ICC Note: A series of violent incidents last week throughout Egypt specifically targeted Christians as the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha came to a close. Two churches were targeted by aggressive Muslim hardliners. In another church, a policeman tasked with protecting it instead interrupted the service to hurl violent insults against the congregation. In all incidents, the police either delayed protecting the Christians or behaved in a way which incites other types of violence.      

08/30/2018 Egypt (The Tablet) –  Last week, two churches in Egypt were subject to demonstrations by Muslim hardliners who prevented Coptic Christians from worshiping, claiming the churches are unlicensed. In a third incident, a police officer broke onto a church and screamed at the worshippers “Infidels … you are all infidels.”

On Saturday, Aug. 25, a member of the security forces responsible for securing St. George Church in Zaytoun village in Beni Suef governorate, about 75 miles south of Cairo, broke into the church and shouted, directing his speech to the priest and the worshippers, “You are infidels … all of you are infidels.”

Some of the worshipers managed to take the policeman outside the church. He was handed over to the other police officers responsible for securing the church then he was accompanied by a number of police commanders. According to police officers, he was suspended from the work and subjected to investigation.

On the previous morning, Muslim mobs demonstrated against a church in village of Sultan Basha in Minya governorate, about 155 miles south of Cairo, yelling, “We don’t want a church here.”

That afternoon, the mobs cut off electricity from the church to shut down the webcam, but the church operated it by a generator. It was the fourth time that hardliners in the village gathered to protest against churches. On July 6, 7 and 13, they protested against a new church, which had applied to authorities to get a license, but was closed down by security forces.

In recent weeks, Muslim hardliners in Sultan Basha village were harassing the Copts verbally, uprooting their field crops and damaging their irrigation pumps and intimidating them over the opening of the church.

In Luxor governorate, about 435 miles south of Cairo, Muslim mobs demonstrated against a church in al-Zeneeqa village in Esna, as far back as 2003. During the morning Mass on Aug. 22, when Copts were celebrating the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a mob shouted that they don’t want a church in their village.

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For interviews with Claire Evans, ICC’s Regional Manager, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: press@persecution.org.