II. Sectarian Tension and Violence

9. On 10 October 2009 an unknown person broke two crosses at the top of the Martyr Abu Fam al-Gindi Church in the district of Tama in Sohag. According to a priest with the church, the person climbed the stairs of the church’s bell tower to reach the two plaster crosses at the top, vandalizing them while uttering religious expressions; he escaped before he could be identified or arrested.

Father Hadra Lodim, the church priest, told EIPR researchers that priests informed State Security police about the incident, after which both the director of Sohag security and the chief of criminal investigations came to the church and wrote out a police report. The Public Prosecutor’s Office also started an investigation into the matter. The prosecutor ordered the speedy apprehension of the perpetrator, but he had not been arrested at the time this report was written. Father Hadra stressed the good Muslim-Christian relations in the area, which has not seen any sectarian tension in the past.

10. On 22 October 2009, the Qena security apparatus convened a reconciliation meeting to end a vendetta between the Muslim Hadadil family and the Coptic al-Suleiman family in the village of Higaza Qibli, located in the Qus district of Qena, in an attempt to prevent the vendetta from leading to sectarian clashes. The meeting was attended by General Magdi Ayoub, the governor of Qena; General Mahmoud Gawhar, the director of Qena security; and General Mohamed Badr, the director of the governorate’s criminal police division, as well as several MPs from Qena and many executive and popular leaders. All in all more than 5,000 people were in attendance.

In 2004, the village was the scene of a fight between the two families that left Mohamed Said, a member of the Hadadil family, dead. Three members of the al-Suleiman family were given three-year prison terms following the incident on conviction of charges of manslaughter. The security apparatus then forced approximately 22 Christian families to leave their homes and the village.

In April 2009, five members of the Hadadil family killed two Copts on the eve of Easter, Hadra Adib Said, 26, a member of the al-Suleiman family, and his friend Amir Estefanos Khalil, 27. Mina Samir Gadallah, 25, was injured (see paragraph 11 of the Second Quarterly Report, 2009). The perpetrators were arrested and questioned by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which referred them to the Luxor Criminal Court on charges of premeditated murder. The trial has been completed and the verdict is to be announced on 22 February 2010.

Several members of both families shook hands at the reconciliation meeting, after which both families erected mourning tents for three days; neither family had done so in the wake of the death of their kin, out of desire to seek vengeance first.

The family of Amir Estefanos Khalil did not take part in the reconciliation meeting in October. Estefanos Khalil, Amir’s father, told EIPR researchers that his son had been “a victim of the vendetta” even though he was not a member of the al-Suleiman family. He said that MPs and Father Beiman, the bishop of Qus, had asked him to attend, but he said that there was no need because he intended to harm no one. He also criticized the way the security apparatus had dealt with the disappearance of his daughter Amal Estafanos, born on 17 October 1990; Amal disappeared on 12 September 2009. Security informed the girl’s mother that she had converted to Islam. Khalil said that security denied his request to meet with his daughter, to confirm that her conversion was voluntary. He added that when he obtained a copy of his daughter’s birth certificate on 25 October, she was still registered as a Christian, which means that she had not converted to Islam as of that date.

11. On 24 October 2009, the city of Dayrut in Assyout witnessed extensive sectarian attacks that targeted three churches, the Coptic bishopric and Christian-owned properties, including pharmacies, shops, cars and homes. The attacks took place after a court order was issued renewing the remand of four Muslims accused of murdering Copt Farouq Henry, 61. Henry was killed on 20 October after video footage circulated in the city allegedly showing Henry’s son having sex with a Muslim girl related to the four defendants. The girl’s relatives attacked the father of the Christian boy, shooting him in front of a primary school in the Dayrut district. He was killed on the spot while two Muslims present on the scene were injured. Security arrested the four suspects within 24 hours and referred them to the prosecutor’s office, which charged them with premeditated murder and ordered them remanded for four days pending an investigation into case no. 5632/2009/administrative/Dayrut. Security forces intensified their presence in the city after the incident fearing sectarian clashes.
 
On the morning of 24 October, during the remand hearing, hundreds of Muslims gathered in front of the Dayrut municipal building waiting for the release of the four defendants, but they were detained for an additional 15 days. After the order was issued and the news spread, at about 10:30 am, some 2,000 Muslims headed to a residential area that is home to several Coptic-owned pharmacies and shops — specifically the Abu Gabal area — carrying clubs, sticks and iron implements and chanting religious slogans. They attacked churches and the diocese building, and vandalized and looted Coptic property. Eyewitnesses told EIPR researchers that security forces did not intervene to stop the assailants until about 3 pm.

