ICC Note: Mob violence in Egypt is being used to terrorize Christians praying in their homes. According to reports, mobs of Muslims have attacked multiple Christian homes in Upper Egypt because of house church activities. This violence is also affecting the process of badly needed churches being recognized under the 2016 revised law.  ‘Security concerns’ are often used to oppose the recognition of an official church by local officials.  

09/04/2018 Egypt (World Watch Monitor) – Houses of Copts have again come under attack by a mob in a village in Minya Governorate on 31 August as a protest against Copts praying in a home owned by one of them, since there is no village church, Wataninet reports.

World Watch Monitor last week reported that at least 8 churches have had to be closed across nearby Luxor governorate, as mob rule has meant that churches in process of being officially licensed cannot complete this process due to ‘security’ concerns.

Last week too, Watani reported that, of over 3700 churches seeking to be recognized under a 2016 revised law, only 220 have completed this in the 11 months since the Cabinet committee started to license them – leaving 3510 applications still waiting. At this rate, says Watani, it will take 17 years to review all the ‘unofficial’ churches which re-applied to be formally recognized. Many have waited around 15-20 years already to be registered by the state.

The village of Dimshau Hashim, 250km south of Cairo, is home to 30,000 people, including a small Coptic community of 450.

The Friday attack, reported to involve hundreds of locals, left two Copts injured by knife in the head and face. Four properties were looted, destroyed and partially set on fire. While doing this, the Muslim mob was shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ [Allah is the greatest] and chanting slogans against Copts.

According to World Watch Monitor’s local source, a few days before the incident, the Coptic community had received a warning about the attack planned for Friday, and reported it to the police. However, it was not prevented and the police arrived at the scene three hours after the attack was reported to them; it started after Friday prayers at 1pm and went on until 4pm, locals say.

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