10 Oct 2011
Quote: "JUST AS the Jews of the Islamic world were forcibly removed from their ancient communities by the Arab rulers with the establishment of Israel in 1948, so Christians have been persecuted and driven out of their homes. Populist Islamic and Arab regimes have used Islamic religious supremacism and Arab racial chauvinism against Christians as rallying cries to their subjects. These calls have in turn led to the decimation of the Christian populations of the Arab and Islamic world. [. . .] It is unclear what either Western governments or Western churches think they are achieving by turning a blind eye to the persecution and decimation of Christian communities in the Muslim world. As Sunday’s events in Egypt and other daily anti-Christian attacks by Muslims against Christians throughout the region show, their behavior is not appeasing anyone. What is clear enough is that they shall reap what they sow."
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Iraq & Egypt: al-Qaeda declares war on Christians over the myth of Camilia
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 082 | Wed 17 Nov 2010
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IRAQ & EGYPT: AL-QAEDA DECLARES WAR ON CHRISTIANS
-------------------------------------------------
BACKGROUND IN EGYPT: In July 2010 Camilia Shehata Zakher disappeared after a quarrel with her husband, a Coptic priest in Minya Governorate. Unaware that she was with relatives in Cairo, he reported her missing and accused Muslims of abducting her for forced conversion, a fate not uncommon for Coptic girls in Egypt.
When Egyptian Security Forces found Camilia in Cairo and returned her to her husband, Muslims protested, claiming that Camilia was now Muslim and was being held by the church against her will. One fundamentalist sheikh claimed to have heard her say the shahada, the declaration of Muslim faith. Digitally edited photos purportedly of Camilia in full Islamic dress started appearing on the web. Islamic militants urged that Christian tourists be kidnapped and killed in retaliation. On 1 September a Mauritanian cleric issued a fatwa permitting the killing of Egyptian Copts. Camilia has come to personify the Muslim fantasy of Coptic girls converting to Islam and of the church as a principle cause of fitna or persecution.
Then on 8 September Camilia appeared on national TV denouncing the rumours of torture, drugs and captivity. 'I am appearing,' she said, 'in order to defend my husband, my child, my church and my religion which is Christianity.'
Fundamentalist sheikhs subsequently claimed the woman on the TV was not Camilia, but her 'double'. Egyptian State Security immediately refuted this and the Chairman of the Committee of Declaration of Islam at Al-Azhar University, Sheikh Saeed Amer, stepped in and denied that Camilia ever came to Al-Azhar or that her case ever came before him. Islamist propagandists subsequently asserted that Camilia was kidnapped by State Security forces while on her way to Al-Azhar to formalise her conversion. The Islamists claim therefore the State actually prevented her conversion to Islam.
The truth is: Camilia is a Christian who never converted to Islam. The Camilia of Islamic fantasy -- the convert to Islam who is suffering persecution at the hand of the church -- is a myth. Nevertheless this totally debunked myth is being used as incitement and as an excuse to kill Christians.
INCITEMENT IN EGYPT; DEADLY CONSEQUENCES IN IRAQ.
On 15 September, as religious tensions soared, the former secretary-general of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, Muhammad Salim al-Awwa, raged on Aljazeera international TV, falsely accusing Egypt's Copts of 'stocking arms and ammunition in their churches and monasteries' in preparation for war against Muslims. He also perpetuated the lie that the Coptic Church was holding female Coptic converts to Islam captive in desert monasteries (RLPB 079, 27 Oct 2010).
As the rhetoric escalated, riots multiplied, forcing the government to urge media restraint for the sake of national unity. Then on 31 October ten al-Qaeda militants in Iraq laid siege to a Syrian Catholic Church in Baghdad. Fifty-eight died and more than 70 were wounded in the subsequent massacre. In claiming responsibility, the al-Qaeda-linked 'Islamic State of Iraq' gave Egypt's Coptic Church 48 hours to release from captivity Camilia Shehata and Wafa Constantine, an almost identical case from 2004. Otherwise jihadists would retaliate against Christians everywhere (RLPB 080, 3 Nov 2010). The incitement in Egypt being linked to the massacre in Baghdad and the threat from al-Qaeda shocked Egypt, prompting restraint there and temporarily settling the situation somewhat.
Nothing, however, has settled in Iraq. On 9 November three Christian homes were bombed at night in the suburb of Mansour, western Baghdad. The following morning two Christian homes in al-Dora were hit by mortar fire. Bombs also exploded outside a church in Kampsara and outside about a dozen Christian homes across Baghdad. At least four Christians were killed and dozens were wounded and terrorised. The targeted homes could be seen to be Christians because of funeral notices and visible Christian insignia.
Then on Monday evening 15 November Islamic militants in the northern city of Mosul stormed two adjacent homes of Christian families in the eastern al-Tahrir neighbourhood and killed the two male heads of those households, a Syrian Catholic and an Armenian. Almost simultaneously a bomb exploded outside a Christian home in central Mosul. The next day a Christian man and his daughter aged six were killed by a car bomb in Mosul.
This terror has led to a surge in Christians fleeing Iraq. They will join the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians struggling to survive as refugees in Syria, Turkey and Jordan. They no longer see any reason to risk their lives for a state where, even if they survive, they will be condemned to live as second class citizens (dhimmis).
In Egypt, the lives of Copts are conditionally 'protected' as dhimmis. This means they will not be killed and plundered provided they submit to the injustice, persecution and humiliation inherent in abject subjugation under superior Islam. After years of impunity for attacks on Copts, their security is now extremely tenuous.
