After murder of four Copts attacks of extremist Muslims escalate against Christians

After the murder of four Coptic Christians in Cairo last Wednesday the tensions between Muslims and Christians in Egypt have increased. The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) reported on Tuesday that armed extremist Muslims attacked a Coptic monastery on Saturday in the town of Deir Abu Fana in the province of Minya some 210 km south of Cairo. Three monks were abducted, mishandled and severely wounded before they could be released. A non-violent protest march of about 300 Copts, which followed the incident, was broken up by the police using firearms. One Muslim was killed and four Christians were injured. Eight Copts were arrested, among them being a Coptic builder who had been given the contract of refurbishing the monastery of Abu Fana. The Muslims wanted to prevent the refurbishment of the monastery and the rebuilding of its walls.

"The Egyptian authorities deny the religious background to the conflict and declare that it was purely a private matter”, said the GfbV Near-east consultant, Kamal Sido. "It is clearly the intention to cover up the fact that the situation between Christians and Muslims is full of tension.” For this reason the GfbV is today writing to Christian institutions in 35 western countries with the appeal to protest against the discrimination of Christians in Egypt , which is increasingly giving rise to concern. In Deir Abu Fana there was a similar incident in October 2007, in which 20 people were injured. There are many Christians living in the town and there are many monasteries which are considered especially holy by the Copts.

On Wednesday in Zeituna in the north-east of Cairo the 60-year old jeweller Makram Galil and three of his employees were shot dead. The two assassins fled on a motor-cycle. The first investigations show that nothing was stolen. This part of the city is known for the high proportion of Christians living there. Only a few months before – in the autumn of 2007 – the two Coptic Christians, Sadak Jamak and Karam Andraus, were murdered in the Christian village of El Kosheh , south of Cairo .

Christians make up, with eight to ten million people, about eight percent of the Egyptian population of 79 millions. Most of the Christians are Copts, and most of these are Oriental Orthodox. There are also a few Coptic Catholics. The Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholics and Protestant Arabian Christians have only small communities.