Archive for February, 2012

By Aidan Clay

Washington, D.C. February 15 (ICC) – Thousands of activists gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square last weekend in continued protests to denounce the rule of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and, in a surprising turn of events, the election of the Muslim Brotherhood-ruled parliament. The large demonstrations marked the one year anniversary of President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster from power.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, which won 47 percent of the votes in Egypt’s elections for the lower-house of parliament in January, has fallen under increasing pressure in recent weeks, Christian and moderate activists told ICC. Many accuse the Muslim Brotherhood of participating in fraudulent elections and tacitly allying with the SCAF. Meanwhile, protestors continue to demand that the SCAF immediately cease power to civilian rule while condemning them for committing human rights violations that rival those of Mubarak’s regime.

“Protestors were shouting, ‘No military council and no Brotherhood. This is our revolution, the youth’s revolution,’” Coptic activist Wagih Yacoub told ICC. “Many people have regretted electing the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is more concerned with their movement than the benefit of the country.”

Mary Ibrahim Daniel, the sister of Mina Daniel – a well-known Coptic activist who was killed by the SCAF during a peaceful protest on October 9 – continues to march with demonstrators to defend the memory of her brother and to demand the same freedoms that were sought in Egypt’s revolution.

“I dream that one day all the Egyptian people will demonstrate against the Brotherhood,” Daniel told ICC. “I was surprised to see so many people, including Muslims, protesting against them outside the House of Parliament. I think that finally the Egyptian people are waking up to the fact that the Brotherhood used religion to get into power and are using religion to stay in power. The Brotherhood is hijacking the ideals and motives behind the revolution.”

The Muslim Brotherhood recently pulled away from popular demands that Egypt’s new parliament should immediately replace the military-appointed government, which raises concerns that the Muslim Brotherhood is tacitly allying with the SCAF for political gain. Alliances formed by the Muslim Brotherhood will likely set the agenda of the new parliament, including its appointment of an assembly to draft the constitution. The SCAF has made clear its intention to influence the process and has opted for autonomy from parliament oversight, The Wall Street Journal reported last November.

The Egyptian daily Al-Wafd, published by the Wafd political party, recently reported that the SCAF has discretely helped finance the Muslim Brotherhood, enabling them to carry out social programs which have played a major role in securing votes. Some Egyptians claim that the SCAF will hand over internal powers to the Muslim Brotherhood while it remains in control of defense, security and the country’s enormous budget.

“The Brotherhood has always publicly insisted that there is no deal [between them and the SCAF]. But especially since they offered immunity from legal action to the SCAF for its actions since the revolution, the allegations grew louder,” Mara Revkin, analyst at the U.S. think-tank the Atlantic Council, told Now Lebanon. The SCAF has been accused of killing hundreds of protestors, including 27 Christians on October 9 and at least 41 activists during demonstrations leading up to the parliamentary elections.

Renewed protests are planned to take place outside the hospital where former President Mubarak is being held. In a message intended to undermine demonstrators, the SCAF warned on Friday that it will not bow to threats and plots that aim to topple the state and spread chaos, The Associated Press reported. The Muslim Brotherhood also condemned recent protests, saying that it will not take part in demonstrations that will hurt Egypt’s already fragile economy. However, many activists, including Coptic Christians who make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population, remain hopeful that change is still on the horizon.

“Every day is a new day. Every hour is a new hour,” Yacoub said. “I stopped predicting what will happen next. I’ll wake up and find that a new disaster has happened. You just don’t know in Egypt. The 24th of January was different than the 25th, which was different than the 11th of February when Mubarak stepped down. I’ve learned to take things step-by-step, day-by-day, hour-by-hour.”

Coptic homes set ablaze in Ameriya

Washington, D.C. (February 13, 2012) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that eight Coptic Christian families were evicted from their homes in northern Egypt following two attacks by radical Islamists on Christian homes and businesses in late-January. The attacks were in response to an alleged affair between a Christian man and a Muslim woman.

On January 27th, hundreds of Muslims, led by Salafists who adhere to the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, looted and torched Christian homes and shops in Kobry el-Sharbat near Alexandria following rumors that a Christian man, Mourad Samy Guirguis, had an affair with a Muslim woman. On January 30th, a group of Muslims attacked the village for the second time, setting fire to three Christian homes. Guirguis denied the accusations, but reportedly turned himself into the police for his own security.

Village elders, including representatives from the Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood, and local police, agreed to evict eight Coptic families and put their property up for sale. Ironically, they came to this decision after holding three ‘reconciliation’ meetings, Asia News reported. At the first meeting, Muslims argued that “Muslim honor has been damaged,” and refused to offer compensation to Coptic Christians who were innocent victims of the violence. Father Boktor Nashed from St. George’s Church in el-Nahdah, who was present at the meeting, called the decision a “complete injustice.” Sherif el-Hawary, a Salafist sheik, was given the authority to execute the meeting’s demands.

“Who gave them the right to form a committee headed by a Salafi to sell Christian property? This is thuggery and the blatant targeting of Copts,” said Magdi Khalil, head of the Middle East Freedom Forum. “If we accept this, we will open the door to an avalanche of forced evictions.”