On Monday 15 November 22 homes, two commercial shops, a bakery, and livestock, all belonging to Copts, were burnt when Muslims -- reportedly nearly 1000 -- rioted in the Upper Egyptian village of el-Nowahed after hearing a rumour that a Christian boy was in a relationship with a Muslim girl. (According to the rules of Islam, a Christian boy may not approach a Muslim girl but must convert to Islam first.)
Due to years of radicalisation and the re-establishment of dhimmitude, the situation in Egypt is now pre-genocidal. Meanwhile the situation in Iraq is undoubtedly genocidal, partly because Iraq has become a base for foreign-sponsored sectarian Islamic militias. Additionally there is the factor that, as a Western experiment in Islamic democracy (like Lebanon previously), the West doesn't want to see or admit failure in Iraq, especially as that would challenge the West's firmly held belief that democracy -- as distinct from the Gospel of Jesus Christ -- is the solution to noble (rather than sinful) humanity's problems.
The West must end the denial and take some responsibility for securing and rescuing Iraq's Christian remnant. Once US troops withdraw and the 'real' war begins, it will be too late.
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR GOD TO:
* level the paths, open the doors and provide safe passage for all Iraqi Christians fleeing Islamic terror and genocide for what may be an extended period of exile.
* draw the hearts and minds of all Iraqi Christians to him, that they might put their faith in him alone, for he is their only hope.
'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me . . . Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one the least of these, you did not do it to me.' (From Matthew 25:40,45 ESV.)
* intervene in Egypt, to still the brewing storm; may all Egypt's Christians -- Copts and Arab converts -- look to Christ and put their faith in him alone, for he is their only hope.
* frustrate the plots and programs of the wicked, while pricking the conscience of the alliance states to Christian duty and moral obligation that they might respond with commitment and generosity to the humanitarian catastrophe that is befalling Iraqi Christians.
-------------------------------------------------
IRAQ & EGYPT: AL-QAEDA DECLARES WAR ON CHRISTIANS
-------------------------------------------------
BACKGROUND IN EGYPT: In July 2010 Camilia Shehata Zakher disappeared after a quarrel with her husband, a Coptic priest in Minya Governorate. Unaware that she was with relatives in Cairo, he reported her missing and accused Muslims of abducting her for forced conversion, a fate not uncommon for Coptic girls in Egypt.
When Egyptian Security Forces found Camilia in Cairo and returned her to her husband, Muslims protested, claiming that Camilia was now Muslim and was being held by the church against her will. One fundamentalist sheikh claimed to have heard her say the shahada, the declaration of Muslim faith. Digitally edited photos purportedly of Camilia in full Islamic dress started appearing on the web. Islamic militants urged that Christian tourists be kidnapped and killed in retaliation. On 1 September a Mauritanian cleric issued a fatwa permitting the killing of Egyptian Copts. Camilia has come to personify the Muslim fantasy of Coptic girls converting to Islam and of the church as a principle cause of fitna or persecution.
Then on 8 September Camilia appeared on national TV denouncing the rumours of torture, drugs and captivity. 'I am appearing,' she said, 'in order to defend my husband, my child, my church and my religion which is Christianity.'
Fundamentalist sheikhs subsequently claimed the woman on the TV was not Camilia, but her 'double'. Egyptian State Security immediately refuted this and the Chairman of the Committee of Declaration of Islam at Al-Azhar University, Sheikh Saeed Amer, stepped in and denied that Camilia ever came to Al-Azhar or that her case ever came before him. Islamist propagandists subsequently asserted that Camilia was kidnapped by State Security forces while on her way to Al-Azhar to formalise her conversion. The Islamists claim therefore the State actually prevented her conversion to Islam.
The truth is: Camilia is a Christian who never converted to Islam. The Camilia of Islamic fantasy -- the convert to Islam who is suffering persecution at the hand of the church -- is a myth. Nevertheless this totally debunked myth is being used as incitement and as an excuse to kill Christians.
INCITEMENT IN EGYPT; DEADLY CONSEQUENCES IN IRAQ.
On 15 September, as religious tensions soared, the former secretary-general of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, Muhammad Salim al-Awwa, raged on Aljazeera international TV, falsely accusing Egypt's Copts of 'stocking arms and ammunition in their churches and monasteries' in preparation for war against Muslims. He also perpetuated the lie that the Coptic Church was holding female Coptic converts to Islam captive in desert monasteries (RLPB 079, 27 Oct 2010).
As the rhetoric escalated, riots multiplied, forcing the government to urge media restraint for the sake of national unity. Then on 31 October ten al-Qaeda militants in Iraq laid siege to a Syrian Catholic Church in Baghdad. Fifty-eight died and more than 70 were wounded in the subsequent massacre. In claiming responsibility, the al-Qaeda-linked 'Islamic State of Iraq' gave Egypt's Coptic Church 48 hours to release from captivity Camilia Shehata and Wafa Constantine, an almost identical case from 2004. Otherwise jihadists would retaliate against Christians everywhere (RLPB 080, 3 Nov 2010). The incitement in Egypt being linked to the massacre in Baghdad and the threat from al-Qaeda shocked Egypt, prompting restraint there and temporarily settling the situation somewhat.