According to information obtained by the EIPR, assailants threw stones at the historic Church of Abu Seifein and the Virgin, breaking windows and its facade. They also attacked the Church of the Virgin, where the bishopric is located, throwing stones that broke its doors and the glass facade. The same thing was repeated at the Evangelical Church and the Church of the Archangel. The charitable clinic run by the Catholic church in Dayrut, which serves both Christians and Muslims in the district, was also attacked. The assailants attacked the pharmacy of Dr. Hani Hakim; its glass facade was broken and money and pharmaceuticals were stolen. The pharmacy of Dr. Ramsis Hanas was also attacked and looted, and Hanas’s leg was broken as he tried to prevent the assailants from entering the pharmacy. Pharmacies owned by Dr. Adel Shawqi and Dr. Emad Kamal on al-Muallimin St. were also attacked. Several shops were broken into and also looted, including Hamis’ ladies hair salon, Kiro’s glass shop, Andrew’s mobile phone shop, Ghawi Khusara’s mobile phone shop, the Khan al-Khalili clothes shop, the GB clothes shop and Liliane’s clothes shop. The assailants threw bricks at homes inhabited by Copts and also vandalized four cars owned by Christians.

The day after these events, security arrested 30 people; five were released and the remainder were referred to the Dayrut Public Prosecutor’s Office, which placed them under preventive detention pending an investigation into charges of assembly, vandalism, theft and the destruction of private and public property. On 24 and 25 October, the police and the Prosecutor’s Office surveyed the damage. According to a report in the daily newspaper al-Masry al-Youm on 26 October 2009, the prosecutor surveyed damage to eight shops, two pharmacies, two clinics and three cars owned by Christians in the Abu Gabal area.

On 29 and 30 October, new rumors spread and a flyer titled “Join”— a copy of which was obtained by the EIPR — was circulated calling for revenge against several people, among them a priest, a well-known lawyer, two brothers who own an optometry shop and a person who owns a hair salon and photography studio. The flyer named these individuals after rumors spread in the town that they were involved in producing and distributing the sex video of the Coptic boy and the Muslim girl, as part of an organized attempt to film Muslim women in sexually compromising positions in order to offend Muslims.

On 8 November, the Dayrut Public Prosecutor released six suspects, extended the remand of 19 others and referred them to a Dayrut criminal trial in case no. 16581/2009. On 13 December 2009, the court, headed by Judge Khaled Mustafa, acquitted all defendants of all charges. According to various press reports, the court based its ruling on the lack of eyewitnesses in the case and inconsistent statements between the defendants and victims. The EIPR was unable to obtain a copy of the ruling. The Public Prosecutor appealed and a hearing on the appeal is set for 16 February 2010.

Christian clerics and some eyewitnesses told EIPR researchers that calm had returned to Dayrut and that the panic that seized Christians following the attacks had begun to reside. Some of the facilities that were attacked resumed business three days after the attacks.

12. On 27 October, the village of Nazlat al-Badraman in the Deir Mawas district of Minya was the scene of sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christians after Muslims protested the renovation of the bell tower of the Mar Girgis Church; those in charge of the church had obtained all the necessary permits from the competent authorities. The clashes left at least three people injured, among them a Muslim child, a Central Security officer, and a Christian teacher who was beaten inside a grocery store she owns. The church facade was damaged and some homes and property of local Christians were vandalized, including five cars, a cement warehouse and a sawmill; the contents of a private car were also stolen.

Father Sarabamun Agaban, the priest of the Mar Girgis Church, told EIPR researchers that the church had obtained a permit to demolish the old bell tower and build a new one in its place. When the renovation began, a resident of the village — Sabra Ahmed Saleh, 30 — and two other locals arrived and prevented the workers from working. Father Agaban said that he gathered together the workers and Christians present and took them into the church to protect them. The chief watchman in the village came with another watchman and attempted to stand up to Sabra, who told them, “I’ll stop the construction even if State Security comes.” Soon after, dozens of Muslims carrying canes and bricks assembled. The village mayor, Saber Moussa, then arrived and ordered the chief watchman to fire a few shots in the air to disperse the assembled crowd, at which point some 200 Muslims headed for the village streets where Christians live, attacking homes and destroying property. They entered several homes and broke electrical appliances, door and windows. Eyewitnesses said that these attacks did not last long and broke up before security forces reached the village.

