Out of Egypt

ICC Friend Injured in Protest

A friend of ICC’s was brutally shot in the head and chest with rubber bullets on the evening of the Coptic protests in Cairo on October 9. He is currently bed ridden and needs our prayers.

“My friend was killed tonight. He was run over,” he told ICC between deep breathes of exhaustion and pain. “I was just with him a few hours ago. We were just talking. Then all of a sudden it happened and I went to the morgue and I just saw him lying there. It could have been me or anyone for that matter. It will be me sooner or later if it carries on like this.”

“The government and military are killing Christians. It’s that simple,” he continued. “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.”

Egyptian Military Provoking Muslim/Christian Civil Strife

Washington, D.C. (October 10, 2011) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that at least seventeen Coptic Christians were killed during protests in Cairo yesterday. The latest surge of violence, prompted by the military, reinforced Coptic fears of becoming increasingly marginalized by Egypt’s acting government ruled by the military council.

Sunday’s protests were a reaction to the torching of Mar Gerges Church and the burning and looting of Christian-owned homes and businesses by a Muslim mob in Aswan, Upper Egypt on September 30. Thousands of Coptic Christians and Muslim sympathizers held demonstrations in Cairo to demand equality, the protection of Christian property, and restraint on military rule. Marching from Shubra to the state television building in Maspero, protestors were met by the military and riot police who opened fire with live ammunition.

“The army and police were waiting for us about 200 meters away from the Maspero TV building,” said Ihab Aziz, an activist who helped organize the protest. “They started firing at us before two army armored vehicles came at great speed and drove into the crowds, going backwards and forwards, mowing people under their wheels.”

“My friend was killed tonight. He was run over,” Wagih Yacoub, a Coptic activist who himself was shot with rubber bullets, told ICC between deep breaths of exhaustion and pain. “I was just with him a few hours ago. We were just talking. Then all of a sudden it happened and I went to the morgue and I just saw him lying there. It could have been me or anyone for that matter. It will be me sooner or later if it carries on like this.”

Some Egyptians view the military’s actions as an effort to sever the Christian minority from the rest of Egyptian society. Nada el-Shazly, a Muslim, said that state television urged “honest Egyptians” to protect the military from Christian protesters, even though she knew many Muslims who had joined the Christian demonstration.

“Muslims get what is happening,” el-Shazly told The New York Times. “[The military was] trying to start a civil war.”

Radical Islamists, on the other hand, marched alongside security forces as they cleared the streets at 10:00 pm, The New York Times reported. “The people want to bring down the Christians,” hundreds of armed men shouted.  “Islamic, Islamic,” they continued chanting into the evening.

“The government and military are killing Christians. It’s that simple,” Yacoub said. “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.”

Dr. Sheriff Doss, the head of Egypt’s Coptic Association, said that 17 protestors were killed in the violence, while other groups estimate the number to be far greater. State-run television announced that three soldiers were also among those killed. Bodies of victims are still being identified and counted.

Aidan Clay, ICC Regional Manager for the Middle East, said, “Sunday’s attack on Christian protestors was unprecedented in that it was initiated and encouraged by the very military that was praised for protecting the Egyptian people when President Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power earlier this year.

Christian dreams of freedom in post-revolution Egypt are being dashed by the political rise of the Islamists and the endorsement of discriminatory laws and outright violence committed by the military council. The Mar Gerges church burning, which initiated the protests, was the third church in Egypt to be destroyed by radical mobs in the past seven months. Additionally, the seventeen or more Christians killed yesterday raises the number to more than seventy this year. We urge those within Egypt’s interim government who are concerned about the equality and freedom of all Egyptians to defend the country’s Coptic minority and take immediate and firm action against those who authorized the murder of protestors.”

On October 4, Coptic Christians protested the torching of Mar Gerges Church in Aswan, Upper Egypt. In this video, a lone protestor is brutally beaten by riot police. To learn more about the attack on the church in Answan, read Compass Direct News’ report by clicking here.

