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Anti-Christian Propaganda & Violence

The growth of militant Islam has rapidly gained momentum in Egypt since Sadat came to power in 1970. Soon after taking office President Sadat sought to establish a more Islamic basis for his regime in contrast to Nasser, during whose regime policies were influenced far more by radical socialism than by traditional Islam. In his effort to woo the support of militant Muslims, in particular the Muslim Brotherhood (whom Nasser had politically marginalized by force), Sadat relaxed the state's restrictions on Islamic militants and began a campaign against the Church. The late Egyptian President accused Christians, American imperialists and Zionists of trying to destabilize the country. The Sadat regime also initiated its Islamization programe, borrowing heavily from the programe of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, and began to imprison converts from Islam to Christianity. Thus the policies of Sadat and his more moderate successor Hosni Mubarak are both a response to and a promoter of the increasing anti-Christian sentiment in society. The commencement of Sadat's policy of promoting Islam coincided with an intensification of unofficial and semi-official anti-Christian agitation and violence that has gathered force during the past two decades.

The government-controlled press, universities, mosques and Islamic associations engage in anti-Christian propaganda calculated to cast Christians in the light of dangerous alien elements within society. The opposition Socialist Labour Party accused members of the ruling National Democratic Party of distributing provocative leaflets in the Al-Zawya Al-Hamra district of Cairo in June 1981 just days before the outbreak of anti-Christian rioting resulting in many deaths, injuries and the massive destruction of property. Egyptian Christians regard the television preaching of the officially sponsored and nationally famous Sheikh Muhammad Mitwalli Al-Sharawi as one of the principal catalysts of prejudice and aggression amongst the Muslim masses against them. When, in the summer of 1981, the Coptic Orthodox priest Fr. Basili produced and circulated cassettes, in which he rebutted one of Sheikh Al-Sharawi's televised diatribes against Christianity, he was jailed. But there are many other Muslim preachers and organizations outside the control of the government that engage in blatant hatemongering and incite violence against Christians - e.g., Sheikh Abd al-Hamid Kishk, Sheikh Hafiz Salama, Sheikh 'Umar 'Abd al-Rahman, Sheikh Tariq of Assiut, The Youth of Muhammad, Society of Judgement for Apostacy, Jihad, The Islamic Liberation Army, God's Troops and Society to Command Right Behavior.

The government is in competition with demagogic Islamic preachers and shadowy militant Muslim organizations for the hearts and minds of Egyptian Muslims. Such militants regard Christians as subversive elements in Islamic society. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) has recently singled out Gamma Islamiyya for "spreading provocative rumours in which an unsubstantiated charge against certain persons is extended as an indictment against all citizens belonging to the Christian faith". "This", EOHR continues, "is accompanied by strong incitement to various forms of vengeance, killing and destruction directed against the lives and property of citizens of the Christian faith." (A Statement on Recent Incidences of Communal/Religious Violence, EOHR, Cairo, April 1990.)

Egyptian Christians claim that the police do not provide them with adequate protection from violent attacks. The police have a reputation for ignoring credible warnings of impending attacks against Christians and arriving at the scene of anti-Christian violence long after the damage has been done. Egyptian law enforcement agencies appear to refrain from providing Christians with adequate security out of fear of reprisals from militant Muslim groups and of being perceived by the public as defenders of infidels. According to Bahadin Hassan of the Egyptian Human Rights Organization, "There is only one priority for the security services, to defend the regime, but not to defend civil society against anti-democratic groups." The Egyptian government claims that most anti-Christian violence is simply the result of local feuds with roots in the ancient traditions of the region or are the result of some foreign interference in the country's domestic affairs. However, the available evidence shows that such feuds are exploited and used as a pretext for militant Muslim organizations wishing to incite anti-Christian violence. The government has not yet produced credible evidence to prove the involvement of foreign powers. 

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Reported Cases:

In March 1972 leaflets accusing Pope Shenouda of conducting an aggressive proselytizing campaign amongst Muslims and plotting the replacement of the Islamic state with a Christian state were circulated throughout Alexandria.

