The state of the Coptic community has clearly not improved since the revolution, and if anything, as the post-revolution governments pursue no better policies than those of the
The state of the Coptic community has clearly not improved since the revolution, and if anything, as the post-revolution governments pursue no better policies than those of the previous regime, is even worse. Copts are left prey to collective punishment because of rumours or individual faults. The State commits a crime against the Copts whenever it partakes in, or arranges for, a urfi (traditional) ‘reconciliation meeting’ which ultimately make a mockery of the rule of law, and yield to the desires of self-appointed extremist judges and rulers. Then a biased, prejudiced media justifies the crimes committed by the mob and accuses Copts of unfounded allegations.
False claims
The rule of law was abandoned in the recent incident in Manqabad, Assiut when a 14-year-old Coptic high school student, Gamal Massoud—who is according to the Egyptian law, a ‘juvenile’—was accused of posting ridiculous pictures of Prophet Mohamed on his Facebook page. It provoked an angry response, and local Muslims decided to impose a collective punishment on Copts in four villages who had nothing at all to do with the incident. The Assiut governor al-Sayed al-Borai arranged for a reconciliation meeting instead of an official investigation. In the meeting, which traditionally includes the village elders, clerics, and local politicians and security officials, it was decided to banish Massoud and his family, and another boy and his family accused of incitement, from the village. No matter that it transpired that the boy was not computer literate, let alone that he had a Facebook account. Attacks against Copts in the four villages of Al-Udra, Salam, Manqabad and Bahig—all of which were homes to the Massoud extended family—went on for five days in succession and none of the criminals who took part in these attacks was arrested.
Barriers crossed
The other example of flagrant violation of the law occurred less than two weeks ago in Sharbat, a village in Amereya soutwest ofAlexandria. A Muslim barber claimed he found indecent photos of a young Muslim woman on the mobile phone belonging to a Coptic tailor, Murad Girgis, revealing a relationship between the young Coptic man and the Muslim woman. Although some Copts attempted to solve the crisis by agreeing to expel the young man and his family from the village, extremists inflamed the situation by attacking the houses and stores of Copts, and moreover preventing fire engines from entering the village. Even the security forces were not able to enter until the Alexandria governor Usama al-Fuli arrived. The governor held a meeting at al-Rahman mosque with Muslim sheikhs and MPs of the Freedom and Justice and Salafi Nour parties, but with no Copts present. They decided to send the young man and his family from the village, and again none of the criminals was arrested. Furthermore, fanatics attacked Copts again a few days later, demanding that all the Copts be banished.
The Copts insist the entire incident took place not because of any indecent photographs—the Muslim female in them was never even identified—but because several Muslim villagers owed money to the wealthy Coptic traders and they wished to default on their payments. Finally the six most influential Coptic families in the village, including the elder of the Coptic community there, Abiskharoun Abu-Soliman, were ordered to leave the village under threat that the entire Coptic community would be burnt alive in their homes if these families refused to leave. Peace only reigned when the Copts left.
Fire services blocked
The same scenario was repeated in similar incidents in 2008 in Dayrout, Farshout, and Esna in Upper Egypt, and in 2010 in al-Nazla village in Fayoum. In all these cases, the security officials looked the other way.
These acts of violence against Copts were made known to the security officials, yet again fire engines were prevented from entering the village. When, in the case of Sharbat, the Copts called the police for help, the answer was: “We are unable to face all these numbers.” It is a crime for which Alexandria’s security director and interior minister should be taken to task. When the police cannot rescue Egyptian citizens from being attacked; they should instantly resign and leave their position to someone who can take the responsibility.
Salafi attack
The latest incident occured in Abul-Matamir in Beheira in the Western Delta, where Salafis from Fermag village attacked a Church-owned community service building with swords and guns and pulled it down, screaming “Allahu Akbar!” (“God is the Greatest”), under the pretext that the building was unlicensed. Even assuming this were true, where was the rule of law? How can citizens be allowed to take the law in their own hands in such a brutal manner and get away with it? The police and security forces did not stop these attackers or confiscate there unlicensed weapons, and they allowed them to terrify the Coptic villagers and demolish a building when they had no authority to do that.
The Copts submitted reports to the prosecution with the names of the 23 men who demolished the building, but they were threatened that their homes and businesses would be burnt unless they withdraw the charges. The police made no attempt to arrest or question any of the 23 people named.