Nothing, however, has settled in Iraq. On 9 November three Christian homes were bombed at night in the suburb of Mansour, western Baghdad. The following morning two Christian homes in al-Dora were hit by mortar fire. Bombs also exploded outside a church in Kampsara and outside about a dozen Christian homes across Baghdad. At least four Christians were killed and dozens were wounded and terrorised. The targeted homes could be seen to be Christians because of funeral notices and visible Christian insignia.
Then on Monday evening 15 November Islamic militants in the northern city of Mosul stormed two adjacent homes of Christian families in the eastern al-Tahrir neighbourhood and killed the two male heads of those households, a Syrian Catholic and an Armenian. Almost simultaneously a bomb exploded outside a Christian home in central Mosul. The next day a Christian man and his daughter aged six were killed by a car bomb in Mosul.
This terror has led to a surge in Christians fleeing Iraq. They will join the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians struggling to survive as refugees in Syria, Turkey and Jordan. They no longer see any reason to risk their lives for a state where, even if they survive, they will be condemned to live as second class citizens (dhimmis).
In Egypt, the lives of Copts are conditionally 'protected' as dhimmis. This means they will not be killed and plundered provided they submit to the injustice, persecution and humiliation inherent in abject subjugation under superior Islam. After years of impunity for attacks on Copts, their security is now extremely tenuous.
On Monday 15 November 22 homes, two commercial shops, a bakery, and livestock, all belonging to Copts, were burnt when Muslims -- reportedly nearly 1000 -- rioted in the Upper Egyptian village of el-Nowahed after hearing a rumour that a Christian boy was in a relationship with a Muslim girl. (According to the rules of Islam, a Christian boy may not approach a Muslim girl but must convert to Islam first.)
Due to years of radicalisation and the re-establishment of dhimmitude, the situation in Egypt is now pre-genocidal. Meanwhile the situation in Iraq is undoubtedly genocidal, partly because Iraq has become a base for foreign-sponsored sectarian Islamic militias. Additionally there is the factor that, as a Western experiment in Islamic democracy (like Lebanon previously), the West doesn't want to see or admit failure in Iraq, especially as that would challenge the West's firmly held belief that democracy -- as distinct from the Gospel of Jesus Christ -- is the solution to noble (rather than sinful) humanity's problems.
The West must end the denial and take some responsibility for securing and rescuing Iraq's Christian remnant. Once US troops withdraw and the 'real' war begins, it will be too late.
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR GOD TO:
* level the paths, open the doors and provide safe passage for all Iraqi Christians fleeing Islamic terror and genocide for what may be an extended period of exile.
* draw the hearts and minds of all Iraqi Christians to him, that they might put their faith in him alone, for he is their only hope.
'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me . . . Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one the least of these, you did not do it to me.' (From Matthew 25:40,45 ESV.)
* intervene in Egypt, to still the brewing storm; may all Egypt's Christians -- Copts and Arab converts -- look to Christ and put their faith in him alone, for he is their only hope.
* frustrate the plots and programs of the wicked, while pricking the conscience of the alliance states to Christian duty and moral obligation that they might respond with commitment and generosity to the humanitarian catastrophe that is befalling Iraqi Christians.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
EGYPT: what happens when Islamic totalitarianism meets Christian freedom?
In 1980, Egypt amended its constitution to elevate Sharia (Islamic law) as "the principal source of legislation". This provision -- which is now common in Muslim constitutions, including the new constitutions of Afghanistan and Iraq -- renders constitutional guarantees of religious liberty and equality before the law illusory. For Sharia's principal aim concerning religious liberty, is to eradicate apostasy (rejection of Islam) through the elimination of fitna (anything that could tempt a Muslim to reject Islam) and the establishment of dhimmitude (the humiliation and subjugation of Jews and Christians as second class citizens; crippling systematic discrimination; violent religious apartheid). There is no religious liberty in Islam, for Islam survives as religious totalitarianism that refuses rejection.
In Egypt, as in virtually all Muslim states, a person's official religion is displayed on their identity card. According to Sharia, every child born to a Muslim father is deemed Muslim from birth. According to Sharia, a Muslim woman is only permitted to marry a Muslim man. (NOTE: This is the main reason why Christian men convert to Islam, and why female converts to Christianity will risk life and liberty to secure a falsified/illegal ID, for without a Christian ID they cannot marry a Christian.)
If a Christian father converts to Islam (as some do for any number of pragmatic reasons, such as a desire for a Muslim wife or a better job), his Christian children are automatically deemed Muslim. They have no say in this and may not apostasise: i.e. return to Christianity. If a Muslim parent converts to Christianity they automatically lose custody of their children.
Egypt's Great Apostasy Debate
In 2007, a Muslim convert to Christianity, Mohammed Hegazy (24), applied to have his identity card changed. Not only was it his desire that his ID card reflect reality, he did not want his unborn child to be automatically deemed Muslim from birth. When his application was declined, Hegazy sued the Interior Ministry for his constitutional right to religious freedom (Article 46 ).
The court ruled against Hegazy on the grounds that Sharia prohibits apostasy. Death threats rang out and Hegazy, his wife and new born daughter were forced to retreat "underground", driven into hiding, to a life on the run.
In August 2008, Maher el-Gowhary stepped up in defence of Christian freedom for the sake of his own daughter, Dina (14). El-Gowhary (55), who had quietly converted to Christianity 35 years earlier, wanted his true religious identity acknowledged and his ID card corrected before his daughter turned 16. For when Dina turned 16 the state would issue her with a Muslim ID card that would condemn her to a double life and rob her of her freedom.
Religious leaders issues fatwas calling for the blood of Hegazy and el-Gowhary to be shed. In September 2008 the two men were shot at and only narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.
