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.”

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.

Washington, D.C. (January 17, 2012) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that a Muslim Brotherhood leader will be installed as speaker of Egypt’s new parliament after Islamists swept the popular vote in the country’s elections last week, raising fears among Christians and secularists that new laws heavily influenced by Sharia may soon be instituted.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party nominated its Secretary General Mohamed Saad al-Katatni as the speaker of the newly-elected lower house of parliament on Monday. Following the third and final phase of Egypt’s elections that ended last week, the Brotherhood is projected to secure 232 seats, or 46 percent, of the 498 elected parliament seats. The extremist Salafists’ al-Nour Party, which follows the strict Wahhabi doctrine of Islam and opposes equality with non-Muslims, won 113 seats, or 23 percent of the overall vote. The lower house, known as the People’s Assembly, is the most important body in Egypt’s bicameral system.

Egypt’s elected parliament will be given the authority to select a 100-member panel to draft a new constitution that will be put to a referendum before the presidential election is held in June. Many Christians and moderates fear that an Islamist majority in the parliament will use its power to base the constitution on Sharia law, which will greatly restrict the rights of non-Muslims.

“The power of the article in the constitution often depends on where it’s placed. Currently, article one is about citizenship and equality, while article two is about the Islamic religion. That will soon change,” Wagih Yacoub, a Coptic human rights activist, told ICC. “The Salafists are talking about banning alcohol and monitoring tourism. They’re going to take the country toward a very dark time. We’re going backwards; we’re not going forward at all… Some Christians will leave the country, some will stand up, and some will leave it as it is, trusting in God.”

Meanwhile, the Brotherhood has pulled away from the popular opinion that Egypt’s new parliament should immediately replace the military-appointed government, raising concerns that the Brotherhood is tacitly allying with the military for political gain. Alliances formed by the Brotherhood will likely set the agenda of the new parliament, including its appointment of an assembly to draft the constitution. The military has made clear its intention to influence the process and has opted for autonomy from parliament oversight. Nonetheless, the military may be the only force in Egypt stalling the country’s complete transition into an Islamic state governed by Sharia law.

“Somewhere between two-thirds and 80 percent of Egyptian Muslims support radical Islamist parties. Only the army, which is eager to suppress moderates but would rather make deals than fight the Islamists, stands in the way of radicalization,” said Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center in Herzliya, Israel.

Aidan Clay, ICC Regional Manager for the Middle East, said, “In May 2011, Salafists were responsible for attacking two churches and killing twelve people, mainly Christians, in Cairo. The same group now holds one-fourth of the seats in Egypt’s new parliament and there is no evidence to suggest that violence committed by the Salafists will cease. Instead, Salafists will be eager to push the country toward Islamism and, in doing so, will target Christians, liberals, and women demanding rights. The question remains: will the Muslim Brotherhood be driven by Salafists toward radicalism or will they continue to appease the West and liberals by appearing moderate? In either case, continuing attacks on Christians are inevitable.”

Head of the Free Egyptians political party and Christian telecom mogul Naguib Sawiris was scheduled to appear in court tomorrow after being charged for “blasphemy and insulting Islam” on Monday for reposting a cartoon of a bearded Mickey Mouse and a veiled Minnie Mouse on Twitter. Naguib Ghobrial, Sawiris’ lawyer, wrote in a press statement on Thursday that Cairo’s District Attorney has yet to set a trial date, according to the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram. 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.

The Muslim Brotherhood, who is set to win more than forty percent of the votes in Egypt’s parliamentary elections, joined the ultraconservative Salafists in backing Ismail’s lawsuit and 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 ICC. “What the Islamists are trying to do is break him down. They are trying to scare him. This type of news will hurt him in Egypt. The [Muslim] Brotherhood is among those behind the war on Sawiris.”

In response to the heated reaction, Sawiris later tweeted, “I apologise for those who don’t take this as a joke, I just thought it was a funny picture; no disrespect meant. I am sorry.”

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’ Free Egyptian Party, in alliance with secular political parties known as the Egyptian bloc, is expected to win nine percent of seats in Egypt’s lower house of parliament.

