We ask for prayers for all persecuted Christians in Egypt and throughout the world.
Yesterday, an Egyptian criminal court convicted three Christians for killing a Muslim man according to a judicial official and the state news agency. In some of Egypt’s worst sectarian violence last year, a dispute resulted that left nine people dead. Six Christians died in the clashes, which took place in a small town just outside Cairo in April, but no one was arrested or convicted for their killings, lawyers said.
In its ruling, the criminal court of Qalubiya province sentenced one Christian man, Hani Farouk Awad to life imprisonment and two others to 15 years for the killing of a Muslim resident of Khosoos, where the violence took place. Nine Muslims were sentenced to up to five years for vandalizing Christian properties while 32 were acquitted, the official said. He was speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Christians in Egypt make up approximately 10 percent of the country’s population and have long complained of discrimination and sectarian strife which is usually fueled by hate speech from religious extremists. Fear has grown considerably since Islamists rose to power following the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The Khosoos dispute was the worst violence during the one-year rule of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, who was removed in a popularly backed coup in July.
The fighting started when young Muslims drew inflammatory symbols on an Islamic school and the vandalism was blamed on local Christians. According to defense lawyers, a cleric of the local mosque urged revenge which lead to three consecutive days of violence that also saw a church attacked and private shops and homes of Christians looted and burned. Assailants doused one Christian with gasoline and set him on fire. The violence later spread to the doorsteps of the country’s main Coptic Cathedral after funerals for the Christian victims and an angry mob of Muslims threw firebombs and rocks at the church forcing a group of Christians back into the church.
Samaan Youssef, one of the Christians’ lawyers in the case said that the prosecution failed to identify any of the suspects in the killing of Christians because local witnesses were afraid to speak out and possibly provoke revenge attacks and renewed violence. Another lawyer and relative of some of the defendants, Iskandar Samir, said he would appeal the verdict. He described it as the “continuation of a series of sectarian rulings,” adding that few Muslims are ever held responsible for violence against Christians.
Ishaq Ibrahim, a researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said investigations into the attack on the cathedral were never completed and no one stands charged. He lamented what he called selective justice in the case. “This opens the door for more sectarian strife,” he said. “The prosecution neglected the investigation.”