Attacks on two predominantly Christian villages in Egypt last week got here after days of rising tensions, which the state’s security services did nothing to quell despite being notified of impending danger to Christians, in accordance with a human rights group.
On April 23 and nevertheless on April 26, tons of of Muslims took to the streets and attacked Christians, first in Al-Fawakher after which in Al-Koum Al-Ahmar village, each in Minya Governate. Enraged villagers launched the attacks ostensibly to stop construction of church buildings at each site.
Clergy from the Coptic Orthodox Church had notified security service officials 4 days prior to the primary attack that hostilities toward the Christians had reached a breaking point, in accordance with an announcement issued April 29 by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. On April 20, Muslim villagers in Al-Fawakher had attacked three houses with Molotov cocktails in response to a rumor that a Copt’s house was going for use for worship, in accordance with EIPR.
“Security services didn’t intervene to stop attacks before they occurred, despite their prior knowledge of the existence of tensions and sectarian incitement,” the group said.
The day of the firebombing, the principal of the Al-Fawakher elementary school began bullying several Coptic schoolgirls. When the women’ parents confronted him, the principal expelled the scholars.
Moderate villagers had warned Christian friends that an attack was certain, and the Archdiocese of Minya requested help a second time but was largely ignored, in accordance with EIPR. By 10:30 p.m., crowds were on the streets firing weapons into the air and chanting Islamic slogans.
The villagers began attacking Christian-owned homes with bricks and stones and eventually more gasoline bombs. The homes that weren’t burned were looted by the rioters. They beat several Christian women, though none suffered serious injury. Videos of the attack later surfaced on social media with posts stating the attacks were against Christians “attempting to construct a church within the village.”
The attack on Christians in Al-Koum Al-Ahmar began on April 26 shortly after Islamic noon prayers. It was not publicly known if mosque leaders mentioned Christians or churches on the Friday prayers, but shortly afterward crowds chanting anti-Christian slogans began gathering within the streets.
The crowd swarmed through the Christian neighborhoods smashing doors and windows of Christian-owned homes with stones, in accordance with EIPR. They then went to a plot of land that had been put aside by an evangelical church for the development of a worship hall and destroyed constructing supplies stored there. They also damaged three cars.
An evangelical congregation bought the land in 2000 for a church constructing but tried unsuccessfully to acquire the required license until 2023. In January, after the congregation obtained permission to construct the constructing, roughly 100 villagers gathered at the location to stop it. They had heard that some type of agreement had been reached for the church construction.
Egypt has a long-standing practice of restricting and even forbidding construction or renovation of church buildings. In 2016, the federal government passed the Law for Building and Restoring Churches that brought welcome changes in approvals for construction and renovation of worship halls, but significant hurdles remain for Christians who desire a dedicated constructing for his or her congregation. Even if a congregation receives government approval to construct, Islamists willing to employ violence can postpone construction indefinitely.
There isn’t any church constructing in Al-Fawakher or surrounding villages. The closest church site is an hour away by automotive. The village’s 40 Christian families depend on itinerant priests who meet with them of their homes. Al-Koum Al-Ahmar has a church constructing where Orthodox Christians meet but none for evangelicals.
The attacks were hardly the primary to happen within the governorate and mustn’t have come as a surprise to Egyptian authorities in Minya, in accordance with EIPR. There were three other violent uprisings to stop the church construction within the governorate since September.
EIPR affirmed that the April 23 and 26 attacks weren’t “individual incidents” that were exceptional or coincidental, as government and Islamic apologists often claim, but were predictable events that would have been deterred.
“State institutions mustn’t be subject to the blackmail of aggressors, because it just isn’t its responsibility to respect the emotions of those that may provoked by the existence of homes of worship for Christians, but reasonably the state is required to guard freedom of faith and the correct to practice religious rites for all its
residents,” the EIPR stated. “Instead of intervening to guard the rights of their residents to practice religious rites and redress the damage caused to them, official state institutions closed and prevented the development of churches.”
Egypt ranked 38th on Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it’s most difficult to be a Christian.
© Morning Star News
