Following the Muslim Friday prayers in the village of Merinab in the region of Edfu, Aswan, hundreds of Muslims from the village and from nearby villages joined in burning and demolishing the village church of Mar-Girgis (St George)
WATANI International
30 September 2011
Following the Muslim Friday prayers in the village of Merinab in the region of Edfu, Aswan, hundreds of Muslims from the village and from nearby villages joined in burning and demolishing the village church of Mar-Girgis (St George), which had been undergoing fully-licensed restoration and renovation. They also torched four Coptic-owned houses in Merinab. Security forces were totally absent from the scene.
The extremist Muslims were keeping good on their promise to burn down the church should the Copts refuse to demolish the domes on the roof. But the Copts had already acquiesced to demolish the roof, and started upon the task.
Old church
The story goes back to 2 September, when the village Muslims surrounded the more than 100-year-old village church, chanting hostile slogans. The security authorities attempted to resolve the matter, but it was found that the protestors were demonstrating against the fact that the church building would carry a spire and a cross. Prior to the renovation, the church had been a plain, mudbrick building with no specific features.
A conciliation session between the Church officials and the village Muslim elders was quickly hosted by the security officials. After long discussions, the Church decided to opt for a peaceful solution and acquiesced to doing away with the spire and the cross.
On 6 September, extremist Muslims again crowded around the church, this time demanding that the domes be pulled down. The renovated church building was designed after an old Coptic model that included multiple domes in the roofing, in this case they were six domes. Father Salib of Mar-Girgis’s told Watani that pulling down the domes would bring down the entire roof. The renovation licence, he said, included the domes, spire, and cross. Anba Hedra, Bishop of Aswan, said the church cannot renounce any more of its rights; it had offered an olive branch, he said, but the result was even more aggression.
Threats
On Wednesday morning the village Muslims closed all the ways leading to and from the village, and forbade the Copts from leaving the village to tend to their fields or do any work outside. They surrounded the Copts’ houses and threatened that, unless the Copts demolish the domes, the entire church building would be pulled down on Friday after the noon prayers. The village Muslims began contacting the Muslims in neighbouring villages and mobilising for a Friday offensive against the Mar Girgis church in Merinab.
The Church and the Merinab Copts demanded protection from the Military Council and security authorities, especially after the village Muslims were seen roaming the streets carrying knives, hammers, and various tools that may be used to bring down the building. The security forces in the village surrounded the church but, according to the village Copts, their numbers were too few to fend off a large-scale aggression.
Mar Girgis’s serves a Coptic congregation some 200-strong.
The Egyptians Against Religious Discrimination (MARED) movement issued a declaration in which it expressed in strong terms its concern at what it called the “escalation of tensions in Merinab”. The Mar-Girgis church renovations, the declaration said, were fully licensed, yet the Islamists exploited extremist thought to mobilise the village Muslims into forcing the Copts to relinquish their legitimate right to a church. MARED demanded that the ruling Military Council should stand up to its responsibility in upholding the rule of law. In full agreement was the Union of Coptic Associations in Europe whose president Medhat Qelada demanded that the Military Council should protect the internal front in Egypt equally with the external front. Muslim extremists, Qelada said, were out to “set this homeland ablaze by shoving it into the furnace of sectarian fire.”
Religious sensitivities
Another conciliation session between the village Islamists and the Church officials was hosted by Aswan military ruler. The Islamists insisted they desired no ‘church’ in the village. Two local sheikhs, Mohamed Moussa and Ali Mekki, told Watani that the sight of a church offends the religious sensitivities of Muslims. “So where should the village Copts pray?” Watani asked. “They can pray in the nearby village,” Sheikh Mekki said. But they have been praying here for almost a century, Watani reminded. “The building was not a church,” the sheikh insisted, “it was only a guest house in which they used to hold prayers.”
The conciliation session ended when the village Muslims vociferously insisted they would not accept a church in their midst. The talks stonewalled and the military ruler had to call it off.
An official demand was made to the Church to hold no prayers in the building for the time being, for fear of provoking violence. The Church acquiesced.
Merinab was peaceful ever since, but this did not allay Coptic fears. Mar-Girgis’s remained closed.
In a move that has been described by the Copts as an appeasement of the Islamists, the local authorities asked the church officials to pull down the domes and denote the building as a guesthouse, not a church, in which prayers may be held. Finally, the Church agreed to pull down the roof and a contractor started on the job. Even so, the Muslim villagers waged their Friday assault against the church and the Copts, burning and pulling down the building.
The Copts who, understandably, feel overpowered, have sent out calls for rescue to the Military Council and the security authorities. So far, there has been no response.