Christian killed

Romani Hakim

Romani Hakim, a 19-year-old Coptic Christian, was murdered near his home by Salafists, a radical Islamist group, in Imbaba, Cairo on May 7, 2011. Twelve people were killed, more than 200 were injured, and two churches and numerous Coptic-owned homes and businesses were attacked in the day’s violence which targeted Egypt’s Christian community. An ICC representative visited Romani’s mother at her home.

Romani's mother

Wedding photo of Sama'an and Rasha

Sama’an Nazmi, a Coptic Christian from the garbage slums of Manshier Nasr, jumped up off the couch and sprinted out the door upon hearing gunfire and screams in the streets outside. Coptic youth had been staging a protest, causing enough racket that village priests urged them to stop before they attracted the attention of radical mobs who may use violence to forcefully halt the demonstration. The protestors – agitated over a church that had been burned to the ground by Islamists days earlier in a nearby village – refused to back down.

Villagers knew the protests were getting out of hand once the military arrived. Still, they could not convince their sons to come home. Instead, families gathered together, locked their doors, held hands, and prayed. When gunfire was heard, no one was surprised. In fact, many, like Sama’an, had been expecting it and were waiting to respond, knowing that help would be needed.

“Don’t go!” Sama’an’s mother shouted after him as he fled out the door. “I’m not afraid,” Sama’an replied on the run. “I need to protect my church and family.”

“We didn’t want to see him go,” Sama’an’s mother told ICC. “But he wanted to help those who were injured.”

Bullets still flying, Sama’an hurriedly searched for the injured and offered whatever assistance he could give.

Sama’an’s efforts were short lived, however. His wife, Rasha (not real name), had followed closely behind him before stopping at the top of the hill where she could see the upcoming events unfold. “I saw Sama’an helping an injured youth to his feet,” Rasha explained through a translator. “And then Sama’an dropped to the ground.”

A shrill scream pierced the village. Rasha tried to go to her husband, but her legs locked and she fell desperately to her knees. Crawling toward him and toward the battle that pressed on, villagers had to grab her to hold her back.

“I couldn’t get to him,” she lamented. “But when he fell, I knew he was dead. I knew there was nothing I could do.”

“They take our children, our money, our power. They take everything,” Sama’an’s mother continued. “What do they want from us?”

Sama’an’s family lives off less than two dollars a day which is earned by collecting and recycling Cairo’s trash. With Sama’an’s death, the family lost their only provider. Sama’an’s father is also out of the picture, having been arrested a year earlier for owning a pig, which became illegal in Cairo after the swine epidemic of 2009. It will be another four years before he is released. The women and children are now left to fend for themselves.

Sipping tea with Sama’an’s family in their home, Rasha took a framed wedding photo from the wall and handed it to me. A beautiful bride and handsome groom, in love, posed confidently for the camera. I looked at the bride and hardly recognized her. Rasha’s face, though still young, had aged quickly over the past few months by the stress and hard labor that a poor widow must bear in Egypt. How could Rasha have known her life would turn out this way?

Still gazing at the photograph, Sama’an’s five-year-old son Hany and two-year-old daughter Mariam chased after baby chicks scurrying across the living room rug. Amongst the chirps and laughing children, Rasha broke down in tears. The group I was with came to her, prayed, and offered what little comfort we could. “What will she do now?” I asked myself. “How will she raise her children on her own?”

Today, ICC continues to seek a solution to these questions. Upon our visit, ICC was able to bless Rasha and eight other families who lost loved ones in the protests on March 8 with a gift to help their immediate financial needs. Now, ICC is developing a small business for Rasha and providing the support needed to ensure that her children will attend school. Lastly, we have connected these families with a local church that will visit them monthly and continue to ensure that there spiritual and physical needs are being cared for.

Please consider partnering with ICC by praying or sending a donation for families in Mokattam. If you would like to give a gift to improve the lives of our brothers and sisters in Egypt, please make a donation to our Hand of Hope Fund for the Middle East and include a note designating your gift for “Egypt.” You may also give by check or by calling us at 1-800-ICC-5441.

To learn more about families in Mokattam who lost loved ones on March 8, please sign up for our newsletter to read a full article in our September edition.

Sama'an's wife, mother, daughter & son

Coptic Christians in the garbage district of the Mokattam Hills of Cairo protested in the streets on March 8 to condemn attacks on Christians and the destruction of a church that had occurred days earlier in a nearby village. The Coptic protestors were met by a Muslim mob, both of whom threw stones at each other. At 4:00 pm, the Egyptian military intervened by firing live ammunition at the Coptic protestors, according to eye witnesses.