In this post, we remember earlier protests this year where Christians and Muslim moderates joined together to demand greater freedoms in Egypt. These protests, taking place in July, were no different than those held on October 9 when the Egyptian military brutally killed more than 20 protestors in Cairo when opening fire on them with live ammunition and running them over with armored tanks. This article was originally posted on July 22.

ICC – Protestors numbering in the thousands are pushing onward in their 15th day of demonstrations in Tahrir Square in an ongoing bid for immediate transition to civilian rule.

A boy joins protestors in Egypt’s revolution

Labeled the “days of warning,” the protests that began July 8, 2011, condemn interim Prime Minister Essam Sharaf for failing to implement much needed reforms six months after his appointment by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). The SCAF took control of the country after the 18-day revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011.

Most protestors believe the moment of opportunity to repeal Egypt’s repressive laws will be lost once free elections are held, as Islamist-based parties are expected to take the majority seat in parliament.

While the SCAF has stated their support for free elections without military interference, protestors remain suspicious, viewing the SCAF as their final road block before their self-determination for a free society is fully realized.

“I’m not going to leave the square before I see the head of SCAF, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, cede power to a civilian presidential council that would rule Egypt during the current transitional period,” protestor Ragi Eskandar told The Los Angeles Times.

Yet, for some, a government detached from military inference is unimaginable. “The president will likely come from the military institution,” a Coptic protestor told ICC. “It has been this way since 1952. But what we want is a country like Turkey; for the military to protect a civilian country, but not have all the power.”

Unlike Turkey, whose democracy has been agitated by tensions between a powerful secular military and Islamist-leaning politicians, Egypt’s military is believed by many leftists and moderates to be backing the Muslim Brotherhood. “There’s no doubt they’re allied,” said Coptic activist Wagih Yacoub. “If they weren’t, than the military would be supporting the people’s will to draft a new constitution before the parliamentary elections are held. Instead, there will be elections first so that the Muslim Brotherhood will have more leverage in developing an Islamist-leaning constitution.”

“The Muslim Brotherhood is the primary party insisting that elections be held before the constitution is drafted,” reiterated Coptic scholar Magdi Khalil. “Other parties support immediate constitutional reform. So why is it that the military council is stalling? The obvious answer is that there’s a deal between the Brotherhood and the military.”

Thousands of Coptic Christians are among those revolting alongside Muslim moderates and secularists in Tahrir Square. Perhaps more than other groups, however, Copts understand the peril minorities will face under an Islamist-based government. On at least three occasions in 2011, Islamist mobs killed nine or more Coptic Christians in religious based attacks on churches or protestors.

“Copts are protesting very loudly,” said Wagih Yacoub. “Copts and moderates together; we all fear an Islamist constitution and an Islamic state. We are protesting for our freedoms – freedom from the military council and freedom from the Islamic agenda that the [Muslim] Brotherhood will use to dictate Egyptian law.”

To ease the fears of moderates, the SCAF announced last week that it will set guidelines before the constitution is drafted to limit the influence of Islamists. However, moderates are not satisfied, viewing the military as dominating the process and granting themselves the authority to define the military’s future role in Egypt.

Maj. Gen. Mamdouh Shaheen, a key member of the military council who is leading the process of drafting the guidelines, said the country’s next constitution should safeguard the SCAF against future presidents, The Associated Press reported. The military council’s recent actions signify their push for complete independence in the new Egypt and their desire to hold authority to guarantee constitutional reforms. The military’s unchallenged role opposes Coptic and moderate demands to move toward democratic rule lead by a civilian government.

Today in Tahrir Square, Copts and moderates find themselves in the middle of what they view as two evils. “The [Muslim] Brotherhood’s policies are evident through its history and culture of oppressing non-Muslims and opposing western civilization and democracy,” said Magdi Khalil. “At the same time, the military council is continuing the same discrimination toward religious minorities that we saw under Mubarak. Neither the Brotherhood or the military council is good for us.”