That same evening and the following day, security forces arrested 22 Muslims and referred them to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, where they were questioned and charged with vandalizing a church, inflaming strife, assembly, terrorizing citizens and disturbing the public order; they were detained for four days pending an investigation. On 30 October, the prosecutor released 17 of the suspects and renewed the remand of the remaining five, who were later released after a reconciliation agreement was filed with the prosecutor’s office. On 30 October, security also arrested a Christian, Magdi Nagib Tawfiq, known as Fidi, and charged him with assaulting a Muslim named Mustafa Shaaban during the events. He was brought before the prosecutor, who detained him for four days pending an investigation; he was released at the end of the four-day period.

A customary reconciliation meeting was held on 29 October, attended by General Mustafa Tawfiq, the former director of security in Aswan and a prominent native of the village; his brother Ahmed Tawfiq, a member of the Shura Council for Deir Mawas; Alaa Hassanein, an MP for the district; and Father Sarabamun Agaban, the church pastor. Reconciliation was concluded at the meeting and Copts agreed to withdraw all criminal charges “to restore friendship, coexistence and calm to the village,” according to a statement by the priest. The Muslims present pledged not to harm Christians or attack their property or homes. It was also agreed to compensate some Christians for the damages, donated by General Mustafa Tawfiq who also supplied the funds to repair the damaged cars owned by Copts. The reconciliation also stated that renovation would resume on the church bell tower, and work began on 1 November, amid a heavy security presence outside the church. Construction was underway at the time this report was written.

13. At dawn on 28 October 2009, a tailoring and cloth shop owned by a Copt Noshi Shenouda Boulos in the city of Esna, located in the Luxor governorate, was torched and the contents burned. The fire took place after an argument between Boulos and his Muslim neighbor, Murtada al-Sayyed al-Sadeq, the owner of a barbershop, over the latter playing radio recitations of the Qur’an at a high volume.

Boulos told EIPR researchers that his neighbor had played the Qur’an at an extremely loud volume all day, making it hard for him to deal with customers, and that this problem was long-standing. Two years ago, the Esna police issued a warning to the barbershop owner to lower the volume of his radio and/or television, which he heeded. But starting last Ramadan he began playing the Qur’an at high volume again and continued after the conclusion of Ramadan; his son would also stand at the door of Boulos’s shop and repeatedly voice religious expressions. Boulos said that the evening before his shop was torched, he had argued with al-Sadeq over this issue and that during the fight al-Sadeq insulted him with religious smears and threatened to burn down his shop.

Boulos told EIPR researchers that at 3 am on 28 October, he received a call from his neighbor, Abd al-Baset Abd al-Salam, telling him that his shop was on fire. Boulos called the police, and the police and the prosecutor’s office came to confirm and survey the losses. He also informed them about his previous arguments with his neighbor. After being summoned for questioning, al-Sadeq denied any connection with the fire. Several neighbors intervened and, estimating the damage to be in the range of LE4,000, suggested that each party shoulder half the cost. They agreed and filed a reconciliation report promising not to harm one another; Boulos also withdrew his charge against al-Sadeq. Faisal Abd al-Rahman, an MP for the Esna district, conducted another reconciliation meeting attended by nearly 300 citizens, among them Muslim and Christian clerics, to calm sectarian tensions in the city.

Esna had witnessed violent sectarian clashes in December 2007 during which Coptic-owned shops were torched and destroyed, the facade of the Church of the Virgin was smashed and the Three Farmers Shrine was vandalized, following a dispute between a Christian and a Muslim.

14. On 6 November, a fight between Muslims and Christians in Ezbat Shahin, located in the city of Minya, turned into sectarian attacks that left three Copts injured, three livestock pens torched, a car vandalized and the fronts of several homes vandalized. According to information received by the EIPR, the fight erupted between Reda Yehya Kamal, a Christian, and several Muslims after Kamal ran into some Muslim children on his motorbike at about 9 pm. The fight was broken up, but the same evening, several Muslims attacked Kamal’s house, throwing stones at it and setting fire to three livestock pens he owns. Kamal and his two brothers, Ashraf and Sherif, were injured during the attacks. The same group vandalized several nearby homes, as well as a car owned by a Muslim that was parked in the street. Security forces reached the village after the violence erupted and took control of the situation, arresting eight people, among them three Copts, and referring them to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which charged them with vandalizing private property and disturbing public order. Although the suspects were released four days later, the Interior Ministry issued administrative detention orders for three of them, among them Sherif Kamal; all three were transferred to the New Valley Prison.

