Egyptian Police Arrest Four Christians Who Complained About Being Beaten By Muslims
A Coptic Christian church in Egypt endured an attack by an Islamic mob earlier this month — resulting in the arrests of four Christians who endured beatings.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported that according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a church faced a horde of Muslims — mainly women and children — throwing stones at the building on July 8.
Some of the believers were injured, while the priest’s car and the church building were damaged.
Tal Al-Quiblya, a province in upper Egypt, did not have a church for many years, but Christians started “organising prayers and regular masses in their homes on a rotating basis,” per the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
“The varying distances involved in traveling to different homes affected some residents’ ability to attend regularly,” the organization added.
“Consequently, the villagers decided to designate an existing building located amidst their homes as a church — a move made with the knowledge of both security authorities and the village’s Muslim residents.”
Their efforts to coordinate the worship of the Triune God appeared to incense the Muslim locals.
When the mob attacked on July 8, the police were quickly deployed.
But in addition to arresting several of the Muslims, they arrested four of the Christian men who had been assaulted.
The four men were only released on July 10 once they withdrew their legal complaints against their assailants.
“The attacks occurred despite the fact that the church priest, Father Pavlos Kamal, had notified security authorities about incitement and harassment during previous religious services — yet the authorities failed to intervene pre-emptively to prevent the attacks,” the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights noted.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide Founder Mervyn Thomas noted that the ministry is “highly concerned at this latest attack on a Christian community in Upper Egypt, and particularly at the continuing failure of the local police to act pre-emptively.”
“In addition, the fact that four victims of violence were detained and were only released upon withdrawing their complaint against their assailants is a lamentable indication of an abiding inequality before the law.”
While Egypt is today a largely Islamic country with a Coptic Christian minority, they were predominantly Christian between the 3rd century until the 13th or 14th centuries after countless Islamic incursions.
Open Doors ranks Egypt as 42nd in the world for persecution of Christians.
“In Egypt, most religious freedom violations happen at the community level,” the ministry said.
“These include harassment of Christian women and mobs expelling Christians after alleged blasphemy. Incidents such as these take place mostly in rural areas of Upper Egypt and in some economically disadvantaged urban areas, especially when Islamic extremists are present.”
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