II. Sectarian tension and violence

13. The village of Nazlat Roman, located in the district of Abu Qurqas in the governorate of Minya, witnessed clashes between Christians and Muslims on 16 February 2009, following disputes related to a feud. Members of the family of Safwat Asaad, Christians, and the family of Nadi Siddiq, Muslims, fought with clubs and stones in the Christian-majority village, during which seven people on both sides were injured. After the clashes, police arrested some 20 people, both Muslims and Copts. Eyewitnesses say that the clashes began when a Muslim verbally harassed a Christian girl while she was walking with her brother in the village, after which members of both families intervened, but the sources agreed that there have been tensions between Muslims and Christians in the village over the last three years as a result of a blood feud involving the death of a Coptic man at the hands of a village Muslim in 2006. The case was closed for insufficient evidence.

Information gathered by EIPR researchers indicates that all those detained were released, with the exception of two Copts, who are being held under the provisions of the Emergency Law in the Borg al-Arab prison near Alexandria, and a Muslim who is being held at Cairo’s Abu Zaabal prison.

14. On 26 February 2009, reportedly 500 Copts assembled in front of the Orthodox Coptic Bishopric in the city of Mallawi in Minya to protest the disappearance of a 17-year-old Christian girl after rumors spread that the girl ran away with a Muslim from the city. A church source told EIPR researchers, “The girl was not abducted. She was convinced by a Muslim boy to leave school and she ran away with him. She went to his house and refused to return. After the people assembled, State Security intervened upon receiving a call from a priest, fearing that the situation would devolve. Security forces took the girl from the young man’s house to the Naga Hamadi police station, and the crowd of Christians moved from the bishopric to there, waiting for her to be returned to her family. The security forces turned the girl over to her family at about midnight the same day, and they took her to live outside the Mallawi district.” EIPR researchers were unable to obtain independent information regarding the condition of the girl or her family or their place of residence.

15. On 28 February 2009, the village of Damas, located in the district of Miyyit Ghamr in the Daqahliya governorate, was the site of clashes following rumors of a romantic relationship between a Christian boy and a Muslim girl in the village. One Muslim in the village, suspecting that his sister was involved with an 18-year-old Christian boy, poured kerosene on him and lit it. The Christian managed to jump in a canal to put out the flames, but villagers assembled and there were clashes between members of the two families involving knives. The fight left the father of the Christian boy dead and his brother with a head injury. Security forces arrested the perpetrator (24 years old) and transferred him to the prosecutor’s office. The case had not yet been referred to trial at the time this report was issued.

16. On 6 March 2009, a call went out over the internet to boycott Coptic businesses in Egypt. The message, titled A Boycott of Egypt’s Christians, was posted on several websites and sent out through email, accompanied by a list of companies that the perpetrators, whose identity is unknown, claimed were owned by Egyptian Christians. Those responsible said they launched the campaign after the Egyptian government “turned over Muslim women to the prisons of the Coptic church,” a reference to Christian women who had converted to Islam before the security apparatus returned them to their families or the church following demands by Copts. The electronic campaign sparked several angry reactions and criticisms from both Muslim and Christian writers.

17. A Muslim and a Christian family were involved in a fight on the evening of 24 March 2009, in the village of Harif al-Sheikh Tami, located in the Abu Qurqas district of Minya. The local Church of the Archangel Michael was pelted with rocks during the fight and some of its windows were broken. According to information obtained by EIPR researchers from villagers, the fight between the Muslim Sharqawi family and the Christian Barsoum family began when Muslim children were playing soccer and the ball landed in agricultural land owned by the Christian family. Information gathered by the EIPR indicates that there was an ongoing dispute between the two families about where to install a water pump. Sources say that members of the two families fought with clubs and stones, as a result of which four people were injured. The police arrested some ten people from both sides and questioned them before releasing them all on 29 March 2009, after they agreed to reconcile.