An eyewitness told EIPR researchers that the two parties conducted a reconciliation meeting the day after the events, in which it was agreed that they would declare their reconciliation before a prosecutor. Nevertheless, the Interior Ministry had not released the three detainees at the time this report was written. Father Sharubim Hanna, the priest at the Church of the Archangel in Ezbat Shahin, added that Coptic-Muslim relations in the town were strong and that “the whole story is just a dispute between two young men. It happens everywhere, and some people just inflated it, and then people assembled and attacked some homes. Right now things are calm, and security and representatives from the People’s Assembly, Shura Council and local council helped achieve this.”

15. On the evening of 15 November 2009, some 100 Muslims amassed and attacked an apartment holding two Christian young men and three Muslim young women in the city of Mallawi in Minya, after a rumor spread in the city that they were engaged in sex in the apartment. One of the young Christians was beaten and stabbed several times in the head and ear while the other managed to escape. Assembled Muslims then walked through the city streets chanting anti-Christian slogans and throwing stones at some Coptic-owned shops, damaging the storefronts of several of them and one pharmacy. Following security directives, Coptic owners of the shops had closed their doors as soon the attacks began.

Security forces arrived after the events began and managed to take control of the assembled crowd, imposing a curfew and warning Christians to stay in their homes. The injured man was taken to the Mallawi General Hospital, but the hospital refused to admit him because of his poor condition and he was taken to the Assyout University Hospital. The police station filed a police report, no. 3987/2009/administrative/Mallawi.

Church sources in Mallawi told EIPR researchers that security acted quickly to contain the crisis and was able to protect Christians’ property from attack. Father Moussa Girgis said that the injured young man and the three Muslim girls were still detained at the time this report was written.

16. Copts were targeted in large-scale sectarian attacks in the Farshout and Abu Tisht districts of Qena starting on Thursday, 19 November 2009, through Monday, 23 November. According to information obtained by the EIPR, large crowds of Muslims, sometimes as many as a few thousand, moved at different times during this period and in various areas and villages in the two districts, attacking many Christian-owned shops, pharmacies, cars, homes and fields; church sources estimated the damage at LE4.39 million.

The attacks began when a Muslim family from the village of al-Shoqeifi in the Abu Tisht district lodged an official complaint on 18 November accusing a Christian, Girgis Baroumi Girgis, 21, a resident of al-Kom al-Ahmar in Farshout, of raping their 12-year-old daughter after forcing her into a nearby agricultural field. Security forces arrested the suspect the same day the complaint was filed; he was questioned by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and remanded for four days pending an investigation.

The following day some villages in the Farshout district, as well as some in the neighboring Abu Tisht district, began to show signs of rising sectarian tensions until they exploded on 21-23 November.

On 19 November, Father Benjamin Noshi, the pastor at the Church of the Archangel and St. Shenouda, located in the Khawalid village of Abu Tisht, was returning to his home in al-Qalaiya in his car with a deacon, Murtada Gaber Rizqallah, when a group of young men carrying canes, knives and firearms stopped the car right before al-Shoqeifi, the home of the raped Muslim girl. Father Benjamin told EIPR researchers that the men attacked them and broke the car windshield even though a police car was nearby. He called for help from the police, but they took no action. He added that the deacon was later admitted to the Abu Tisht Hospital with a head wound and bruising behind his ear. He filed a police report about the incident, after which his car was taken to the police station for inspection to confirm the report. On 21 November, he decided to withdraw the complaint “out of fear of abuse,” he said.

On Friday, 20 November, the security apparatus asked 15 Christian families in al-Kom al-Ahmar, the residence of the rape suspect, to leave the village immediately for fear of their lives. Church sources told the EIPR that some went to the St. Bedaba Monastery in Naga Hammadi, while others went to stay with relatives in other villages and cities. The sources added that several families returned to the village after the situation stabilized in early December, but not the family of the rape suspect.

At dawn on 21 November, things began to take a violent turn when fires erupted in three shops owned by Christians in Farshout. A Muslim eyewitness told EIPR researchers that he saw flames coming out of a clothing store across the street from his house at about 2:30 am. He informed the owner, Gamal Fahim, who called security and firefighters after which he went to the shop and, with the help of some neighbors and local residents, tried in vain to put out the fire; all the contents of the shop were ultimately destroyed. On Saturday morning, priests warned Christians not to open their shops or pharmacies, fearing that some Muslims might harass them or attack their property.

The same morning, many Muslims, particularly from the al-Hawara tribe, to which the raped girl belonged, gathered in front of the Farshout police station demanding that security turn over the Christian man so he could be killed. Police refused. As a result of the gathering, the judge at the Farshout Criminal Court moved the investigation to the Qena Criminal Court, which later set the opening of the trial for 17 January 2010; the case was postponed to 17 February, when testimonies from the victim, her parents and forensic pathologists will be heard.

