ICC Note: In the last seven weeks, Egyptian Christians have suffered some dozen religious motivated violence. Over this past weekend of the 16th, there were three attacks alone. Those included murder, arson and mob violence. Sectarian violence seems to be ever on the rise in the North African country, despite the government’s claimed dedication to protecting religious minorities. Christians have been repeatedly targeted by mobs of angry Muslims, usually incited to violence at their local mosque.

07/20/2016 Egypt (WWM): Since May 2016, Egypt’s Christians have suffered multiple attacks.

Reflecting what most Copts see as the country turning a blind eye to increased violence against its Christian minority, the Coptic Church’s Bishop Makarius tweeted on 17 July “reminding” president Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi that Copts “are Egyptian citizens”, and that his diocese of Minya “falls within the country’s jurisdiction”.

On 7 July, the bishop said Egypt was “diseased” with discrimination. Home to nearly double the national average of 10% of Christians, Makarius’s diocese of Minya and Abu-Qurqas has seen a number of attacks.

• 17 July: One Christian was killed and three others were injured in an assault at a Coptic priest’s family home in the village of Tahna el-Gabal, Minya (250km south of Cairo). Reports by mainstream Egyptian media said the incident was due to a “scuffle” involving Muslims and Christians, but sources closely following the incident said it was a “deliberate attack on the priest” who was thought to be trying to open up a church building authorities had refused to license.

• 16 July: Christians woke up to find a fire raging at 3am inside the village church in Madamoud, Luxor (650km south of Cairo). According to the local priest the rescue services came one hour later, after fire had already gutted the church. Fr. Paulos Atta told World Watch Monitor he could easily rule out the presence of any physical cause to the fire inside the church, which lies in an area where Christians mainly live. An investigation into the incident is still pending.

• 15 July: five homes belonging to Copts were looted and torched in a village off Abu-Qurqas, Minya, after it was rumoured that a building – home to a church-run nursery – was being turned into a church.

• 9 July: In Zagazig (83km northeast of Cairo), two women were attacked as they were leaving the town’s Anba Karas Church. Ahmed Adel Kamel, a second-year pharmaceutical student stabbed both women in the neck. The two Christians were rushed to hospital in a critical condition, while the young man was arrested. WWM learnt from the husband of one of the victims that the perpetrator twice admitted to police that he was carrying out the attack “following the Islamic State’s instructions”.

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