Following the Nag Hammadi shooting incident outside a church in southern Egypt, in which six Coptic Christians and a Muslim security guard were killed, thousands of mourners gathered to support the grieving families at the funeral were sprayed with tear gas by government security forces. However, the three suspected perpetrators have now been arrested and are scheduled to stand trial on the 13th February 2010 in an emergency State Security Court.
After the attack, Christian and Muslim mobs demonstrated in several towns in the Qena province with some turning violent. There was reportedly damage to homes and businesses. When the police arrived they merely told the rioters to stop the violence and return to their homes. Last week the authorities detained several local teenagers, both Christian and Muslim, in response to widespread community complaints that there had not been enough done to stop the violence. Specific complaints were made by local Coptic Church leaders.
The Coptic Bishop has long been outspoken against discrimination. Following recent cases of sectarian violence the Bishop received direct threats, which he reported to the authorities. At that time he considered an incident of some kind very likely, but nothing was done to provide any additional security for him. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is responsible for providing security personnel for all churches but they failed to do so.
According to Middle East concern, church leaders believe that the Christian teenagers will be released only if they drop their complaints. However, to drop complaints in effect also drops the charges against the perpetrators of violence, which simply encourages further insults and attacks. On 15th January a group of Human Rights advocates travelling to Nag Hammadi were detained on arrival at the local train station, held for 24 hours then forced to return to Cairo.
The Congress of the United States wrote a letter to the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stating that this recent incident is indicative of the systematic pattern of violence against the Coptic Christian residents who constitute 10% of the Egyptian population, and encourages the Egyptian government to reverse the trend of failing to properly investigate and prosecute incidents against Coptic Christians. They also called upon the Egyptian government to address ongoing discriminatory practices including the difficulty in building and repairing churches, poor representation in certain government bodies, and security harassment of converts.
I sincerely support the prayers of our Coptic brothers and sisters in the hope that the authorities will now undertake decisive action to effectively address the persecution plaguing Christians in Egypt. It is time for the persecution to stop!
“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in a community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Rev the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes AC MLC