In June 2009, the court ruled against el-Gowhary on the grounds that Sharia prohibits apostasy and conversions would pose a threat to the "public order". When el-Gowhary and his daughter subsequently tried to leave Egypt, their passports were confiscated.
As Mary Abdelmassih reports, the el-Gowhary's plight and the Islamic totalitarianism of Egypt became more widely known, nationally and internationally, after Dina wrote to President Obama, pleading for help. (Dina was clearly unaware that Obama was powerless to help her since the global financial crash of August 2008 had largely robbed the US International Freedom from Religious Persecution Act 1998 of its economic leverage.) Subsequently, in April 2010, Dina was attacked with acid which caused the jacket she was wearing to ignite. Fortunately she was with her father who rescued her so that she was able to survive unharmed.
In early July, Maher el-Gowhary told ZDF German TV: "We live in constant fear ever since radical shaikhs have called for my blood to be shed because I left Islam. We are mostly afraid of the uneducated people on the street, our future is ruined. We are discriminated against; I do not believe that we will receive justice."
On 5 July 2010, as Maher el-Gowhary was walking with his lawyer, he was ambushed by militants who abused him as an apostate, shouted 'Allahu Akbar', and stabbed him several times in the neck. Despite being seriously wounded, Maher el-Gowhary is too afraid of the authorities to go to hospital.
See: Muslim Egyptian Girl Who Converted to Christianity Subjected to Acid Attack
by Mary Abdelmassih, AINA, 17 April 2010-07-14
AND
Muslims Attempt to Behead Apostate in Egypt
Written by Mary Abdelmassih, 08 July 2010
It is unsurprising that el-Gowhary, a peaceful and honest man, is afraid of the authorities, for Egyptian police are infamous for their corruption and brutality. They routinely torture with impunity (even promotion!).
NAGLA AL-IMAM
Late last year, Nagla Al-Imam (36) -- an Egyptian attorney, Sharia expert and prominent human rights activist -- publically announced that she had converted from Islam to Christianity. Nagla was subsequently abandoned by her husband, her family and her friends. She lost her source of income as she lost her attorney's license and Egypt's State Security Administration confined her to house arrest.
In early July 2010, Egyptian security officials took Nagla Al-Imam into custody, bashed and threatened her. She responded on 8 July by posting a video to the internet of herself (bruised and battered) and her two young children singing a Christian lament wherein Christ's comforting and strengthening presence is requested through the high waves of persecution.
According to reports, Nagla Al-Imam and her children subsequently "disappeared", and Al-Tarek, which is the TV station Nagla al-Imam broadcasts from, was vandalised by Egyptian security forces.
This is what happens when Islamic totalitarianism meets Christian freedom.
Islam -- a religion of peace, love and human rights? I don't think so.
In Egypt, as in virtually all Muslim states, a person's official religion is displayed on their identity card. According to Sharia, every child born to a Muslim father is deemed Muslim from birth. According to Sharia, a Muslim woman is only permitted to marry a Muslim man. (NOTE: This is the main reason why Christian men convert to Islam, and why female converts to Christianity will risk life and liberty to secure a falsified/illegal ID, for without a Christian ID they cannot marry a Christian.)
If a Christian father converts to Islam (as some do for any number of pragmatic reasons, such as a desire for a Muslim wife or a better job), his Christian children are automatically deemed Muslim. They have no say in this and may not apostasise: i.e. return to Christianity. If a Muslim parent converts to Christianity they automatically lose custody of their children.
Egypt's Great Apostasy Debate
In 2007, a Muslim convert to Christianity, Mohammed Hegazy (24), applied to have his identity card changed. Not only was it his desire that his ID card reflect reality, he did not want his unborn child to be automatically deemed Muslim from birth. When his application was declined, Hegazy sued the Interior Ministry for his constitutional right to religious freedom (Article 46 ).
The court ruled against Hegazy on the grounds that Sharia prohibits apostasy. Death threats rang out and Hegazy, his wife and new born daughter were forced to retreat "underground", driven into hiding, to a life on the run.
In August 2008, Maher el-Gowhary stepped up in defence of Christian freedom for the sake of his own daughter, Dina (14). El-Gowhary (55), who had quietly converted to Christianity 35 years earlier, wanted his true religious identity acknowledged and his ID card corrected before his daughter turned 16. For when Dina turned 16 the state would issue her with a Muslim ID card that would condemn her to a double life and rob her of her freedom.
Religious leaders issues fatwas calling for the blood of Hegazy and el-Gowhary to be shed. In September 2008 the two men were shot at and only narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.
In June 2009, the court ruled against el-Gowhary on the grounds that Sharia prohibits apostasy and conversions would pose a threat to the "public order". When el-Gowhary and his daughter subsequently tried to leave Egypt, their passports were confiscated.
As Mary Abdelmassih reports, the el-Gowhary's plight and the Islamic totalitarianism of Egypt became more widely known, nationally and internationally, after Dina wrote to President Obama, pleading for help. (Dina was clearly unaware that Obama was powerless to help her since the global financial crash of August 2008 had largely robbed the US International Freedom from Religious Persecution Act 1998 of its economic leverage.) Subsequently, in April 2010, Dina was attacked with acid which caused the jacket she was wearing to ignite. Fortunately she was with her father who rescued her so that she was able to survive unharmed.