On November 6, 1972 an Orthodox church in the Nile delta town of Khanka near Cairo was burned. When Christians held a special mass at the site of the badly damaged church on November 12 anti-Christian riots erupted. The rioters destroyed the homes and shops of local Christians. The instigators of the Khanka violence were left unpunished. In April 1980 Minya, a university town in Upper Egypt, was the scene of violent anti-Christian demonstrations arising from traditional Muslim blood vengeance against Christians accused of the death of two Muslims. Violence was fueled by the agitation of the militant Gamma Islamiyya organization, which has a strong local base amongst the town's university students. Several Christians died and much property owned by Christians was destroyed in the ensuing mayhem. The police responded by arresting both Christians and Muslims. The families of the Muslim prisoners surrounded and set fire to the police headquarters, demanding the release of the Muslim prisoners. With the situation out of hand Egypt's Interior Minister proposed a deal with the leaders of Gamma Islamiyya: the Muslim prisoners would be released if the organization's leaders would help pacify the Muslim community. The deal was accepted and led to a suspension of hostilities.

In the summer of 1981 the militant Sheikh 'Umar Abd al-Rahman, who acted as a spiritual leader of the Jihad organization, issued fatwas - i.e, Islamic legal judgements - against Christians who financially support the church. The organization then decided to attack Christians in the Upper Egyptian town of Naj' Hammadi where prosperous Christian goldsmiths lived. Members of Jihad were told that they would gain a place in paradise for participating in the violent mission. Six Christian goldsmiths were murdered and robbed of five kilos of gold and 3,000 Egyptian pounds. The money was used to finance the purchase of firearms for Jihad. One of the arrested organizers of the murders, Karam Zuhdi, explained the reasoning behind the murders:

"The Christians are concentrated in Minya and Assiut and they take advantage of their numbers to hold demonstrations of strength and superiority. They have arms, and this is what encourages the Muslim youth to react forcibly against missionary proselytism in order to put an end to the Crusaders' manifestations of superiority ... These cooperations consist in the distribution of Nazarean pamphlets, proclamations, and cassettes that attack Islamic dogma and incite the youth to take refuge in the Church; in provocatively setting up naques (wooden bars struck to call Christians to assembly - ed.) where they do not belong; in ringing bells during the call of the muezzin; in organizing parades of scouts and Christian associations to demonstrate their strength; and even distributing copies of the New Testament in the buses and coffee houses, as they do in Minya. That is how Crusader proselytism manifests itself ... The Christians have a lot of money ... and they use it to buy arms, which they stockpile, as far as we know, in their houses and in churches, waiting for the day they will take them out, as in Lebanon, so they can turn Egypt into a Coptic country whose capital would be Asyout, as the late President Sadat recalled." (Kepel, p.207-8) 

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Three days of anti-Christian riots erupted in the impoverished Al-Zawaya Al-Hamra district of Cairo on June 17, 1981. The unrest took place against the background of President Sadat's public accusations of subversion against Pope Shenouda and the Orthodox Church. The riots appear to have been ignited by a property dispute between a local Copt whose claim to a piece of land had been upheld by a court and the local authorities who wanted the land used for a new mosque and commercial premises. The dispute turned into a pitched battle between Muslim and Christian groups. The district was reportedly sealed off by the police who only intervened to reestablish order once great damage had been done. According to official reports 9 Christians and 7 Muslims lost their lives in the violence, while 112 were injured and 171 properties were damaged. However, according to the testimony of the late Bishop Samuel to members of the American Coptic Association, more than 100 Christians were murdered and 270 were injured. The High Council of the Permanent Islamic Propagation Conference, including two members of the Muslim Brotherhood, was appointed by the Interior Minister as a committee of enquiry into the dispute. On June 20 as the police were restoring order the government permitted the holding of a Muslim Brotherhood conference in the strife-torn Al-Zawaya Al-Hamra. The anti-Christian resolution of the conference called for the dismissal of Pope Shenouda, a stop to the building of new churches, an end to Christian missionary activity, and a boycott of Christian businesses.

