The eve of Friday 7 August witnessed a shooting at the village of Ezbet Bushra, al-Fashn, Beni-Sweif, when a masked man came out of the maize fields bordering the village and shot at the Coptic family of Wagih Morqos as they sat outdoors in front of their home enjoying the summer evening breeze. The culprit then fled before anyone could catch him. Fortunately no one was injured, but the village Copts were terrified the incident would signal an escalation in sectarian violence. The police swiftly cordoned the village off and are searching for the culprit.
The pattern
The shooting comes in the wake of six incidents of sectarian violence that took place during five weeks in villages of Beni Sweif and Minya in Upper Egypt. In all cases the Muslim villagers assaulted the village Copts and torched their homes and property, inflicting injuries of various degrees upon them as well as extensive loss and damage to their homes and businesses. And in all cases, the reason was that rumours were circulated that the Copts, who for decades used to gather for prayers at some place or another, were about to obtain official permit to turn that place into a fully-fledged church. Muslim clerics and fanatics easily persuaded the villagers that a church in the village was tantamount to slandering Islam. Calls for jihad were heard and Islamic slogans furiously chanted as the barbarous assaults took place. The police would finally step in, enforce some discipline and detain a number of Muslims and Copts. The detention of the Copts would be used to pressure the Coptic villagers into a cosmetic unofficial ‘reconciliation’ with their Muslim attackers following which they lose all their legal rights at any fair investigation or trial. The detainees are released, the file is closed; the victim and attacker have been placed on the same footing, and no retribution has been exacted.
The first of the six incidents occured at Ezbet-Bushra, Beni Sweif, on 21 June; then Ezbet Girgis, Beni Sweif, on 3 July; Ezbet Basilious, Minya, on 11 July; Faqaai, Beni Sweif, on 17 July; Hawasliya, Minya, on 24 July; and Rida, Minya, on 30 July.
No prayers near home
In case of Rida, a number of young Muslim men attacked a site owned by the Evangelical Copt Medhat Mamdouh on the grounds that he appeared to be intending to build a church there. Mamdouh, who is in the timbre trade, said he had begun to erect the foundations for a warehouse, and had nothing to do with the church. The Copts were bewildered. It appeared that whenever any of them embarked on erecting any kind of building he would be ‘accused’ of attempting to build a church. Which is in itself veritably indicative of just how much Copts are in need of, and unable to obtain permits for churches—the existing ones being too scarce or too dilapidated to serve the needs of the increasing congregation. And just how much fanatics are bent on denying Copts their right to pray.
Fr Abdel Qudous Hanna of Ezbet Bushra told Watani that, following the ‘reconciliation’ the security officials had shut down the house where the Copts had been conducting prayers, promising to provide them with an alternative site in which to perform their religious rites. They have not kept their word, Fr Abdel-Qodous said; “We neither have our old house to pray in, nor any other alternative. In short, we have been practically deprived of our right to pray in our village.”
In the other villages, the places used for worship were promptly closed down following the attacks against Copts. They were again denied their right to conduct their religious rites near home.
On Friday
Watani contacted several intellectuals for their opinion on the issue, especially in light of the fact that six sectarian attacks had taken place against Copts in the span of five weeks. “That’s what comes out of the absence of a serious State policy to handle the issue, and the poor crisis management on the security, political, legislative, education, or media levels,” Baheieddin Hassan, head of the Cairo Research Centre said. Decades of official disregard, sidelining, and denial of rights and equality between Egyptians have brought us to where we are today, he said. Muslims grow up on a culture that, in schools and in the media, promotes the notion that Christians are not entitled to the same rights as Muslims. They grow up seeing mosques built anywhere and everywhere, in no time, without need for any permit whatsoever, while churches have to wait for decades on end to obtain the necessary permits. Is it any surprise then, he asked, that Muslims see themselves as first class Egyptians and Christians come in a distant second, to say nothing of Baha’is who are seen as only third degree, and Shia fourth?