In early July, Maher el-Gowhary told ZDF German TV: "We live in constant fear ever since radical shaikhs have called for my blood to be shed because I left Islam. We are mostly afraid of the uneducated people on the street, our future is ruined. We are discriminated against; I do not believe that we will receive justice."
On 5 July 2010, as Maher el-Gowhary was walking with his lawyer, he was ambushed by militants who abused him as an apostate, shouted 'Allahu Akbar', and stabbed him several times in the neck. Despite being seriously wounded, Maher el-Gowhary is too afraid of the authorities to go to hospital.
See: Muslim Egyptian Girl Who Converted to Christianity Subjected to Acid Attack
by Mary Abdelmassih, AINA, 17 April 2010-07-14
AND
Muslims Attempt to Behead Apostate in Egypt
Written by Mary Abdelmassih, 08 July 2010
It is unsurprising that el-Gowhary, a peaceful and honest man, is afraid of the authorities, for Egyptian police are infamous for their corruption and brutality. They routinely torture with impunity (even promotion!).
NAGLA AL-IMAM
Late last year, Nagla Al-Imam (36) -- an Egyptian attorney, Sharia expert and prominent human rights activist -- publically announced that she had converted from Islam to Christianity. Nagla was subsequently abandoned by her husband, her family and her friends. She lost her source of income as she lost her attorney's license and Egypt's State Security Administration confined her to house arrest.
In early July 2010, Egyptian security officials took Nagla Al-Imam into custody, bashed and threatened her. She responded on 8 July by posting a video to the internet of herself (bruised and battered) and her two young children singing a Christian lament wherein Christ's comforting and strengthening presence is requested through the high waves of persecution.
According to reports, Nagla Al-Imam and her children subsequently "disappeared", and Al-Tarek, which is the TV station Nagla al-Imam broadcasts from, was vandalised by Egyptian security forces.
This is what happens when Islamic totalitarianism meets Christian freedom.
Islam -- a religion of peace, love and human rights? I don't think so.
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
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Arab information ministers vote to limit information.
Date: Tuesday 26 February 2008
Subj: Arab information ministers vote to limit information.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
ARAB INFORMATION MINISTERS VOTE TO LIMIT INFORMATION . . .
At the request of Egypt and with the support of Saudi Arabia, the Arab Ministers of Information gathered in Cairo on 12 February 2008 to consider a new charter to regulate Satellite TV content. Entitled 'Principles for Organising Satellite TV in the Arab World', the charter is both defensive and defiant, aimed at protecting Arab regimes and Islam, whilst defying all advocates and sponsors of progress, openness and liberty. Qatar (home to Al Jazeera TV) and Lebanon were the only Arab states to object to the charter. All other Arab states agreed to adopt it, with the Egyptian information minister, Anas al-Fiqi, saying his country would be the first to implement the charter.
The charter requires that satellite broadcasting not offend the leaders or national and religious symbols in the Arab world, and not damage social harmony, national unity, public order or traditional values. It must conform to the religious and ethical values of Arab society, taking into account its religions, prophets, sects and symbols, and it must protect Arab identity from the harmful effects of globalisation.
The Arab Committee for Human Rights (ACHR) immediately issued a strong condemnation of the Cairo Charter and expressed its support for the Arab TV channels targeted by the resolution. The ACHR also called on Arab civil society and journalist organisations to "actively stand up" against the policy, which it called an attempt "to return the Arab media sector to the era that was prevailing two decades ago before the revolution in satellite channels, worldwide web and unlimited media". (Link 1)
Dr. Agnes Callamard, executive director of ARTICLE 19, an independent human rights organisation that promotes freedom expression condemned the charter, saying, "These principles constitute a major set back to freedom of the press and freedom of expression in the Arab world. They attempt to muzzle what has become the main source of independent news and information for millions of people in the region. Once again, intolerance and control prevail over freedom and the free and diverse flow of information." (Link 2)
Menassat.com, a website that focuses on news, trends and events concerning the media in the 22 Arab League states, reports that a plan to set up a regional commission for Arab media will be presented to the next meeting of the Arab Ministers of Information in June. Arab sources are saying that the commission would control the implementation of the charter and receive complaints about any breaches of its articles. (Link 3)
The charter contains penalties for those broadcasters that violate the rules: first a warning, followed by the freezing of work permits and the confiscation of materials, equipment and funds, and ultimately cancellation of the station's permit.
. . . BUT CAN THEY TURN BACK THE TIDE?
Private satellite TV is a relative new phenomenon in the Middle East, arising in the early 1990s as the Arab world was craving more Arab reporting on Gulf War One. The growth in private satellite channels has broken the government monopoly on what gets to go to the airwaves.
As independent satellite medium has developed, producers have increasingly stretched the boundaries, making forays into taboo topics such as religion and governance. Then live talk-show and call-in programs started to appear, broadcasting criticism of Arab governments and of Islam. For example, as Associated Press (AP) reports, "Talk shows have challenged authority, such as when [Qatar's] Al-Jazeera's often raucous 'The Opposite Direction' featured a discussion of police abuses in the Arab world. Or else they take on taboo topics, such as a call-in show on Lebanon's LBC that dealt with the controversial case of a Saudi woman who was gang-raped then sentenced to prison and whipping for mingling with a man to whom she wasn't related." (Link 4)
On 21 February 2006, Syrian-born critic of Islam Dr Wafa Sultan was interviewed on Al-Jazeera's "The Opposite Direction". A six minute clip of her debate was subsequently posted to YouTube and has been watched more than one million times since, making her an international sensation and earning her a place in TIME magazine's 2006 list of the most 100 influential people in the world.