A spate of violent attacks on Christians took place in the spring of 1987 in Sohag, Beni Suef and Kafr el-Sheikh province.

A shop owned by the Coptic Orthodox Christian George Kamel was blown up by militant Muslims in the Shoubra District of Cairo on November 6, 1988.

On March 2, 1990 Christians in the town of Abu Qurqas and the villages of Beni Ebid and Al-Berba were physically attacked. Altogether five Christian churches and over 40 Christian-owned properties were badly damaged.

The most intense anti-Christian violence since the Al-Zawya Al-Hamra riot took place in Minya in March 1990. It erupted after leaflets had been circulated as far away as Cairo University accusing local Christians of running a prostitution ring of Muslim women and of exercising a subversive influence on children in a new Christian-Muslim mother-child health care centre. In one of the leaflets, which were distributed by Gamma Islamiyya, the extremists provocatively asked: "Are we living in a Muslim society, or are we living in a Christian empire, whose leaders are the sons of Crusaders?". At Friday prayers, local Muslims were incited to seek revenge and in the ensuing violence Christian-owned shops, pharmacies, clinics, churches and cars were burned out and fifteen Christians were injured in attacks with knives, sticks and chains. 

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Six Christians were murdered by fanatical Muslims in Alexandria on May 12, 1990. The murdered Christians were the priest of the Anba Shenouda Orthodox Church in El-Nobaria, Alexandria, Fr. Hanna Awad, his wife Theresa, Dr. Gamal Rushdy, Sami Abdu and Boutos Bishai and the 9-year-old altar boy Michael Sabri. Following the funeral policemen fired shots and attacked mourners with clubs. 23 mourners were detained for 15 days and physically maltreated while in custody.

On September 22, 1991 Islamic fundamentalists provoked a riot in the poor Imbaba section of Cairo lasting two days. Three churches were extensively damaged, including a Free Methodist Church. The wife and daughter of the Methodist minister were injured after having to jump out of a church window to escape the rampage of more than 100 rioters.

Abdel Aziz Abdel Masih, a Christian resident of Manfalut near Assiut was murdered in broad daylight by militant Muslims in Assiut on November 7, 1991. His body was mutilated in the street before being collected by the local authorities nine hours after the fatal attack. The victim, who taught at Assiut's Mubarak Primary School, had been married for just two months. Mrs. Abdel Masih was insulted by employees of the Public Prosecutor's Office when she sought permission to take possession of her husband's body.

On December 17, 1991 the Protestant Beshry Khalil of Mashiat Nassir in the region of Assiut was ambushed and beaten with iron pipes by members of Gamma Islamiyya. Khalil lost consciousness and had two legs and one arm broken. Khalil was punished for failing to pay the militant Islamic organisation a 3,000 Egyptian pound "fine" for allegedly speaking badly about Gamma Islamiyya's leader. Khalil was forced to drop charges against his attackers after Gamma Islamiyya threatened to subject his brother to the same punishment.

Six Christian men and two boys were fired upon by Muslim extremists as they tended their fields in Manshiat Nassir on March 9, 1992. Amjad Mikhall died from head wounds, while his father Muneer received leg injuries. A Muslim neighbour also died and a two-year-old boy was also wounded. The survivors were able to identify the attackers, but the police failed to capture them. 

