Increasing Number of Attacks on Christian Copts in Egypt

Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) is very concerned about the situation of the minority of the Copts in Egypt. The Copts, most of them Orthodox Christians, make up 6 to 10 per cent of Egypt’s approximately 76 million people. In the past they have been harassed by Muslim Egyptians, the majority of the population, repeatedly.

One of the latest attacks on the Copt minority took place on Friday May 11, 2007, in Bamha, Egypt, 24 kilometers south of Cairo. Rumors had circulated among Muslims that the Copts of the village were planning to convert a house that they used for prayers into a church. After a Friday evening prayer about 300 Muslims gathered and attacked the Copts. They burned down 27 homes and shops. At least 10 Copts – including several women – were injured.

According to Egyptian law, such church construction is only allowed through presidential decree. Mosques, however, are not subject to this regulation – an evidence of the discrimination against the Christian Copts in Egypt.

Furthermore, the Copt population faces state discrimination. Proper representation in the government is denied to them. Furthermore, they do not have equal access to education or equal opportunities in recruitment and promotion. As a result, very few of them become teachers and professors. For Copts, the enrolment in military schools and police academies is restricted, too.

There are also reports on incidents of forced conversion to Islam through rape, marriage, change of legal name and violence.

The ceaseless discrimination against the Copts as well as increasing intolerance among Muslims and the spread of the Muslim Brotherhood have led to more and more tensions between the two groups.

On June 8, 2007, these tensions erupted with another violent conflict. Militant Islamists attacked a Christian Copt quarter of Zawyet Abdel-Qader, a city 30 kilometers north of Alexandria. They destroyed several Copt houses and stores, and injured 7 Christians. The militants had gathered after their noontime prayer and took up weapons before marching into the Copt part of town. After one and a half hours police ended the conflict.

Only four days later, on June 12, 2007, militant Islamists also attacked the „Church of the Holy Virgin” in Dekheila, 8 kilometers away from Alexandria, after a conflict between a Copt and a Muslim had escalated.

The Ibn Khaldoun Research Center has documented violent attacks on Copts in Egypt for decades: Over 120 major attacks on Copt persons, their churches, their homes and their businesses took place in the last four decades. In the same time period, more than 4,000 Copts were killed or injured. Many of these attacks took place on Fridays, after the Muslim prayers in mosques. Most of the assaults were not committed by militants but ordinary people from the neighborhoods. As a result, many Copts have chosen emigration to other countries, mainly the United States, over the alternative of living as second-class citizens in an increasingly Islamic Egypt in recent years.

Considering the strongly discriminated situation of the Copts in Egypt, STP urged the EU’s foreign ministers to discuss this issue with the Egyptian government and its representatives. We asked them to put pressure on the country to meliorate the living conditions for this Christian minority. As a necessary measure in this process, we suggested that the Egyptian government overhauls educational curricula, emphasizing the principles of citizenship and human rights. Both sides have to be educated to tolerate each other in order to achieve true religious freedom in Egypt.

Furthermore, STP emphasized that it is crucial that Copts receive proportionate representation in the government and that they have to have equal access to education and jobs. If no better future can be secured for the Copt minority, violent clashes will become even more frequent, and the number of Copts emigrating to other countries will further increase. With the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, assaults on the Christian Cops have both grown in frequency and in intensity. Thus, we pointed out that protection of the Copts, their town quarters, churches, houses and their property also needs to be guaranteed. Only if the minority of the Copts can feel safe again their exodus to other countries will be stopped.