The increasingly fanatic religious address came under fire from Dr Hassan, who remarked that the great majority of sectarian attacks occur following Friday prayers. Many mosque imams, he said, work up the Muslims’ sentiments against Christians.
The only answer
The writer and journalist Salah Eissa deplored the insistence of the security apparatus to conduct the so-called “reconciliation sessions”. He said the practice was no more than a futile administration of pain killers while the deadly ailment was left to eat up the nation’s body. The only answer to the problem, Mr Eissa said, was for Parliament to pass the bill for a unified law for building places of worship.
On his part Emad Gad of the Al-Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies (ACSS) said that, within the current near-impossibility for Copts to obtain an official permit for a church, Copts in rural Egypt have to travel to the nearest town—which may be nowhere near—for a church. Otherwise, he explained, in scores of villages Copts have taken to conducting their religious rites in private houses. The practice used to be usual but, lately, has come under fire from fanatics, especially that countless mosque imams pour oil over the fire during their Friday sermons. “The only answer,” Mr Gad said, “Is the passage of the unified law for building places of worship, so that churches and mosques would be considered on equal footing.” He harshly criticised governors who act as though they were only there for the Muslim population, “as though the Copts belonged to some other citizenship,” Mr Gad exclaimed.
Nabil Abdel-Fattah, also with the ACSS, was quite pessimistic about the frequent sectarian incidents, especially in view of the apparent absence of political will to solve the sectarian question. “It is time to issue a law that deals with all religions equally, without any discrimination, through implanting the real concept of citizenship,” Abdel-Fattah stressed.
Never on the agenda
Another strong advocate for the passage of the unified law for building places of worship as the way out of a large portion of sectarian trouble was Mustafa al-Fiqi, head of the foreign relations committee of Egypt’s Parliament.
If justice may be attained through the unified law for building places of worship, then why does Parliament not pass the bill? Fahmy Nashed, a judge and member of the National Council for Human Rights, told Watani that the bill was approved by the relevant parliamentary committees five years ago, yet never found its way to Parliament’s agenda. He expressed surprise at the words of Fathy Sorour, Speaker of the Parliament, who denied the bill was in Parliament in the first place. Mr Nashed said that Article 147 of the Egyptian Constitution granted the President the right to issue the law. “I think it is now time for the President to do so,” he said. “Five years in Parliament without being placed on the agenda is time long enough to prove that there is no intention to discuss the bill.”
Absent justice
The reconciliation sessions were heavily criticised by the lawyer Ihab Ramzy who described them as the epitome of injustice, since the Copts are forced into reconciliation while under the security threat of prolonging the detention of members of their community. The Copts, Mr Ramzy pointed out, were frequently further victimised by painting them as offenders or by, at least, placing them on equal footing with their attackers. It is never taken into consideration that, when attacked, Copts must defend themselves no matter how mildly.
More importantly, Mr Ramzy said, the societal prerogative of attaining justice is absolutely lost.
Regarding the reasons behind the increasing sectarian violence, the journalist and activist William Weessa, placed the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of mosque imams, the media, the security apparatus, while the State conveniently turns a blind eye. Clerics, Dr Weessa explained, not only describe Christians as unbelievers, but also urge worshipers to be offensive to them. As to the security officials, he said, such sectarian attacks take place as they look on and procrastinate.
Dr Weessa harshly criticised the injustice of the forced ‘reconciliation’. “I just need an answer,” he said, “Where is the general prosecutor, who represents the people’s conscience and the community’s right?”
As to the media, Dr Weessa commented, its coverage of sectarian events is absolutely lacking in honesty, truthfulness and impartiality.
Exaggerated acts
On the other hand, Abdel-Mutie Bayoumi, dean of al-Azhar’s Faculty of Fundamentals of Religion, said that such sectarian disputes were exaggerated by a minority on both sides. A committee of wise people is required to study these aspects which, he said, “are alien to the Egyptian society”. Mr Bayoumi refused to accuse clerics of stirring sedition since, according to him, most of them call for tolerance. He demanded that procedures of building churches or mosques should be facilitated for all. “After all, they are places of worship,” Mr Bayoumi noted.