The village of Merinab in the region of Edfu, Aswan, has been the scene of sectarian tension that threatens to blow up into a full-scale attack against Copts.
WATANI International
9 September 2011
The village of Merinab in the region of Edfu, Aswan, has been the scene of sectarian tension that threatens to blow up into a full-scale attack against Copts.
+Old, nondescript building+
On 2 September, the village Muslims surrounded the more than 100-year-old village church of Mar-Girgis (St George) which was undergoing fully licensed restoration and renovation, chanting hostile slogans. When the security authorities attempted to resolve the matter, it was found that the protestors were demonstrating against the fact that the church building carried 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 Tuesday 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 building. 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 have demanded protection from 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 attack the building. The security forces in the village have surrounded the church but, according to the village Copts, their numbers are too few to fend off a large-scale aggression.
Mar Girgis’s serves a Coptic congregation some 700-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+
Thursday saw the Aswan military ruler hold another conciliation session between the village Islamists and the Church officials. 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++ remarked. “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 on Friday for fear of provoking violence. The Church acquiesced. Since Friday is the weekend in Egypt, Holy Mass and ‘Sunday school’ are held in churches and most churchgoers attend; in fact, churches in Egypt are more crowded on Friday than on Sunday.
Merinab was peaceful after Friday noon prayers, but this did not allay Coptic fears. It still remains to be seen whether they will be able to pray in peace in their newly-renovated building.