Robeir al-Faris
Nader Shukry
WATANI International
22 May 2011
Just as a number of Coptic demands was being met by the government, and the Maspero protestors were calling off their 16-day sit-in last Thursday, news from the Cairo district of Ain Shams and from Maghagha, Minya, led them to decide to extend the sit-in.
The church of the Holy Virgin and Anba Abra’am in Ain Shams, which had been closed by the security authorities some two years ago, was opened in Thursday morning. By early afternoon, thousands of Muslim locals surrounded the church and protested against its reopening, claiming it was no church in the first place, but was a small factory. The Church had purchased the factory building several years ago and was using it as a place of worship until it was closed down. The army, unable to secure the church, reclosed it and arrested five Copts on charges of carrying arms.
In Minya, the governor Samir Sallam signed the decision to license the building of Maghagha bishopric church which had been awaiting governorial approval for some three years now. The bishopric officials went to the governorate offices on Thursday morning to receive the licence, only to find that it was being suspended by the legal affairs director Sayed Abdel-Hamid on grounds that the new church was planned on agricultural land, which violates the law. Since the planned site lies in the midst of a large cluster of buildings, the church officials called Governor Sallam at 10:00am on Thursday and informed him of the situation. Until Watani International went to press, however, nothing had been done.
At home with Sharaf
Copts had earlier last week welcomed the decision by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf to form a ‘National Justice Committee’, affiliated to the Cabinet, to confront sectarian incitement, to draft a unified law for places of worship and another which criminalises discrimination and religious incitement.
Offenders in incidents of violence against Copts in Etfeeh, Muqattam, al-Badraman, Abu-Qurqas and Imbaba would be brought to justice, Mr Sharaf pledged. He also promised that closed churches would be reopened, that the Maghagha bishopric church in Minya would be licensed, and the Imbaba church of the Holy Virgin which was burned by extremist Islamists on 8 May would be rebuilt. Demonstrations and gatherings in front of churches would be banned and the law banning the use of religious slogans during elections would be enforced.
The Copts demonstrating at Maspero, however, expressed their wariness of Sharaf’s promises, saying it was not the first time they are given promises that never materialise. Accordingly, they decided to extend their strike until some action is taken regarding the PM’s recent promises.
A Church source said the Church had nothing to do with the Coptic demonstrations at Maspero, even though some Coptic clerics were taking part in them. These demonstrations, the source said, were purely civilian; the Copts participating were participating as Egyptian citizens demanding their rights.
Coptic activist and judge Amir Ramzi said that discussions were held between Sharaf and representatives of the Maspero Copts at the PM’s house at midnight on Tuesday 10 May. It was these discussions, he said, that led to the formation of the National Justice Committee.
With the Interior Minister and the Military Council
On Thursday 12 May, the Interior Minister Mansour al-Essawi met a Coptic delegation with representatives of the Copts in the diaspora, the Young People of Maspero Movement, and activists from civil movements.
They discussed what is commonly seen as the passivity of the police during attacks against Copts and the perils of solving sectarian problems through reconciliation sessions that waste both Copts rights and the respect of the State. With Copts forced to relinquish their legal rights and no penalty meted to the offenders, the reconciliation sessions end up giving a green light to violence against Copts, the activists said.
Essawi explained that the Interior Ministry was currently understaffed and ill-equipped to deal effectively with the respect it lost following the revolution. But he promised to study all the issues discussed.
The same representative group of Copts met members of the Military Council—among whom were Major General Mahmoud Higazi and Major General Ismail Etman—on Thursday evening. International lawyer Awad Shafiq, who is resident in Switzerland and was a member of the Coptic delegation, said that the discussions focused on the rapid rise in hardline Islamist movements in Egypt. The military representatives expressed concern at the rise of such streams and explained that this owed much to the media which had given them unduly huge coverage. Even though the military was against interfering with media freedom, they said it had offered hardline Islamists a ready platform to propagate their thought and incite hatred.
Shafiq said that the meeting also tackled the sentences by the military court against 18 young Copts who were caught during the first Maspero protest last March. The military representatives said that these sentences had not yet been ratified. Later, the Military Council ordered a retrial.