Aidan Clay, ICC Regional Manager for the Middle East, said, “The Muslim Brotherhood has made efforts in recent months to tone down extremist rhetoric in order to reassure Egyptian liberals and Christians, as well as western nations, who fear that the Brotherhood’s ideology and agenda is not consistent with democratic principles and human rights. However, the Brotherhood’s support for Mamdouh Ismail, the Salafists, and other radicals in condemning Naguib Sawiris is one more example that any attempt made by the Brotherhood to appear moderate is merely a façade. Sadly, the voices of Egypt’s secular-minded youth who ignited the country’s revolution have not been heeded as Islamists rise to power and stomp on the very freedoms many revolutionaries had fought so dearly to defend.”

Washington, D.C. (December 5, 2011) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that radical Islamists acquired the majority vote in phase one of Egypt’s parliamentary elections last week, validating ICC’s early predictions that Islamists would gain control of the country in wake of the revolution that deposed former President Hosni Mubarak.

Islamists attained 65 percent of the overall vote last week in the first of three phases to elect the lower house of parliament which began November 28 and ended today. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party emerged with 36.62 percent of the 9.7 million ballots cast last week. Close behind was the Salafists’ Al Nour Party which garnered 24.4 percent of the vote.

Egypt’s elected parliament will be given the authority to select a 100-member panel to draft a new constitution that will be put to a referendum before the presidential election is held in June. Many are concerned that an Islamist majority in the parliament will use its power to base the constitution on Sharia law, greatly restricting the rights of non-Muslims, especially Christians.

Most disconcerting for Coptic Christians is that one in four Egyptians opted for the ultraconservative Salafists, whose interpretation of Islam derives from Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia. In post-revolution Egypt, Salafists have been accused of committing several attacks against Egypt’s Christian minority, including the torching of a church and the killing of twelve Christians in the Imbaba district of Cairo on May 7. Many Christians fear that laws instituted by Salafists will be similar to those enforced under the Taliban in Afghanistan.

“Salafists want to apply the laws of early Islam from 1400 years ago in the 21st century,” Coptic activist Wagih Yacoub told ICC. “They believe in cutting the hands off people who steal and stoning adulteress women. They are Wahhabis. If they rule Egypt, it will become like Afghanistan under the Taliban. Salafists are one of the largest threats to Christians in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood is also very dangerous, but the difference is that Salafists don’t negotiate. They are straightforward. They want to kill.”

While Egyptians wait for the final two rounds of elections for the lower house, or People’s Assembly, which is scheduled to take place later this month and in January, there is little hope that results will improve for the country’s Christians and liberals. The votes in the electoral districts of Egypt’s two largest cities, which were predicted to have the greatest moderate support base, have already been counted.

“If the moderates do that bad in the big cities, what’s going to happen in the villages up the Nile?” said Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center. “The Brotherhood came in first in Cairo and Alexandria. Think about that. Of course there are millions of migrants from rural areas in those places, but that’s also where the middle class, such as it is, lives.”

Aidan Clay, ICC Regional Manager for the Middle East, said, “The worst fears of many Egyptian Christians and secularists are now becoming a reality. There was some hope that at least contending Islamist parties would steal seats from one another; however, that did not prove to be the case. Coming in second place, Salafists will drive the Muslim Brotherhood toward ultra-conservatism. The Brotherhood no longer needs to appear moderate when the majority of Egyptians have voted in favor of radical Islam and its natural end point, Sharia law. Sadly, Egyptian Christians are entering into a time of intense persecution.”

After a long march from Shubra, Viviane Magdi and her fiancé Michael Mosad finally reached their destination at the State TV building in Maspero near Tahrir Square in Cairo where a mass crowd of demonstrators – both Christian and Muslim – had gathered.

Upon arrival, however, the protest that Michael and Viviane had joined took an unexpected turn. Above the chants for freedom and an end to military rule, the couple could hear screams and the crackle of gun fire rising from among the demonstrators into the evening air.