18. In late March, the governorate of Sohag saw unprecedented sectarian assaults on Baha'i citizens. On the evening of 28 March 2009, dozens of residents of al-Shuraniya, located in the Maragha district of Sohag, gathered outside the homes of Baha'i families in the village after a television program was aired that featured a local Baha'i resident. The people assembled began chanting “There is no god but God, the Baha'is are the enemies of God,” after which they pelted the houses with stones, broke windows, and attempted to enter. According to statements given to EIPR researchers by the victims, the police who arrived in the village after being called by the victims dispersed those assembled and arrested six people, although they quickly released them after forcing one victim to reconcile with them following promises from security and the detainees that the incident would not be repeated. Similar, though less serious attacks followed on 29 and 30 March.

On 31 March, at about 7 pm, the attacks escalated when several villagers, who are known to the victims, threw improvised firebombs and Molotov cocktails at the homes of the five Baha'i families in the village, as a result of which the homes were partially burned. The residents of the houses said that the assailants disabled the water connections to their homes to prevent them from putting out the fires. According to the victims, the assailants also broke into the homes, vandalized the contents, and stole some electrical appliances and livestock. There were no injuries or loss of life in the attacks, but they prompted some Baha'i families to flee their homes and hide in the surrounding fields until the morning. The police arrived during the attacks and stopped the assailants, although there is no indication that they arrested anyone. On the morning of 1 April the police ordered the remaining Baha'is in the village to leave immediately, without allowing them to return to their homes to pick up clothing, medicine, schoolbooks, money or other necessities. Information indicates that not one Baha'i remained in the village as of the evening of 1 April.

The assaults on Baha'is in al-Shuraniya began after an episode of the program, “al-Haqiqa,” aired on Dream 2 on Saturday evening, 28 March 2009; the episode focused on Baha'i celebrations for the holiday of Nawruz on 21 March and featured a Baha'i resident of al-Shuraniya, the Baha'i activist and dentistry professor Dr. Basma Gamal Musa. Also participating in the program was Gamal Abd al-Rahim, a journalist at the state-owned al-Gomhouriya newspaper and a member of the Press Syndicate. During the broadcast, al-Rahim referred to Dr. Musa saying, “This one should be killed.” On 31 March, only hours before Baha'i homes were torched, al-Gomhouriya published an article by Gamal Abd al-Rahim in which he commended the residents of al-Shuraniya for throwing stones at the homes of Baha'is in the previous days, considering these crimes evidence of their “protectiveness of their religion and faith.”

On 2 April, the EIPR and five other rights organizations filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding the events in al-Shuraniya, asking the office to launch an immediate investigation to identify those responsible for the assaults and refer the perpetrators to criminal courts. The organizations also demanded that the investigation identify those responsible for directly inciting to these crimes and hold them criminally accountable. The Public Prosecutor did indeed begin an investigation into the assaults in al-Shuraniya on 4 April, and following the accusations leveled by the rights organizations at Gamal Abd al-Rahim, the Giza prosecutor’s office began an independent investigation on charges of incitement to murder against Dr. Musa by the journalist. Neither of the two cases had been referred to court at the time this report was issued.

On 5 April, the National Council for Human Rights issued a press release concerning the events, saying that what the Baha'is experienced was “a regrettable testament to the absence of a bare minimum of a culture of rights and a lack of proper understanding of the Islamic faith, its laws, and its manner of treating those who disagree with it. This absence promises negative repercussions that could harm the very essence of democracy and the sovereignty of law. These are the two pillars of our constitutional and political system, give true expression to our Arab and Islamic culture, and are the foundation of the principle of citizenship, which was affirmed by Article 1 of the amended Constitution.” The Council urged “preachers and intellectuals to address the public with the spirit of tolerance, faith in the freedom of thought and belief, and acceptance of others, in accordance with the law, public order and morals and the actions of state authorities. This is what the entire media should focus on.”