Security measures for Christians in Egypt called for – Cairo must not stir up Moslems against Coptic community

Following the fatal attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt the Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) urgently begged Angela Merkel on Thursday to speak out to the Egyptian government for protection for Christians. "Instead of spreading rumours in the world on the motives of the criminals, defaming the Christian community and stirring up Moslems against them, Cairo must at last take concrete security measures for the threatened minority”, said the STP Near-East consultant, Dr Kamal Sido, in Göttingen. The human rights organisation said that the statement of the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior that the attack could have been a reaction of Moslems to the alleged rape of a Moslem girl by a Copt was "open agitation against Christians”. Representatives of the Coptic Church also objected to this assertion.

Six Copts and a Moslem watchman were shot by unknown persons from a car after a midnight mass at the Coptic Christmas celebrations on Thursday night. The attack took place outside the church in the town of Nag Hammadi in the Kena province, 650 km south of Cairo . At least ten people were injured.

The STP has been documenting attacks on Christians in Egypt for several years. They make up with eight to ten million people about eight percent of the approximately 79 million Egyptian citizens. The majority of the Christians are Copts, mainly Eastern Orthodox. But there are also a few Coptic Catholics. The Greek Orthodox, the Greek Catholic and Protestant Arab Christians have only small communities. The Copts are represented in parliament by only four of 440 members of the Egyptian Parliament.

The STP Near-East consultant, Dr Kamal Sido, can also be reached at nahost@gfbv.de