Although nervous about the apparent violence that had broken out in what started as a peaceful demonstration, Michael refused to return home. “There are people who fell; we have to stand with them,” Viviane remembers Michael saying.

Viviane Magdi with her fiancé Michael Mosad

A moment later, a military vehicle veered into the crowded street at a speed fast enough to bring imminent danger to anyone standing in its path. The truck swiveled on and off the sidewalk, reversed, and went forward again. Demonstrators scrambled and tripped over one another, uncertain where the vehicle would turn next.

“He held my hand and said, ‘Don’t let me go, stay with me, don’t be scared.’ Then suddenly, I felt myself pushed away,” Viviane recalled.

Looking behind her, she saw Michael swept under the truck and crushed beneath its tires. His skull was fractured and his legs were left dangling visibly from his body as the truck sped off. Soldiers following swiftly behind the vehicle began beating Michael’s unconscious body. One soldier turned on Viviane, who was begging them to stop hitting her fiancé.

“A soldier with a red cap came, shouting, cursing and hitting me with a stick then tried to beat him up. I threw my body on him (her fiancé)… and the soldier said to me: ‘You infidel, why are you here?’” The Associated Press reported Viviane as saying.

Finally, a lone soldier intervened, loaded Michael’s lifeless body on a truck, and drove him and Viviane to a Coptic hospital. Laid beside three other corpses on the hospital floor, Viviane held her fiancé’s hand and cried out in despair, “I will not leave you!”

A photo taken of her clasping Michael’s hand and the testimony she would later give to the Egyptian press circulated throughout the country and Viviane soon emerged as the unforgettable face of the October 9 massacre.

“I feel I am still with [Michael],” Viviane explained while reflecting on his death. “I’m glad I’m alive because I’m able to do him justice… There must be a reason I’m still alive… Michael’s blood is still on my hand. We must do him justice by creating a better Egypt.”

‘Bloody Sunday’

Michael was one of 26 Christians killed on the evening protestors quickly dubbed, ‘Bloody Sunday.’ An initially peaceful demonstration demanding justice for the destruction of a church by an Islamist mob in Aswan a week earlier was met by the worst violence Egyptians have seen since President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in February.

As Michael and Viviane were marching with fellow countrymen, state-run television broadcasts were simultaneously calling on “honest Egyptians to defend the soldiers” against “armed Copts.” While radical Islamists responded by descending on the scene with sticks, firebombs and guns, many Muslims saw through the façade, understanding that it was the military, not Christians, who were responsible.

“Muslims get what is happening,” Nada el-Shazly, a Muslim who heard the broadcast and knew fellow Muslims who had joined the Christian demonstration, told The New York Times. “[The military was] trying to start a civil war.”

“I am embarrassed that I work in TV,” Dina Rassmi, an Egyptian reporter, wrote on her Facebook page. “The Egyptian television is calling for a civil war between Christians and Muslims. The Egyptian television proved that it is a slave to whoever is the master.”

Meanwhile, according to The New York Times, hundreds of armed Islamists chanted in the streets, “The people want to bring down the Christians.” They continued into the evening, shouting, “Islamic, Islamic.”

Many Christians believed the violence was purely religious based. “The government and military are killing Christians. It’s that simple,” said Coptic activist Wagih Yacoub, who was shot with rubber bullets during the protest and, like Viviane, had a friend who was run over and killed by a military vehicle. “It was a peaceful march, so why did they shoot real bullets on a peaceful people? We were going there just for two or three hours then we were going to leave. We want to worship in peace, that’s all we want.”

As Egypt’s elections draw near, uncertainty and fear among Christians increases. Islamist-based parties, like the Muslim Brotherhood, are expected to win a majority seat in the Egyptian parliament which will grant them greater authority to significantly alter the constitution and impose Sharia (Islamic law).

Some church leaders, however, refuse to lose hope. “We are passing through a dark tunnel of violence, feeling grief of death and injustice...” Bishop Thomas of the Coptic Church told World Magazine from Cairo. “Trying to bring forgiveness and justice together is a big struggle, but we are committed to the love that never fails. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed.”