Washington, D.C. (September 16, 2011) – International Christian Concern (ICC) commends the Obama administration’s designation of eight nations as “countries of particular concern” (CPCs) – a classification appointed to countries that severely violate religious freedom – in the State Department’s Annual Report on International Religious Freedom released on Tuesday. However, the report failed to designate Egypt as a CPC despite the increase of violence targeting religious minorities and the killings of more than fifty Christians in 2011.

On April 28, the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission, had recommended for the first time that the State Department designate Egypt as a CPC. “Instances of severe religious freedom violations engaged in or tolerated by the government have increased dramatically,” said USCIRF Chair Leonard Leo. “Since President Mubarak’s resignation from office in February, such violence continues unabated without the government’s bringing the perpetrators to justice.”

Attacks against Egyptian Christians in 2011 include, but are not limited to:

•    The bombing outside the Church of the Two Saints on New Year’s morning that killed 23 worshippers leaving a midnight mass celebration in Alexandria.

•    The destruction of a church by a Muslim mob following reports of a romantic relationship between a Christian man and a Muslim woman in the village of Sol on March 5.

•    The killing of nine Coptic Christians by a radical mob and the Egyptian military while Copts were protesting in the Mokattam Hills in Cairo on March 9.

•    The killing of twelve Christians and Muslims by an Islamist group that attacked St. Mina Church and Virgin Mary Church in the Imbaba district of Cairo on May 7. One church was burned to the ground and numerous Christian-owned apartments and shops were vandalized and looted.

Egyptian Christians are also concerned that religious freedom will decline further if Islamist-based parties win the majority seat in Egypt’s parliament in elections scheduled for November. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party is the most organized and financed contender in the elections and has publicly stated their intention to institute forms of Sharia (Islamic law) in the country.

While the U.S. gives 1.3 billion dollars in foreign military assistance to the Egyptian government annually, a CPC designation can carry economic sanctions if the Egyptian government fails to address U.S. concerns. Several U.S. congressmen have voiced frustration to ICC over the “illogical” approach taken by the U.S. in continuing to give billions of dollars in aid to a government that is yet to be elected and that may not be interested in honoring previous agreements made between the U.S. and Egypt, like maintaining a peace treaty with Israel.

“Egypt should be classified as a CPC,” Coptic scholar Magdi Khalil told ICC. “Further monitoring of persecution, like the special envoy to promote religious freedom in the Middle East known as [house bill] H.R. 440, would be pushed forward quicker and taken more seriously if Egypt was a CPC.”

Aidan Clay, ICC Regional Manager for the Middle East, said, “In light of increasing attacks on Christian communities and the Egyptian government’s failure to enhance security and institute nondiscriminatory reforms to protect religious minorities, we urge the Obama administration to strongly consider designating Egypt as a CPC. A CPC designation will give the U.S. additional leverage to place sanctions on existing military and emergency economic aid and to direct a portion of that aid to enhance security for religious minorities and fund civil society groups who are adamant about promoting religious freedom.”

Just weeks before the attacks on St. Mina Church and Virgin Mary Church in Imbaba on May 7, Coptic Christians had received warnings by Salafists, a radical Islamist group, that there “will be blood” if anyone showed up to St. Mark’s Cathedral in the Abbassia district in Cairo. In response, hundreds of Coptic Christians protested outside the cathedral that April day making a “human shield” around the cathedral to protect the church and its clergy.

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

A radical mob throws a Coptic family’s furniture from the rooftop of their home near St. Mina Church in Imbaba, Cairo on May 7, 2011. A number of Coptic-owned homes and businesses were attacked and one church was burned to the ground.12 people were killed and more than 200 were wounded from the day’s violence.

In this video, a radical Islamist mob, known as Salafists, storm into Virgin Mary Church in Cairo before setting the building on fire. The video captures the mob breaking windows and destroying furniture. Notice that one person is clearly holding a pistol before heading upstairs where Coptic Christians are hiding. At least 12 people were killed and more than 200 were wounded in the May 7th attack. In all, two churches and surrounding Coptic-owned homes were targeted by the extremists.