But times are changing. In Egypt in May 2007, Al-Jazeera journalist Howayda Taha was charged with "harming Egypt's national interest", sentenced in absentia to six months in jail and fined 20,000 Egyptian pounds for "possessing material containing untrue information". She had been arrested in Egypt in January 2007 but returned to Qatar after being released on bail. She had been filming a documentary containing reconstructions of torture in a police station. Taha appealed the decision and on Monday 11 February the court overturned the prison sentence but ordered her to pay the fine. (Link 5)
Talking to AP, Egyptian broadcaster Khairi Ramadan called the charter a "huge step backward", adding, "Free speech in Egypt will not be the only victim here, it's the whole Arab world. There are serious fears of this charter and the bigger danger is to come." (Link 4)
CHRISTIAN SATELLITE CONTENT
The formulation of the charter doubtless involved a deal whereby the clerics agreed to protect the Arab regimes from the rising tide of militant political Islam if the Arab regimes agreed to protect Islam from the progressives, liberals and rising tide of openness.
The charter is full of narrow, vague and undefined, terms like protecting 'Arab identity' and 'social harmony', that apostaphobic dictators of Islam are bound to exploit against Christian programs.
The director of Arab Vision, a media organisation that produces content for Christian satellite stations, comments: "The new charter can be invoked at any time it pleases the authorities, against any broadcast that is critical of political rulers or Islam and Islamic habits. It seems to me that the charter is mostly aimed against radical Islamic programs, but the reality in the Arab world is, whenever the authorities want to put pressure on radical Islam, they feel obliged to 'balance' that by also suppressing some Christian liberties. Thereby they try to avoid giving the impression that they are against Islam.
"Presently, there are no satellite broadcasters based in the Arab world that broadcast Christian TV programs. The dozen or so Arabic Christian satellite channels are all based outside the Arab World. My worry is, however, that the new media charter may also be used against the organisations that produce programs for these satellite stations. Many of those are actually based in the Arab world, and for them, this charter is a worry.
"It is totally unclear how the charter will be implemented, so it is a matter of wait and see. But it is certainly a sword of Damocles that can be used at any time against our evangelistic work in the Arabic media. It is also true, however, that the dictatorial Arabic governments do not really need this sort of charter to stop Christians producing evangelistic programs. In most Arab countries the authorities do as they please anyway. The lack of a recourse to the law is one of the greatest problems for Christians in the Arab World."
Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) New Arab media charter seen as censorship tool. 18 Feb 2008 http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2008/02/18/feature-03
2) ARTICLE 19 condemns the adoption of the 'Principles for Organising Satellite TV in the Arab World' charter agreed yesterday by the Arab Ministers of Information in Egypt.
13 February 2008. http://www.article19.org/pdfs/press/arab-satelite-pr.pdf
ALSO
Arab satellite charter major setback to press freedom, say IFEX members.
21 Feb 08 http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/90875/
3) Arab Ministers finally agree - on limiting press freedom. 15 Feb 2008
http://www.menassat.com/?q=en/news-articles/2968-arab-ministers-finally-agree-limiting-press-freedom
4) Arab Ministers Adopt Satellite TV Rules
By Maggie Michael. CAIRO, Egypt (AP). 16 Feb 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h0FObtNpBWfD5zX9B6z_VNRjV9wwD8UQUSPG1
5) Arab states plan TV crackdown.
By Heba Saleh in Cairo. 14 February 2008
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/defbca60-daa0-11dc-9bb9-0000779fd2ac.html
HOWAYDA TAHA:
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/02/egypt-appeals-court-overturns-sentence.php
For further comments and opinions see:
Arab media code 'risk to freedom'. Aljazeera, 15 Feb 2008
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E32D7886-D7C8-4238-902B-E570D7630AFA.htm
EDITORIAL: Do not impede Arab growth
By MIDDLE EAST TIMES, 15 February 2008
http://www.metimes.com/Editorial/2008/02/15/editorial_do_not_impede_arab_growth/9660/
New media restrictions signal authoritarian regimes worries of citizens' awakening. The Associated Press, 15 February 2008 http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=10094065
Charter restricts Arab media. Arab Vision
http://www.arabvision.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=182&Itemid=1
Subj: Arab information ministers vote to limit information.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
ARAB INFORMATION MINISTERS VOTE TO LIMIT INFORMATION . . .
At the request of Egypt and with the support of Saudi Arabia, the Arab Ministers of Information gathered in Cairo on 12 February 2008 to consider a new charter to regulate Satellite TV content. Entitled 'Principles for Organising Satellite TV in the Arab World', the charter is both defensive and defiant, aimed at protecting Arab regimes and Islam, whilst defying all advocates and sponsors of progress, openness and liberty. Qatar (home to Al Jazeera TV) and Lebanon were the only Arab states to object to the charter. All other Arab states agreed to adopt it, with the Egyptian information minister, Anas al-Fiqi, saying his country would be the first to implement the charter.
The charter requires that satellite broadcasting not offend the leaders or national and religious symbols in the Arab world, and not damage social harmony, national unity, public order or traditional values. It must conform to the religious and ethical values of Arab society, taking into account its religions, prophets, sects and symbols, and it must protect Arab identity from the harmful effects of globalisation.