Reconciliation meetings are a traditional form of ‘conflict resolution’ that bypasses Egypt’s judicial system and often fails to bring perpetrators of attacks against Christians to justice. In its 2011 Religious Freedom Report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) stated, “Reconciliation efforts should not be used to undermine enforcing the law and punishing perpetrators for wrongdoing. The State Department also has concluded that reconciliation sessions not only ‘prevented the prosecution of perpetrators of crimes against Coptic Christians and precluded their recourse to the judicial system for restitution’ but also ‘contributed to a climate of impunity that encouraged further assaults’.”

Aidan Clay, ICC Regional Manager for the Middle East, said, “Reconciliation meetings are nothing more than a method to excuse those responsible for violence, shift blame on the victims, and to completely ignore justice. The recent attack in Kobry el-Sharbat again proves that nothing has changed in the ‘new’ Egypt after President Mubarak’s ouster, as perpetrators of attacks against minorities continue to be pardoned and allowed to pursue their bloody campaign to rid the country of Christians. Most disturbing is that the reconciliation meetings were not led by the military council, but by representatives of the very groups that won a majority in Egypt’s new parliament and claim to support democracy and a civilian judicial system. We urge Egyptian officials to retract the illegal decision that was made to evict the eight Christian families and to arrest and convict those responsible for burning down Christian homes and businesses.”

Watch the video closely. You’ll see Christians and moderate Muslims running from a radical mob that is pursuing them. At the end of the video, you’ll see a flash of gunfire and then hear cries of agony. The painful shrieks are from a friend of ICC’s who was shot and taken to the hospital immediately after. Thank goodness he is now okay, but he still suffers pain from the injury. He asked ICC to share the video online to raise awareness. More than 24 people, mainly Christians, were killed that night on October 9, 2011.

By Aidan Clay

The court hearing of Egyptian Coptic billionaire Naguib Sawiris, who was accused of “insulting Islam” last month, is scheduled to reopen on Saturday. Sawiris’ hearing follows the prison sentence of Egyptian actor Adel Imam who was tried on similar charges last week. The two cases underline concerns about freedom of expression in Egypt.

Christian telecom mogul Naguib Sawiris, who founded the Free Egyptians political party, was charged for “blasphemy and insulting Islam” on January 9 when he reposted a cartoon of a bearded Mickey Mouse and a veiled Minnie Mouse on Twitter. The initial court hearing held on January 14 was postponed because the billionaire failed to show up, Agence France-Presse reported. The independent Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm accredited the trial’s adjournment to a “fistfight” between the defense and prosecuting lawyers after Sawiris was branded as a “criminal” in court.

Among the group of Islamist lawyers who filed the lawsuit against Sawiris was Mamdouh Ismail, a former member of Islamic Jihad who has been known to represent accused terrorists and was himself arrested for complicity with al-Qaeda in 2007.

The Muslim Brotherhood, who won 47 percent of the votes in Egypt’s parliamentary elections, quickly backed Ismail’s lawsuit while the ultraconservative Salafists led a nationwide campaign to boycott products and services offered by Sawiris’ companies. Many Egyptian Christians and liberals believe Islamists rallied the nationwide outcry to discredit Sawiris and his secular Free Egyptians Party.

“Sawiris is one of the biggest supporters of the Egyptian liberal parties,” Wagih Yacoub, a Coptic human rights activist, told International Christian Concern (ICC). “The Islamists are delivering a message to Coptic Christians that they can take down our leaders. They’re saying, ‘This is our country now. You’ll live as we want you to live.’”

Adel Imam, Egypt’s leading comic actor, faced similar charges last week when he was sentenced to three months in jail for “defaming Islam” in an Egyptian court for a role he played in a 2007 film, the state-run Ahram Online English website reported. The cases have added to concerns that Islamists are using their newfound political powers to stifle freedom of expression.

“Christians and many Muslims are supporting Adel Imam. Whether we like him or not, we are defending the freedom of speech and the freedom of art,” said Yacoub. “What is Adel Imam’s sentence based on? His old movies made years ago? It’s crazy. We’re going through a dark time in Egypt.”

“In both cases, the men didn’t do anything against ‘Islam’ but merely made fun of Islamists,” said Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center in Herzliya, Israel. “The battle, of course, is being waged by Islamists who want their interpretation of the religion to be declared as the only acceptable version. Westerners don’t understand that when that happens anything more moderate or flexibly traditional hence becomes illegal and punishable. The Islamist counter-Bill of Rights proclaims that the country’s people have no freedom of speech or freedom of religion, no right to free assembly or of the press.”

Sawiris is a champion of secularism and has publicly opposed the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the prospect that Islamists will draft a new constitution influenced by Sharia law. Sawiris has also dismissed the Muslim Brotherhood’s official moderate stance, accusing the group of wanting to turn Egypt into an Iran-style theocracy, Reuters reported. Sawiris’ Free Egyptian Party, in alliance with secular political parties known as the Egyptian bloc, won nine percent of the seats in Egypt’s new parliament. If convicted, Sawiris could spend up to six months in prison.