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The church belonging to the Assemblies of God congregation in the poverty stricken Imbaba district of Cairo was stoned by mobs of Muslim fundamentalists on April 29 and May 1, 1992. Eyewitnesses estimate that 300 Muslim extremists chased away two guards in front of the church as they began the first of the two violent attacks. When security officers arrived the rioters stoned their vehicles and tried to kill their officer, Major Burhan Abu Bakr. One Muslim fanatic was killed as he tried to attack the major. On the 1st of May a mob of several hundred descended again on the Assemblies of God church from a nearby private mosque where Friday prayers had just come to an end. The rioters chanted "Salute the martyr of Islam in Imbaba" in honour of the Muslim fanatic who died while attacking Major Bakr on the previous day. The attacks on the church were approved by Sheik Gabir, the local Muslim fundamentalist leader who, residents of Imbaba say, controls the district. The Imbaba Assemblies of God church, which has 300 adult members, had already suffered extensive fire damage in the autumn of 1991. Two neighbouring Christian churches were destroyed in the anti-Christian riots in Imbaba in September 1991. One member of the Assemblies of God Church explained: "They stoned our church because it was the last one left standing in the area."

On May 4, 1992 13 Christians were shot dead by Muslim fundamentalists in Manshiet Nassir. Ten Christian farmers were ambushed and murdered while working in their fields. A Christian teacher was shot in the local school while teaching a class of ten-year-olds. A Christian doctor was shot dead outside his home. Two Muslims who tried to defend their Christian neighbours were also murdered and three Muslim students were wounded at the school. Local residents are convinced that the murders were committed by members of Gamma Islamiyya led by a former civil servant known as Emir Gamal Farghaly Haridi. This organization has been active in the region for some time and is known for intimidating Christians into paying the organization the jizya - i.e. protection money - according to Islamic tradition. Christians who fail to meet the demands of Gamma Islamiyya customarily have both legs and the right arm broken as a punishment and example to others. The murders inspired such fear that local Christians were afraid to harvest their wheat in the unprotected fields or to be seen attending Church. The murders have succeeded in discouraging the local Muslims from having any contact with members of the Christian community. This is one of the demands of Gamma Islamiyya. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and local Christians had petitioned the Interior Ministry for protection three times in the two weeks running up to the massacre following the receipt of information about a planned attack. The Interior Minister, Abdel Halim Mousa, subsequently denied that his Ministry had received any warnings. A spokesman for Gamma Islamiyya defended the murders, saying they took place to "preserve society from moral degradation".

50 members of the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested on June 6, 1992 in the town of Zaqaziq, 60 km north of Cairo. At the time of the arrests the police confiscated anti-Christian leaflets that were to be distributed during prayers at the time of the Muslim feast Id al-Adha on June 11.

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The prominent liberal Muslim writer Farag Foda was shot dead by Muslim extremists in Cairo on June 8, 1992. Foda was well known as a vehement opponent of Islamic fundamentalism and as a defender of the rights of Egyptian Christians. He protested against violations of the rights of Christians committed by the government and militant Islamic groups. Foda was a member of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights. The murdered writer's personal logo incorporated a cross and a crescent as a public testimony to his belief in the equality of Christians and Muslims. Foda wanted to stand for election to Parliament as a candidate in Cairo's Shubra district, but the authorities refused to legalize his progressive Future Party out of fear of antagonizing the Muslim Brotherhood. Foda's writings were also condemned as anti-Islamic by the state run Al-Azhar University.

On June 20, 1992 at least two Christian businessmen were murdered by Muslim extremists in a machine gun attack in Dairut near Assiut. Two policemen also died when their car was sprayed with bullets.

The Christian Zareef Moreed Iskander was murdered on August 9, 1992 by Muslim extremists in the village of Beni-Khaled, near Sohag. The murder was committed after the deceased had been subjected to a hate campaign by Muslim fundamentalists. He was accused of having allegedly undertaken illegal church construction.

Muslim extremists murdered five Christians in the town of Tema in Sohag province on October 15, 1992. The assailants also set fire to St. George's Coptic Orthodox church, a Protestant church and several Christian-owned shops.

Members of Gamma Islamiyya raided a Christian-owned pharmacy, stabbing the manager, and hurled bombs at a Christian-owned video shop and clothes store in Assiut on the evening of November 9, 1992. The militant Muslim assailants also bombed Assiut's police station. The fighting caused panic amongst Assuit's 273,000 residents before police regained control of the city.

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