WATANI International
13 May 2011
Copts welcomed the recent decision of 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 and that the Maghagha bishopric church in Minya and the church of the Holy Virgin in Imbaba would be rebuilt. Furthermore, he said, demonstrations and gatherings in front of churches will be banned and the law banning the use of religious slogans during elections will be enforced.
At Sharaf’s home
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, the Copts decided to extend their strike until some action is taken regarding the PM’s recent promises.
“We welcome the Prime Minister’s decisions,” Father Filopateer Gamil, one of the leaders of the Maspero protest, said. “But they should be accompanied by a time frame. Copts are tired of mere promises.”
Yvonne Mossaad, the spokesperson of ‘Young People of Maspero Movement’ said the protest will not end till the Copts who were caught by the authorities for taking part in the first Maspero protest last March—in the wake of the Sole church incident—are released. Also, she said, the other Coptic demands should be answered. Committees were formed several times before, she said, but the outcome was that they did nothing.
Noteworthy is that a Church source said that 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 on Tuesday 10 May to discuss ways of dealing with the sectarian crisis. It was these discussions, Ramzi said, that led to the Cabinet statement announcing the formation of the National Justice Committee.
With the Interior Minister
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. The meeting lasted for one-and-a-half hours during which the escalating sectarian attacks against Copts were tackled, and the role of the Interior Ministry in protecting the Egyptian people and penalising the criminals.
The Coptic delegation handed Essawi a statement which included their demands. 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 issues that threaten the lives and peace of Egyptians, as well as the cases of closed churches and the possibility of reopening them.
With the Military Council
The same representative group of Copts met representatives 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 which met the military, said that the discussions focused on the rapid rise in hardline Islamist movements in Egypt. The military representatives, Shafiq said, 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 the hardline Islamists a ready platform from which to propagate incites hatred.
Shafiq said that the meeting also tackled the sentences issued 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, and that the Military Council tackles such sentences with an eye to the fulfilment of justice.