WATANI International
28 June 2011
The archbishopric of Baliana in the governorate of Sohag, north of Luxor in Upper Egypt, today issued a statement on the attack against Copts in the village of Awalad Khalaf in Sohag.
“At around 11:00am on Saturday 25 June 2011,” the statement declared, “a rumour circulated in the village of Awlad Khalaf that Wahib Halim Attiya, commonly known as Wahib, was erecting a church building.” Wahib was indeed erecting a building, but it was a house with a barn and a stockyard attached to it. Wahib’s structure, which spread over some 360 square metres, was erected in violation of the official building licence he had obtained, which permitted him to build over 95 square metres of land.
“Using a bulldozer,” the statement proceeded, “a number of Muslim villagers completely demolished the house Wahib had built. They viciously attacked six other Coptic-owned houses, plundered and torched them.” Wahib was robbed of 32,000 Saudi Riyals, which takes the losses up to around a million Egyptian Pounds. Yet the official estimate of the loss stands at EGP187,000.
The police accused Wahib and his relatives, whose houses were attacked, of using firearms to repel the attack, an allegation which the Copts categorically denied. “Had we possessed firearms,” Wahib said, “Would we have allowed our houses to be plundered and burned?”
In the resulting violence, four men were injured: Ihab Naeem, Naeem Tamer, Talaat Alameddin and Sameh Ahmed Hamdan. Alameddin who suffers a head injury, and Hamdan who suffers a back injury, were moved to Cairo for treatment.
The Baliana archbishopric statement thanked the authorities for bringing the situation under control, and strongly demanded that the attackers should be brought to justice.
On Monday, almost three-fourths of the thefts were returned through the efforts of moderate Muslim villagers and mosque imams. Peace reigned.
The Copts in Awald Khalaf number some 50 [extended] families from among some 20,000 Muslim families. The village has no church; the Copts pray in the nearby village church in Deir al-Naghamish.
Father Danial Kamel of Deir al-Naghamish church told Watani that the recent attack is not the first against the Copts of Awlad Khalaf. A few years ago, he said, the Copts attempted to set up a Sunday School service for their children, but the Muslim villagers bulldozed the building that housed the service. Six months ago, he said, six Coptic-owned houses were torched for no obvious reason.
