In an incident which has brought to a head-on the struggle between the Copts for their right to worship and the hardline Muslims who insist on depriving them of this right, an attack by the Salafi Muslims of the village of Ezbet Marco Thalla against the Copts left three Copts injured and two vehicles burnt
In an incident which has brought to a head-on the struggle between the Copts for their right to worship and the hardline Muslims who insist on depriving them of this right, an attack by the Salafi Muslims of the village of Ezbet Marco Thalla against the Copts left three Copts injured and two vehicles burnt.
The attack took place yesterday as the Copts left church after celebrating Holy Mass in the church of the Holy Virgin in the village of Ezbet Marco Thalla, in al-Fashn, Beni Sweif some 100km south of Cairo,. The Ezbet Marco Thalla church is the only church in the area, and serves the Copts of other villages in the vicinity, none of which includes a church. The fact that Copts from outside the village come to Ezbet Marco to worship has been a sore point with the Salafi villagers who threatened against it, under the pretext that the Coptic women were non-veiled.
Ibrahim Sadeq, director of the primary school in the village told Watani that, as the Copts left church after Mass, they were attacked by a large mob of Salafis armed with clubs, daggers, and iron shackles. Sadeq suffers a compound fracture in the hand; he said he was injured as a result of being hit by an iron hook. Two other Copts were also injured, both suffering bone fractures, and the two vehicles in which the Copts from the neighbouring village of Ezbet Ragi had come were burned.
In the wake of the incident, the local politicians and security officials orchestrated a traditional ‘conciliation’ session—an out-of-court settlement in which the Copts are more often than not obliged to relinquish their legal rights—to work out a ‘conciliation’ between the Coptic victims and the village Muslims. Sadeq says they were cornered into succumbing to the terms of conciliation, under the threat that if they did not reconcile, “Ezbet Marco will burn”. Sadeq says he sent a message to President Mursi that the Copts were persecuted and, being the weaker side, had been forced to agree to a conciliation that deprived them of their rights.
Other Copts, however, refused to acquiesce. According to Melouka Khalil, one of the Ezbet Marco Copts, his family refused to sign the conciliation document. Khalil said that his family would sign only after filing a proceeding and ensuring that the assailants who attacked his family for no reason are caught. He explained that five members of his family have incurred different injuries for having been beaten with machettes, daggers and clubs by the Muslim mob.
Khalil said that he did go to file a complaint with the Fashn police station, but was advised by the police officer to sign the conciliation papers instead, or else “Ezbet Marco will burn, and we will not come to your rescue”.
Watani International
29 October 2012
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