In a country rocked for years by sectarian unrest, the blood of Copts has once again was shed, when the Christian minority (about 8% of the population) celebrated the Orthodox Christmas. The attack took place on the Christmas eve, at Nag Hammadi, a town where Christians represent three-quarters of the population, and located 80 km north of Luxor. According to witnesses, three men traveling in cars opened fire on worshipers who were leaving the main church of the city after the midnight mass.
“I went towards the bishopric, when I saw a man shoot automatic weapons at all Copts who passed,” testified Bishop Kyrillos, who came to celebrate mass. Six worshipers and a Muslim security guard were killed and several others seriously injured. According to the bishop, many Copts of the city had been threatened in recent days. He himself had received an SMS saying: “It##s your turn.” “The churches should have been better protected,” he adds, accusing.
In this region, known for its tradition of Tar, or vendetta, where crimes of blood and honor are common regardless of the religious question, the attack was carried out in retaliation for un alleged rape of a Muslim girl of 12 years by a Christian in a village near Nag Hammadi last November. After the attack, houses and pharmacies belonging to the Copts were burned. All rioters were acquitted.
According to security sources, the main assailant, presented as Mohammed Ahmed Hussein, a Muslim from Nag Hammadi, is “a criminal known to the police,” and the attack took place “in a shopping street, and not before church.” For the authorities, who routinely seek to minimize the scope of such attacks, assuring against all evidence that there is no “sectarian problem” in Egypt , the result is well expected: this is merely a “simple” case of vendetta.
But this awakens painful memories: the killing of al-Kosheh (20 dead), near Assiut, where Copts were methodically hunted down the streets of the village ten years ago almost to the day, or attacks on churches; in Alexandria on several occasions in recent years, as well as Abu Qorqas, near Minya, where nine young worshopers were slaughtered in 1997. At that time, al-Gama##at al-Islamiya, the Islamic armed groups, imposed a rule of terror in this region, which is one of the poorest in Egypt .
Now it is the reaction of the authorities which the Copts cannot stand any more. Several thousands of them have expressed anger (on Christmas day) in Nag Hammadi, shouting “No to oppression”, and clashing with the police outside the hospital. “How can one deny that there is a religious dimension when the faithful are targeted in front of a church,” protests one of them on television.
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Le Figaro