The Arab Committee for Human Rights (ACHR) immediately issued a strong condemnation of the Cairo Charter and expressed its support for the Arab TV channels targeted by the resolution. The ACHR also called on Arab civil society and journalist organisations to "actively stand up" against the policy, which it called an attempt "to return the Arab media sector to the era that was prevailing two decades ago before the revolution in satellite channels, worldwide web and unlimited media". (Link 1)
Dr. Agnes Callamard, executive director of ARTICLE 19, an independent human rights organisation that promotes freedom expression condemned the charter, saying, "These principles constitute a major set back to freedom of the press and freedom of expression in the Arab world. They attempt to muzzle what has become the main source of independent news and information for millions of people in the region. Once again, intolerance and control prevail over freedom and the free and diverse flow of information." (Link 2)
Menassat.com, a website that focuses on news, trends and events concerning the media in the 22 Arab League states, reports that a plan to set up a regional commission for Arab media will be presented to the next meeting of the Arab Ministers of Information in June. Arab sources are saying that the commission would control the implementation of the charter and receive complaints about any breaches of its articles. (Link 3)
The charter contains penalties for those broadcasters that violate the rules: first a warning, followed by the freezing of work permits and the confiscation of materials, equipment and funds, and ultimately cancellation of the station's permit.
. . . BUT CAN THEY TURN BACK THE TIDE?
Private satellite TV is a relative new phenomenon in the Middle East, arising in the early 1990s as the Arab world was craving more Arab reporting on Gulf War One. The growth in private satellite channels has broken the government monopoly on what gets to go to the airwaves.
As independent satellite medium has developed, producers have increasingly stretched the boundaries, making forays into taboo topics such as religion and governance. Then live talk-show and call-in programs started to appear, broadcasting criticism of Arab governments and of Islam. For example, as Associated Press (AP) reports, "Talk shows have challenged authority, such as when [Qatar's] Al-Jazeera's often raucous 'The Opposite Direction' featured a discussion of police abuses in the Arab world. Or else they take on taboo topics, such as a call-in show on Lebanon's LBC that dealt with the controversial case of a Saudi woman who was gang-raped then sentenced to prison and whipping for mingling with a man to whom she wasn't related." (Link 4)
On 21 February 2006, Syrian-born critic of Islam Dr Wafa Sultan was interviewed on Al-Jazeera's "The Opposite Direction". A six minute clip of her debate was subsequently posted to YouTube and has been watched more than one million times since, making her an international sensation and earning her a place in TIME magazine's 2006 list of the most 100 influential people in the world.
But times are changing. In Egypt in May 2007, Al-Jazeera journalist Howayda Taha was charged with "harming Egypt's national interest", sentenced in absentia to six months in jail and fined 20,000 Egyptian pounds for "possessing material containing untrue information". She had been arrested in Egypt in January 2007 but returned to Qatar after being released on bail. She had been filming a documentary containing reconstructions of torture in a police station. Taha appealed the decision and on Monday 11 February the court overturned the prison sentence but ordered her to pay the fine. (Link 5)
Talking to AP, Egyptian broadcaster Khairi Ramadan called the charter a "huge step backward", adding, "Free speech in Egypt will not be the only victim here, it's the whole Arab world. There are serious fears of this charter and the bigger danger is to come." (Link 4)
CHRISTIAN SATELLITE CONTENT
The formulation of the charter doubtless involved a deal whereby the clerics agreed to protect the Arab regimes from the rising tide of militant political Islam if the Arab regimes agreed to protect Islam from the progressives, liberals and rising tide of openness.
The charter is full of narrow, vague and undefined, terms like protecting 'Arab identity' and 'social harmony', that apostaphobic dictators of Islam are bound to exploit against Christian programs.
The director of Arab Vision, a media organisation that produces content for Christian satellite stations, comments: "The new charter can be invoked at any time it pleases the authorities, against any broadcast that is critical of political rulers or Islam and Islamic habits. It seems to me that the charter is mostly aimed against radical Islamic programs, but the reality in the Arab world is, whenever the authorities want to put pressure on radical Islam, they feel obliged to 'balance' that by also suppressing some Christian liberties. Thereby they try to avoid giving the impression that they are against Islam.
"Presently, there are no satellite broadcasters based in the Arab world that broadcast Christian TV programs. The dozen or so Arabic Christian satellite channels are all based outside the Arab World. My worry is, however, that the new media charter may also be used against the organisations that produce programs for these satellite stations. Many of those are actually based in the Arab world, and for them, this charter is a worry.
"It is totally unclear how the charter will be implemented, so it is a matter of wait and see. But it is certainly a sword of Damocles that can be used at any time against our evangelistic work in the Arabic media. It is also true, however, that the dictatorial Arabic governments do not really need this sort of charter to stop Christians producing evangelistic programs. In most Arab countries the authorities do as they please anyway. The lack of a recourse to the law is one of the greatest problems for Christians in the Arab World."
Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) New Arab media charter seen as censorship tool. 18 Feb 2008 http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2008/02/18/feature-03
2) ARTICLE 19 condemns the adoption of the 'Principles for Organising Satellite TV in the Arab World' charter agreed yesterday by the Arab Ministers of Information in Egypt.
13 February 2008. http://www.article19.org/pdfs/press/arab-satelite-pr.pdf
ALSO
Arab satellite charter major setback to press freedom, say IFEX members.
21 Feb 08 http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/90875/
3) Arab Ministers finally agree - on limiting press freedom. 15 Feb 2008
http://www.menassat.com/?q=en/news-articles/2968-arab-ministers-finally-agree-limiting-press-freedom
4) Arab Ministers Adopt Satellite TV Rules
By Maggie Michael. CAIRO, Egypt (AP). 16 Feb 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h0FObtNpBWfD5zX9B6z_VNRjV9wwD8UQUSPG1
5) Arab states plan TV crackdown.
