Egypt Christian Copts reject quick-fix approach to sectarian unrest – Residents of Nagaa Hammadi want authorities to address root cause of Egypt’s sectarian problems.
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By Jailan Zayan – NAGAA HAMMADI
“Fast-food solutions to Muslim-Christian tensions won’t work,” said Rami of the arrest on Friday of suspects in the shooting deaths of six Coptic Christians in southern Egypt.
Residents of Nagaa Hammadi, where three gunmen sprayed Christian passers-by with bullets as they emerged from Christmas Eve Mass on Wednesday, were furious at what they called government attempts to hush up Egypt’s sectarian problem.
The interior ministry said the three suspects — including town resident Mohammed el-Kamuni whom the interior ministry earlier identified as el-Kawmi — surrendered on Friday morning after being surrounded on a nearby farm.
Police say the attack was related to the alleged rape of a Muslim girl by a Coptic man in the nearby village of Farshut last November.
The town’s Copts reject the theory, however.
“It’s too easy to say that. Now the authorities can say they have their motive, they have their suspects, problem solved,” one source at the town’s church said.
“But we want answers, we want the authorities to address the root cause of the sectarian problems.”
Many people in the town believe that sectarian violence in the country is politically motivated.
“It’s convenient for the politicians to have Muslims and Christians argue,” one said.
“It’s because they hate us,” another Christian offered as the reason for the violence.
While such theories may vary, many Copts believe that Wednesday’s attack was “allowed” to happen.
Nagaa Hammadi’s Bishop Kirilos said that for the past week some of his parishioners had received threatening phone calls, and that he had warned the authorities that something was about to happen.
“I am in touch with the street, I hear things, people talk,” he said.
He said he had warned the authorities that he expected an attack either on New Year’s Eve or during the Coptic Christmas on January 6-7, but that this was not heeded.
Kirilos said he had cut short the Christmas Eve mass because he “knew something was going to happen.”
“We didn’t get the extra security we asked for. In fact we had less security than we do every year,” he said.
Witnesses to Wednesday’s attack said that the car Kamuni was allegedly driving had been able to stop on the long Mubarak Road in downtown Nagaa Hammadi three times during the shooting spree.
“It’s as if the security were saying ‘go ahead, do as you wish’,” one witness charged.
Angry and confused residents want answers.
“We all know Hamam,” one Christian resident of Nagaa Hammadi said, referring to Kamuni’s nickname.
“He’s a hired thug. We want to know who is really behind the shooting,” he said outside the church, where young people had gathered fearing clashes with worshippers from a neighbouring mosque after Friday prayers.
“I know him personally,” Bishop Kirilos, who witnessed Wednesday’s shootings, said of the suspect.
“He has no political ambitions and no religious affiliations,” he told a handful of reporters inside the church.
Nagaa Hammadi was practically deserted on Friday, the first day of the Egyptian weekend. Shops were closed and few people were out on the streets.
The attack was the deadliest since 20 Copts were killed in sectarian clashes in 2000, also in southern Egypt.
Copts, who account for nearly 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 80 million, are the Middle East’s largest Christian community but complain of routine harassment and systematic discrimination and marginalisation.
Tags: Christian Persecution