Posted on 03/06/2004 3:50:22 PM PST by ambrose
Christians axed to death
From correspondents in Cairo
March 7, 2004
EGYPTIAN police deployed several hundred men in a southern town today after a Muslim man axed to death two Christians, triggering fears of revenge acts and sectarian clashes.
The Muslim farmer hit the two Coptic Christians with an axe in a brawl that broke out when his donkey slipped on a wet dirt road outside their house in the town of Salamun, police said.
The man was arrested and police beefed up their presence in the town near the city of Sohag, 500km south of Cairo.
The suspected murderer was "mentally ill", one officer said.
Such descriptions are frequently made by Egyptian authorities in similar situations in order to pacify the population.
Didn't the article already say he was muslim?
Of course he is, the article already stated he was a Muslim.
Could someone fill me in as to what the reasoning for violence was?
I must have missed it.
Was he upset with his jackass and took it out on the Christians?
A Muslim does not need a "reason" to be violent.
Oh, OK. Right.
So, these rabid, evil muslim police are propping up Christians being axe-murdered by deploying 'several hundred men' after two Christians are murdered.
This is, at least to my understanding, what we commonly call 'righteous'. They did the right thing.
The Coptic Orthodox church is the largest in Egypt and the entire Middle East. It is approximately 7-10 million strong (10% of the population), but since the church in Egypt is not allowed to carry out an official census, accurate figures are difficult to ascertain. The Egyptian Church faces persecution and hardship in a number of spheres:
Law
The distinction between civil law and Shari’a (Islamic Law) in Egypt has been deliberately eroded over the years. Significantly, in 1980, the National Assembly accepted an amendment to the Constitution, designating Shari’a as “the…principal source of legislation” instead of “a…principle source of legislation”.
Government positions and Employment
Egypt’s Coptic community is poorly represented in the higher levels of government, in the military and in senior teaching positions. Out of 28 Egyptian governors, none are Christian and there are no Christian ambassadors, heads of universities or deans. The country’s People’s Assembly contains just seven Copts, only three of whom are elected—a gross under-representation.
Education
Coptic Christians are not able to attend the famous Al-Azhar University in Cairo. The Coptic language is not taught at Universities and the Coptic era in Egyptian history is has been omitted in school history lessons, until this year, where it has been taught in state schools for the first time. The Koran is often used to teach the Arabic language to students, including Christians, and Arabic language teachers are Muslim. Every school has a mosque, but no similar places of prayer exist for Christians.
Church construction
State control of church property is governed by the outdated Ottoman Hamayouni Decree of 1856, amplified by the Interior Ministry in 1934 as the Alazabi Decree. This decree sets out certain restrictive conditions which must be met before a church can be built. It additionally requires the signature of the President before construction can commence. No such signature is required in order to build a mosque.
Conversion
Individuals who convert from Islam to Christianity face discrimination and violence from their family, Muslim neighbours, or the state police. Furthermore, a Muslim wife is required to divorce an apostate husband; converts from Islam lose all inheritance rights; they also lose custody of their children and they are unable to change their religious affiliation on state identity cards. No similar legal consequences befall converts from Christianity to Islam.
Recent examples of religious intolerance against Christians
The past decade has seen a rise in violent attacks by Islamic extremists, followed by severe government crackdowns on their activity in an attempt to put an end to the violence and to regain control.
However, violence against Christians still continues but state police and/or Muslim mobs are increasingly becoming the perpetrators. Shockingly, such violence has gone unpunished by the Egyptian legal system in recent years.
In January 2000 in El-Kosheh village, Upper Egypt, 21 Coptic Christians were killed over the course of a few days’ rioting. The General Prosecutor’s report of his investigation into the incident blames the massacre on delinquent elements within both the Muslim and Christian communities, and this disappointed Egypt’s Coptic Christians who note that all except one of the casualties of the violence were Christians. Concern has also been expressed that no police officers were detained or interrogated, despite the testimony of Copts regarding police negligence and complicity in the violence.
Finally, in a verdict handed down on February 5th 2001, an Egyptian court acquitted all but four of the ninety six people charged with crimes relating to the violence. None were convicted with murder. This verdict outraged Egyptian Christians and Human Rights activists all over the world. However, a request to appeal the verdict has been successful and the case will be re-tried.
In June 2000, Coptic Christian, William Shaiboub Arsal, was sentenced to 15 years with hard labour for the murder of two Christian men in El-Kosheh village in August 1998.
The murders were the catalyst for the notorious El-Kosheh incident (since dubbed El-Kosheh I), in which over 1000 local Coptic Christians were detained by police, despite the fact that three Muslim men were identified as responsible. Many of those detained were tortured by local police officers, including William, who was first taken into custody on 17th September 1998. He was hung upside down by his feet, beaten, tied to a chair and given electric shocks to sensitive parts of his body.
William Shaiboub’s lawyers have confirmed that his verdict is being appealed at the Egyptian Court of Cassation. In the meantime, William remains in prison.
What is common to both these episodes is that police negligence and complicity has gone unquestioned and unpunished. Egypt’s Christian community are understandably feeling very vulnerable and inadequately protected by national law.
Overall Human Rights Situation
Major human rights organisations continue to report the systematic use of torture by police and security forces to obtain confessions. Prisoners of conscience continue to be sentenced and held. Political parties, NGOs and the news media continue to face legal restrictions and government control.
In May 1999, a law regulating civil institutions including NGOs was passed by the Egyptian Parliament. This imposed a wide range of restrictive conditions, including criminal penalties for offences that might amount to no more than the exercise of freedom of association.
How you can get involved:
- Pray for the unity of the church in Egypt, that it would stand firm and in solidarity to tackle the persecution and injustices it faces.
- Pray for the growth of the Egyptian church and for the church to be bold in its witness, despite opposition.
Write a letter of encouragement to William Shaiboub Arsal c/o Bishop Wissa, Diocese of Baliana, Baliana, Sohag-Province, Egypt.
Contact the CSW office for more information on anything mentioned in this report and for the latest campaigns.
Silly of me to even ask such a question considering that virtually 100% of all terrorists worldwide are of the Muslim faith.
There are a few other articles which say pretty much the same thing.
Was he upset with his jackass and took it out on the Christians? seems to be it. The police are there to prevent further violence.
Thanks for the links SJackson, I guess this excerpt from one of the articles pretty much sums it up.
A key factor in the stability of terrorist violence.
Well, as long as it was over something important ...
SJackson and ambrose, gave insight to me as to why.
Read some of my previous posts and it will give more reason, to you as well, as to why.
He looked around for Jews, but couldn't find any.
The Blood of the Martyrs waters the roots of Conversion.
Excellent suggestion.
You forgot to mention slave-owning. Frankly the issue of muhammad owning slaves, and islam permitting ownership of other people as property ought to settle the issue of the falsehood of islam and mohammad's teachings.
Why American blacks would turn to islam is beyond me.
Child died not long after first birthday--it was said there was a lot of jealousy among his other wives.
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