WATANI International
13 March 2011
Last week saw Copts in the thousands demonstrate in front of the Radio and Television building on the Nile Corniche in Cairo, protesting against what they described as the tyranny and grave injustice inflicted upon the Copts of the village of Sole in Etfeeh, Giza, who have been fiercely attacked and forced to flee their homes and livelihoods, while their church was set aflame.
Army promise
The demonstrations began with a few hundred protesters on Saturday evening, but the numbers swelled on Sunday as the Coptic men, women, and children of Sole, who had fled their village on Friday evening, joined in. The protesters called for immediate justice, and for the resignation of Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi who heads the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces which now rules Egypt.
Even though Giza Bishop Anba Theodosius declared that the Armed Forces gave him a promise that it would rebuild the Sole church in a matter of two months, the demonstrators were not persuaded the army would keep its promise. The protesters were angry at the army which refrained from taking any action against the Muslims who attacked the Copts of Sole, but had—some 10 days ago—opened fire at the monks of Anba Bishoi monastery in the Western desert, seriously injuring six of them, on the pretext that the monastery had illegally built a wall to fence in disputed land.
Illicit affair
The problem began in Sole last Tuesday, 1 March, when it was found out that a 35-year-old Muslim woman and a Copt in his forties—both are married—were having an illicit affair. In an attempt to contain the matter, a council of Muslim and Coptic village elders met on Wednesday and decided that the Copt and his family should leave the village, which he directly did. On Thursday a fight broke out among the woman’s extended family members who accused each other of letting matters get out of hand and tarnishing the family reputation. Two men, one of whom was the woman’s father and the other a relative, were killed in the fight. They were buried on Friday.
Friday evening saw a Muslim mob set fire to the Church of the Two Martyrs in the village. The crowd, which came from Sole and from neighbouring villages, converged on the church, broke into it and destroyed everything inside, then set it ablaze by dragging in gas cylinders and blowing them up.
By Saturday morning the fire had died down but the mob was pulling down what was left of the church and vowing to build a mosque in its place. They held prayers on the site and put up a sign calling for donations to build a mosque there. The village Copts had called upon the Armed Forces for help once the attack started, but it was not till much later that army units moved to surround the site, which only gave the attackers the opportunity to pull down the remaining of the church building and hold Muslim prayers there, in peace.
Refugees
The village Copts, who number some 5000 out of the 35,000 strong village population, were obliged to flee their homes to save their skins after the mob began attacking their homes. Some Copts who had to leave their homes had to hide and were hosted by their Muslim neighbours. Among them was Father Hoshaa (Hosea) of the church of the Two Martyrs, who had been assaulted by the Muslim attackers.
Others were able to find refuge with relatives outside the village, but most of the women and children took refuge in the nearest church to the village. This was definitely not equipped to house such a number; a tent was set up for them and supplies were brought in, but the Church could not handle such a wide-scale refugee problem. Church officials tried contacting the UNHCR office in Cairo to ask for help, but this did not work.
By Sunday the refugees joined the demonstrators.
Another church
In the evening, Egyptian national TV announced that the Armed Forces pledged to rebuild the Sole church before Easter, to secure the safe return of the villagers who had fled their village, and to form a fact-finding committee to investigate the incident. Even though top army officials confirmed the promises, the demonstrators were wary that these promises would not be honoured, since no official declaration had been issued to that effect. They held their ground and continued the protest.
The Armed Forces could not regain the church site; in fact they failed to reach it owing to the large number of Muslims who were now in control of the village and blocked the way to the church ground.
On Monday the army began to negotiate with the Coptic community in Sole, and offered to give them a plot of land outside the village and licence to build a new church there. The old church should be left under the control of the army.
Convert church into mosque
The Copts rejected these proposals. They considered it an insult to the prestige of the army and to the Church. According to the protesters this decision would instate a new rule: to be given the right to demolish Coptic churches and convert them into mosques. This would lead to sectarian bloodshed, the protesters said.
Prime Minister Essam Sharaf met the demonstrators and tried to persuade them to disperse. He told them that Father Matta’os, a priest who has been imprisoned for two and a half years now on charges of forgery for conducting the marriage rites for a Christian man and a Muslim convert, and whose release the Copts were demanding, would be set free. Sharaf also confirmed that the Copts of Sole would be given land and licence to build a new church. This infuriated the protesters who insisted on staying and continuing their demonstrations until they receive their rights and dignity and get back their old church.
Traffic hell
Later in the evening, more protests erupted in various spots in Cairo and Giza. In Meetimdiya, a Giza village which lies alongside the Mihwar highway leading from Giza to the satellite town of 6 October, and in Maryutiya—also in Giza, huge demonstrations broke out in the wake of news circulating that churches there had received threats of torching. The protesters blocked the Mihwar and the ring road around Greater Cairo, and the demonstrators at the TV building closed the 6 October overpass, a vital Cairo motorway.
Clashes turn bloody
Tuesday saw the Copts of Manshiyet Nasser at the foothill of Muqattam, east of Cairo, hold their own protests against the Coptic predicament in Sole. They marched on to the Autostrad highway and blocked the way. This led to verbal clashes with a Muslim crowd, which later turned violent. Vehicles on the highway were attacked and their drivers terrorised, and the road turned into a battlefield.
The Armed Forces fired in the air in a failed attempt to control the matter. Later reports by eyewitnesses suggested the army fired at the Copts.
By late afternoon the Copts—the famous Cairo garbage collectors—had been pushed back downhill to Manshiyet Nasser while a fierce attack was launched against them by Muslims who had mounted the Muqattam plateau and pelted them with burning tyres, fireballs, Molotov cocktails, and live ammunition. The violence only subsided in the early hours of Wednesday.
Until Watani International went to press, seven Copts and one Muslim had died, more than 140 were injured, and some 15 Coptic-owned houses and workshops burnt.
Demands answered
Meanwhile on the Nile Corniche, Anba Theodosius went to the demonstrators and confirmed the army was now already in control of the church site in Sole. He had in his hand, he said, a licence for the rebuilding of the church signed by Field Marshal Tantawi, as well as a declaration by the Armed Forces pledging to bring the culprits to justice; a number—he did not disclose a figure—of suspects had already been detained. Anba Theodosius said that a number of Sole Copts had returned home. Compensation for losses however, he said, could wait for now. And Fr Matta’os was already out of prison and was at the moment with Anba Dumadius, Archbishop of Giza.
Anba Theodosius said he appreciated the activism of the demonstrators but that now that their demands had been answered, it was time to go home. This advice was later in the evening echoed by Fr Mittias Nasr who, together with Fr Abdel-Massih and Fr Filopateer, represents the moral leadership of the protesters, but the demonstrators held their ground because they considered that, unless the erection of the new church was actually in action, their demands remained unanswered. They also protested the violence against the Copts in Muqattam.
Pope Shenouda III, who is in Cleveland, Ohio, on a medical trip, issued a declaration on Thursday morning requesting an investigation into the events and asking priests to work to spread calm.
As Watani International went to press a million-person demonstration was being planned for Friday to head to Etfeeh in solidarity with the Copts.