Hearing gunfire, Sama’an Nazmi went to the site of the demonstration to see if anyone needed help. “I’m not afraid,” Sama’an told a friend. “I want to protect my church and my family.” The gunfire continued after Sama’an arrived on the scene and it was he who became the next victim. “The Egyptian military killed my son,” Sama’an’s mother told ICC.

The family took Sama’an to the hospital, but the doctor said nothing could be done. Sama’an was 28 years old, and left behind his wife, five-year-old son Hany, and two-year-old daughter Mariam.

“They take our children, our money, and our power. They take everything. What do they want from us?” Sama’an’s mother lamented.

Sama'an Nazmi

ICC recently visited Sama’an’s family and eight other families who lost loved ones on March 8. ICC is giving financial assistance to these families and helping some of them begin a sustainable business. Sama’an’s family lives in an area of Cairo known as a ‘garbage community.’ The family’s lone source of income comes from collecting and recycling Cairo’s trash. Please pray for Sama’an’s family (pictured) as well as the eight other families who lost loved ones in this tragic attack.

Shenouda Adly was shot in the chest at age 16 by Egyptian military forces

On March 8, sixteen-year-old Shenouda Adly heard gunfire on the road approaching his neighborhood in the Mokattam Hills of Cairo. When he asked what it was, Shenouda’s friends told him that the revolution had reached their doorstep. In actuality, however, a group of young Coptic men were blocking the road in protest to show their solidarity with other Coptic Christians across Cairo who were demonstrating over a church that had been burnt down by a Muslim mob days earlier. Listening to the crackle of gunshots from his home, Shenouda could not resist the urge to see the protest for himself. At 4:00 pm, he went to join his friends on the street.

When Shenouda arrived at the scene, his father was already there and told him to return to the house immediately. Eyewitnesses said that the protestors had been confronted by a Muslim mob, and that both sides were throwing stones at each other. When the military arrived to disperse the protestors, they first shot into the air and then opened fire into the Coptic crowd. This was no place for a sixteen-year-old boy.

Shenouda’s father returned home soon after, but could not find his son. “Where’s my son? Where’s my son?” the father shouted. Shenouda’s friend told the father that he had found him in the hospital. When Shenouda’s family arrived to see him, they learned that he had been shot through the chest and was already dead. “It was the army who killed him,” Shenouda’s uncle, who was at the scene, told ICC. “They shot at many Christian people.”

ICC visited Shenouda’s mother, sister, and uncle, as well as eight other families who lost loved ones, to offer financial assistance and to help them begin a sustainable business. Shenouda’s family lives in an area of Cairo known as a ‘garbage community.’ The family’s lone source of income comes from collecting and recycling Cairo’s rubbish. Please pray for Shenouda’s mother and sister (pictured below) as well as the eight other families who lost loved ones in this tragic attack.

Click here to learn more about Cairo’s trash collectors.

Shenouda took this photo of himself with his cell phone two hours before his death.

Shenouda's sister & mother

The Coptic church weeps over the coffins of those killed in Naga Hammadi.

In this post, we look back at the horrific attack in Naga Hammadi that killed six young Coptic men on January 6, 2010. The killings remind us that persecution in Egypt is nothing new, but existed long before the revolution under former President Hosni Mubarak. In tomorrow’s post, we’ll discuss the Egyptian government’s failure to bring perpetrators of attacks on Christians to justice, including two of the three men charged with the murders in Naga Hammadi who were acquitted in court earlier this year.

On January 6, as Coptic believers were exiting Christmas Eve mass in the Upper Egypt town of Nag Hammadi, six young Christian men and a police officer were shot dead in the streets by masked Muslim men in a drive-by shooting.  At the time, the murders were the largest assault on Copts since January 2000, when 21 were massacred in Sohag.  Images of the six murdered young men were a fearful reminder of the 1990s when Copts were routinely killed in bloody sectarian attacks by Islamic militants.

The days after the attack were marked by violent protests – Copts lamented and demanded government intervention while Muslim mobs burned Christian homes and looted businesses.  The Egyptian government not only failed to intervene, but escalated the chaos by conducting random arrests of Coptic youth.  More than 100 Coptic young men were arrested on January 7th and 8th without charge.  Anwar Samuel, a teacher from Nag Hammadi, said Egyptian State Security invaded his home at four in the morning in search of a nephew who was not there, and instead “arrested my three other nephews, Fadi, Tanios and Wael Milad Samuel, and took them away in their pajamas.”  They have since been subjected to electric shock torture.

