WATANI International
5 December 2010
In a meeting with Father Mina Zarif of Mar Mina church in Umraniya, Giza, last week, Watani learned that the widely circulated news about the apology offered by Giza bishop Anba Theodosius to Giza governor Sayed Abdel-Aziz was at best inaccurate.
Cairo papers had last weekend touted news that the bishop, accompanied by a 10-person delegation of Giza priests, had paid a visit to the governor to apologise for the riots by Coptic youth the week before. The riots had begun as a demonstration in protest of harsh security action to evacuate the young men from a Church-owned building that was being used as an unlicensed church. The demonstrators headed to Giza governorate building since Giza governor had, only one day earlier, promised that the church would be given a licence. The demonstrations turned violent; in response the security forces opened fire against the demonstrators. Two were killed on account of bullet injuries and some 100 were injured.
The police caught more than 200 Copts, 157 of whom were prosecuted and charged with 14 charges that carry up to 15-year prison sentences.
No apology
Last Sunday saw contradictory stories related to the rioting incidents. While Watani came out that day with an advertisement by Giza bishopric carrying a condemnation of the “undue harshness used by the security forces against Coptic youth” and the “outsize security response to a violation that did not warrant such harshness”, and calling for the exercise of wisdom and calm to resolve the problem, most other Cairo papers came out with the news of the alleged apology by Anba Theodosius to Giza governor, a move which outraged most Copts.
According to Fr Mina, Anba Theodosius and the delegation of priests met Giza governor to calm matters down, regain their normally cordial relations, and attempt to reach an agreement by which the young detainees would be treated with leniency. The visit, he said, confirmed the good relations that had always reigned between the bishopric and the governorate, but no apology was made and no agreement was reached concerning the detainees. “How can we apologise when our church was ransacked, our children were shot at with live ammunition, leaving two dead and scores injured, and some 200 of them have been detained?” he said. “Even given that there was a building violation, it has to be noted that the entire neighbourhood is unplanned and has been erected haphazardly. Why is the law only applied to the Copts? Shooting at our children with live ammunition is unpardonable.”
Broken promise
Fr Mina told Watani about the details behind the rioting incident. Once the local building authorities discovered that the building erected in Talbiya as a social services building included a church—the building permit included no church—the security authorities confiscated the construction equipment and ordered the builders out and the place shut. The builders, most of whom are hot-blooded young Copts who come from Upper Egypt, refused to leave. The Church held talks with Giza governor to resolve the issue. According to Fr Mina, the talks ended with the governor promising to help change the present building licence to include the church. He told them “Congratulations, you’ll be getting your church soon”. A number of governorate officials visited the church and told the congregation and the young men gathered there the same thing. Fr Mina says he then asked all who had been gathered for two days at the church to leave since the problem had been resolved. “They were very reluctant to leave,” he says. “They kept on saying they feared the security forces would seize the place.” Some of them finally left, however, while others stayed on.
The following day at dawn, Fr Mina says, the security raid occurred. They came in a number of trucks, attacked the young men on the grounds and broke into the church. They destroyed the benches, the icons, and two small compartments holding relics of the saints.
The Cairo media reported nothing about all that, Fr Mina sadly says. They wrote the Copts used Molotov cocktails to attack the security forces, an allegation that is baseless. The Copts were taken unawares and felt they had been tricked. This is why they headed to the governorate to hold the governor to his promise. When they found his door closed in their face, matters got out of hand.
Words of comfort
Anba Theodosius is back in Germany with Giza archbishop Anba Dumadius who is there for medical reasons. A delegation of Giza priests has visited Zakariya Azmy, head of the President’s office, and speaker of Parliament Fathy Sorour, who both promised to exert efforts to release the detainees. The lawyer Ramsis al-Naggar who is representing the Church and the detainees told Watani he had submitted a complaint to the prosecutor-general demanding their release.
The families of the 157 detainees were allowed to visit them last week, but not so the families of the other detainees who have not been brought before the prosecution.
The church building is in the hands of the security.
The Giza priests met Pope Shenouda III last Tuesday to brief him on the matter. Fr Mina says the Pope’s words were comforting and encouraging. He prayed for the injured, the detained, and those who lost their lives and their families. “He reminded us that the Lord ‘never slumbers, never sleeps’ and that we are in His divine hands.”