By Heba Saleh in Cairo. 14 February 2008
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/defbca60-daa0-11dc-9bb9-0000779fd2ac.html
HOWAYDA TAHA:
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/02/egypt-appeals-court-overturns-sentence.php
For further comments and opinions see:
Arab media code 'risk to freedom'. Aljazeera, 15 Feb 2008
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E32D7886-D7C8-4238-902B-E570D7630AFA.htm
EDITORIAL: Do not impede Arab growth
By MIDDLE EAST TIMES, 15 February 2008
http://www.metimes.com/Editorial/2008/02/15/editorial_do_not_impede_arab_growth/9660/
New media restrictions signal authoritarian regimes worries of citizens' awakening. The Associated Press, 15 February 2008 http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=10094065
Charter restricts Arab media. Arab Vision
http://www.arabvision.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=182&Itemid=1
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Egypt: Let the apostasy/liberty debate begin.
Date: Thursday 5 July 2007
Subj: Egypt: Let the apostasy/liberty debate begin.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
In April 2007 a lower court ruled against 45 Copts who had converted to Islam or been deemed Muslim on account of the conversion of a parent, but who wanted to officially return to Christianity. The lower court ruled that Muslims, even if they are converts from Christianity, could not be permitted to apostasise (leave Islam). The Copts decided to appeal. (For background see link 1.)
On 1 July 07, despite the government's efforts to get the case dismissed, Judge Essam Abdel Aziz of Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court ruled in favour of the Copts and agreed to consider the merits of their case. The appeal was successful and a retrial has been slated for 1 September 2007.
According to Middle East On-line, human rights groups welcomed the decision. "The decision by the Supreme Administrative Court to consider the case of Egyptian converts to Islam wanting to return to their Church is very positive," said Ramsis al-Naggar, the Coptic lawyer who represented 12 of the plaintiffs. "It proves there is still a window of freedom in Egypt." (Link 2)
"It is a step in the right direction," Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said. "We are hopeful and optimistic that the Supreme Administrative Court will eventually uphold the principles of religious freedom and non-discrimination, both of which are guaranteed under the Constitution and international law." (Link 3)
Associated Press reports, "Court officials said government lawyers objected to Judge Essam Eddin Abdel-Aziz's decision to accept the appeal, arguing the initial verdict issued in April was in line with the principles of Islamic Sharia law." (Link 3)
So let the apostasy/liberty debate begin.
Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) Egypt: Egypt to rule on apostasy - 1 July 2007
WEA RLC News & Analysis, 29 Jun 2007
By: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
2) Egypt agrees to hear case of Christian converts. 2 July 2007
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=21283
3) Egyptian court accepts appeal from 45 Copts trying to reclaim their religion. 2 July 2007
http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/02-07-2007/94407-Egypt_Copts-0
Subj: Egypt: Let the apostasy/liberty debate begin.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
In April 2007 a lower court ruled against 45 Copts who had converted to Islam or been deemed Muslim on account of the conversion of a parent, but who wanted to officially return to Christianity. The lower court ruled that Muslims, even if they are converts from Christianity, could not be permitted to apostasise (leave Islam). The Copts decided to appeal. (For background see link 1.)
On 1 July 07, despite the government's efforts to get the case dismissed, Judge Essam Abdel Aziz of Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court ruled in favour of the Copts and agreed to consider the merits of their case. The appeal was successful and a retrial has been slated for 1 September 2007.
According to Middle East On-line, human rights groups welcomed the decision. "The decision by the Supreme Administrative Court to consider the case of Egyptian converts to Islam wanting to return to their Church is very positive," said Ramsis al-Naggar, the Coptic lawyer who represented 12 of the plaintiffs. "It proves there is still a window of freedom in Egypt." (Link 2)
"It is a step in the right direction," Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said. "We are hopeful and optimistic that the Supreme Administrative Court will eventually uphold the principles of religious freedom and non-discrimination, both of which are guaranteed under the Constitution and international law." (Link 3)
Associated Press reports, "Court officials said government lawyers objected to Judge Essam Eddin Abdel-Aziz's decision to accept the appeal, arguing the initial verdict issued in April was in line with the principles of Islamic Sharia law." (Link 3)
So let the apostasy/liberty debate begin.
Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) Egypt: Egypt to rule on apostasy - 1 July 2007
WEA RLC News & Analysis, 29 Jun 2007
By: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal
2) Egypt agrees to hear case of Christian converts. 2 July 2007
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=21283
3) Egyptian court accepts appeal from 45 Copts trying to reclaim their religion. 2 July 2007
http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/02-07-2007/94407-Egypt_Copts-0
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.
**********
Copyright 2007 Compass Direct News
Compass Direct Flash News is distributed as available to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted by active subscribers only.
For subscription information, contact:
Compass Direct News
P.O. Box 27250
Santa Ana CA 92799-7250
USA
TEL: 949-862-0304
E-mail: info@compassdirect.org
www.compassdirect.org
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
Compass Direct Flash News is distributed as available to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted by active subscribers only.
For subscription information, contact:
Compass Direct News
P.O. Box 27250
Santa Ana CA 92799-7250
USA
TEL: 949-862-0304
E-mail: info@compassdirect.org
www.compassdirect.org
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