St. John’s Church in Nag Hammadi

The Coptic arrests were a method of intimidation used by the government to entice Copts to drop charges against Muslim perpetrators.  Upper Egypt Bishop Kyrollos, who was the suspected target of the shooting, had previously issued statements rebuking the negligence of Egyptian State Security.  Some believe that the arrest of Coptic youth was a pressure tactic to force the bishop to recant his accusations.

Leading up to the Nag Hammadi shooting, Muslim mobs had repeatedly attacked Coptic communities in Upper Egypt.  On October 24, 2009, hundreds of Muslim students from Al-Azhar Institute attacked Copts in Dairout, shouting “Allah Akbar!” as homes and churches were ransacked and set ablaze.  On November 21, the violence continued as a Muslim mob of reportedly 3,000 raided Coptic shops, burned property and abducted seven Coptic women in Farshoot and neighboring villages.  Attacks followed on November 23 in the nearby village of Abou Shusha where Coptic stores were again looted.

Some Muslims claimed that these attacks, including the shooting at Nag Hammadi, were in retaliation for an alleged sexual relationship between a twelve-year-old Muslim girl and a Christian young man.  This incident is what initiated the attack on Dairout and prompted a search for the accused young man.  When the young man was nowhere to be found, the mob redirected their vengeance against his father.  The father, Farouk, after failing to locate his son, was shot dead in the village market of Attaleen.  His body was then dragged through the streets and paraded through a cheering crowd.

Implications

Young man injured in Naga Hammadi shooting

In June of 2009, President Barack Obama visited Cairo and addressed the Muslim world in an effort to promote human rights.  “People in every country should be free to choose and live their faith based upon the persuasion of the mind and the heart and the soul. This tolerance is essential for religion to thrive,” he said.  However, Egypt continued to blatantly violate an individual’s right to religious freedom without being confronted.  The United States gave Egypt roughly $1.3 billion per year in military compensation and more than $500 million per year in economic assistance, yet the US did not use those funds as leverage to demand that Egypt adhere to international human rights laws.  The plight of Coptic Christians must be acknowledged.  President Obama can help the case of Copts by applying human rights sanctions on US assistance to Egypt and by affirming that human rights are a core objective of US foreign policy.  Without force and accountability, Christian persecution in Egypt will continue to deteriorate, and the blood of Copts will flow from those that suffer a martyr’s fate.

This is the story of Hany, a young man who was tortured and martyred in the Egyptian military for refusing to deny his faith in Christ (film produced by CBN).

Mubarak Masoud Zakaria

Mubarak Masoud Zakaria, 22, was recruited into the Egyptian military in 2010. Uneducated and from a family that lives far below the poverty line, the military promised Mubarak a consistent income that would provide for his family. However, Mubarak’s military service would be brief.

It was not long before Mubarak’s parents heard of their son’s mysterious death. No report was given on how he died, but an officer told them it was suicide. However, Mubarak’s parents knew their son would not take his own life. When visiting the morgue to see the body for themselves, the parents were horrified by the body’s disfigurement. Beaten and bruised, one cannot comprehend the suffering Mubarak endured during his last breaths. Upon incessant inquiry, the family found out that their son was asked by fellow soldiers to renounce his Christian faith and convert to Islam. Upon refusing, he was tortured and murdered.

After hearing the story from Mubarak’s mother, ICC representatives immediately visited her in Upper Egypt to offer assistance. Through ICC’s in-country representatives, ICC is able to respond and minister to the needs of persecuted believers.

Malak was killed by Egyptian police at St. Mary's Church in Talbiya

Makarios was fulfilling his service in the Egyptian army and trying to find a way to support his family. Unfortunately, his military earnings were not enough to provide for his two sisters, five brothers, and parents, yet Makarios was his family’s only source of income. Having three days leave from his military service, Makarios jumped at the chance to earn some extra cash. With nineteen young men from his village church, Makarios traveled ten hours to Cairo to find work. They had heard that they could find temporary employment by restructuring a community center into a church in Giza, located near the pyramids.

According to the Egyptian government, however, the church had not been granted the proper permits to build. Not understanding the debate over the church’s construction, Makarios and his friends found themselves caught in the middle of a dangerous situation. On November 24, riot police were dispatched to stop construction. Hundreds of Coptic Christian began protesting in response for their right to complete the church. The police took immediate action by opening fire with live ammunition on the crowd. Makarios – still inside the church structure – was shot dead. His friend Malak (pictured), who had traveled from the same village with him, was also killed.

The video and photo below show Makarios’ friends constructing the church prior to the attack.

Young men take a break from church construction