ICC Note: Religiously motivated attacks against Christians in Egypt continue to escalate without proper recognition. While the authorities are forced to get involved, the targeted attacks are being written off as criminal and sectarian as opposed to discrimination. After the attacks, Christians are often forced to undergo reconciliation sessions in which local community leaders (Muslim leaders) force the minority group to agree to a solution of compensation outside of the real court system. This only furthers the deep seeded issue.

07/21/2016 Egypt (Daily News): Ongoing incidents, possibly sectarian-related, marked the Minya governorate this week, amid increased condemnation by defenders of religious freedoms and a few politicians, who demanded that the state seek firm solutions to end sectarian attacks.

Minya prosecution authorities ordered the detention of five people suspected of murdering a young Coptic man who was killed in Minya’s village of Tahna El-Gabal earlier this week, state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram reported Tuesday.

The suspects are five young Muslim men aged between 17 and 22. However, Al-Ahram quoted Minya Governor Tarek Nasr describing the incident as “criminal”, and not “sectarian”.

Moreover, he claimed that the suspects were on their way to place flowers on their deceased friend’s tomb. However, they passed by a neighbourhood of Christian families on their way to the cemetery, and were prevented from going through on the grounds that “children were playing on the streets”.

This narrative differed from that of Archbishop Makarios of Minya, who said that what actually sparked the incident was a fight between children from Muslim and Coptic families, which then escalated.

On Sunday evening, the families of two priests from Minya were reportedly assaulted with knives by an angry mob, leaving one dead and three injured. “It would be too early to define whether the motives were sectarian or not at this stage, but in the matter of five minutes the number of those attacking the Copts doubled, and then tripled. They went to the mayor for help rescuing them from the attack, but he did not respond to them for more than half an hour, thus allowing the fight to take place,” said John Beshry, representative of the Free Egyptians Party (FEP).

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