According to eyewitnesses, the crowd that gathered outside the police station that morning numbered several thousand and included Muslims from al-Shoqeifi and nearby villages as well as many Azhar students in Farshout. At about 11 am, the crowd began moving in separate groups carrying canes, gas canisters, knives and metal implements. They attacked Christian-owned property, broke down shop doors and burned them after looting their contents. Eyewitnesses, including Muslims, said that the assailants would open the doors of shops and pharmacies, and young boys would go in and steal the contents, after which the shops were set on fire.

The attacks continued without interruption until 10 pm, as the mobs moved from one area to another. Several victims and eyewitnesses stated that security arrived about 90 minutes after the assaults began, but did not engage with any of the assailants for several hours. The EIPR also received photos and video footage from the Naga Hammadi bishopric and some Coptic websites showing the assaults underway despite the presence of security forces nearby.

The security forces imposed order on Saturday evening, after calling for additional forces from the Sohag and Assyout governorates. Many sources told EIPR researchers that security forces arrested about 70 of the assailants and referred them to the prosecutor, who ordered the release of 15 minors to their families and three others, and remanded 52 others for 15 days pending an investigation; the suspects were charged with rioting, assembly, arson and destruction of private property. Throughout December and January, several of the detainees were released for various causes, but an unknown number were still detained at the time this report was written, with no indictment order issued so far.

The victims from Farshout filed a complaint with the General Prosecutor's Office in Qena, which sent a joint team from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the criminal investigations’ office and the city council to survey the shops damaged in the attacks.

The attacks spread to the village of Abu Shousha, located in the nearby Abu Tisht district, 30 km from al-Shoqeifi, where at dawn on 23 November, Albert’s Pharmacy and three other shops were torched: a textile store owned by Tamer Nagi Agaybi, a shoe shop and an appliance store owned by Iyad Shafiq, according to a statement from Father Boulos Nazir, a priest at the Abu Shousha church. The afternoon of the same day groups of Muslims set fire to houses, shops and property owned by Christians in al-Kom al-Ahmar.

In a telephone interview with EIPR researchers in late November 2009, Father Kyrillos, the bishop of Naga Hammadi, said that he had warned the security authorities before the attacks on 21 November and had asked them to step up the security presence in the area in fear of retaliation, particularly given the signs of rising tension. The bishop added that the church had called General Magdi Ayoub, the governor of Qena, after the attacks to ask for compensation for the victims, but he refused and turned the matter over to the director of security, who did not respond. Church sources estimate losses in the Farshout and Abu Tisht districts to exceed LE4.39 million. The attacks damaged five pharmacies, a tour bus, a transport truck, more than 50 shops and a Coptic association. The EIPR received a copy of the detailed inventory of the losses prepared by the church.

In the days following the attacks, the security apparatus convened small meetings with families in the villages of Farshout and Abu Tisht to warn them to maintain calm, refrain from attacking the lives or property of Christians and avoid listening to any incendiary ideas, according to a person who took part in one of these meetings. The security apparatus asked the church and the victims to convene a broad, official reconciliation meeting to cover the entire district of Farshout; the church refused, asking for compensation before the reconciliation meeting.

Sources told EIPR researchers during December 2009 that Father Kyrillos received promises from the Papal Office in Cairo that compensation would be disbursed before Christmas, but it did not arrive until 11 January 2010, after the Christmas Eve attacks in Naga Hammadi. A committee from the Ministry for Local Development disbursed compensation for the victims of the Farshout and Abu Tisht attacks in the amount of LE335,000, including LE250,000 from the Ministry of Local Development and LE85,000 from the Pharmacists Syndicate. Victims were eligible for LE1,200-30,000 depending on the value of losses incurred. The Public Prosecutor estimated that 42 shops, a pharmacy and a bookstore had been damaged, and 42 people were named eligible for compensation.

17. At dawn on 1 December 2009, a fire broke out in the St. Mark’s Church located in the center of the Coptic cemetery on Tirsa Road in the Sanouras district of Fayyoum. The fire destroyed the church altar, electrical appliances, the iconostasis and most of the wooden pews. Hegumen Mikhail Stras, the trustee of the Fayyoum bishopric, said that the church had no guard and that priests found that the lock on the gate had been broken. They also found two small gas canisters, one in the altar and another between the pews.

The EIPR learned from other local sources that security came to the church as soon as they were alerted to the fire and that the Fayyoum Prosecutor’s Office had launched an investigation to determine whether the fire was arson. The report from the criminal lab had not yet been issued as of the writing of this report, nor had permits to renovate the church, although local and security authorities have promised to issue the permits soon.