I sent this letter on August 13 , 2015 about systematic persecution of Christian Copts in Egypt by
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi , to
.many of international human rights organizations and newspapes
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Systematic persecution of Christian Copts in Egypt by President Abdel Fattah
El-Sisi
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MCN
NEW YORK (July 3, 2015)— By Joop Koopman
For Egypt’s Christians full civil
rights elusive: two incidents
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For Egypt’s
Christians full civil rights elusive: two incidents
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NEW YORK (July 3, 2015)— By Joop Koopman
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Egyptian President
Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has made significant gestures that signal a commitment
to the interests of the country’s Christian minority. His efforts appear
sincere, but at the grassroots level the country’s Copts continue to suffer
discrimination, harassment and violence at the hands of Muslims—with local
authorities regularly turning a blind eye on abuses.
Two incidents that took place in last month—reported by MidEast Christian
News (MCN)—offer fresh evidence:
In the early morning of June 24, 2015, 17 year-old Coptic teenager Mariam
Youssef was abducted by four young men right in front of her house where
she lives with her widowed father, Maher Youssef, in the village of Beni
Suef, in Upper Egypt. Soon afterward, the distraught elder Youssef was
informed by several Muslim men of the abductors’ identity. One of the men
turned out to be a neighbor, the other three having criminal records.
Still, Mr. Youssef could not bring local police to let him file a complaint
to formally open an investigation. Authorities instead sought to blame the
matter on the girl’s upset state of mind, because she had quarreled with
her father the night before her disappearance. Police did question the
families of the suspects, but they denied all knowledge and were not
pressed to prevail upon their relatives to release Mariam.
MCN reporter Erin Moussa, who interviewed Mr. Youssef, reported that such
intransigence on the part of police is quite common in the case of
kidnappings that have the aim of forcing young women to convert to
Islam—and that such cases are numerous. One of Mariam’s relatives
commented: “Our village has only 10 Coptic families and all of them are
simple people. There is no church and Copts don’t stir up any trouble that
would prompt someone to kidnap the girl.”
Then, more ominously, there was the mysterious death—sometime during the
week of June 22, 2015—of Coptic army conscript Bahaa Gamal Mikhail, a 24
year-old from the village of Rizqa, near the city of Assiut. His family—informed by military
authorities to collect his body from a Cairo morgue—indirectly learned of
the official account that the young man, who was the only Christian in his
battalion, had supposedly committed suicide by shooting himself in the
heart.
The family, upon inspecting the body, found traces of two bullets and an
injury to this forehead. The morgue handed over the body in what MCN
reported was “suspicious haste.”
Mikhail’s parish priest, Father Youannis Saad rejected rumors—which he
claimed had been spread by the battalion—that the conscript was depressed.
His mother, too, confirmed that he had been in good spirits; he also was
considering joining a monastery. Just before his death, Mikhail played
music in front of the battalion commander. Father Saad spoked of his strong
suspicion that Mikhail was murdered.
A similar case was reported in August of 2013, involving the alleged
suicide of another Coptic recruit, Abu al-Khair Atta. Apparently, shortly
before his death, a fellow soldier had invited him to embrace Islam.
Military officials refused to perform an autopsy.
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COPTS UNITED
Malak F. Ghali
3 August 2015
Assiut's prosecutor summons Coptic student
Malak F. Ghali | 3 August 2015
Assiut prosecutor summoned the student Mariam
Malak Zekri, a student in Saft
Alkhmar High
School in Minia Governorate who got zero mark in
secondary school final exams despite her superiority over the past years.
Prime Control
Unit had reported that the assets do not exist in Assiut and it was transferred
to Cairo and
they will send a delegate to bring the assets of notebook answer from the
General Administration of exams in the ministry.
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MCN
Exclusive: Minya Coptic girl's exam papers
forged to give her failing grade
26 JULY 2015
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Minya
(Egypt),
July 26/MCN/
The exams of Mariam Malak Zakry Tadros, 16, an "excellent
student" who ranked first in her class last year were forged for her
secondary stage exams, her brother Dr. Bassem told MCN.
Mariam is a student at the Saft Al-Khomar secondary school at Minya, and
her family were surprised by a grade of zero.
“When we filed a complaint to Assuit school control and reviewed her
examination papers on 23/7/2015, we found that all her examination papers
were changed. The only paper that has not been changed is the first paper
that includes her name and seat number only, but all other papers were
changed,” Bassem told MCN.
He added that they filed a report against the school control at a police
station under No. 3921 of 2015, administrative court, Assuit II Police
station concerning forgery and the public prosecution has been notified of
the incident.
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Bishop Agathon: People criticizing
Mariam’s right to file a grievance perpetuate injustice
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Minya (Upper Egypt), August 6 /MCN/
Mariam Malak Boulos, a Coptic Christian secondary education student who
received a “zero” in her exams, has the right to file a complaint against
the exam results, said Bishop Agathon of Maghagha and al-Adwa on Thursday.
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DR. Seti Shenouda Guendi
Egyptian doctor and human rights activist
Researcher in terrorism and political Islam
Member of Amnesty International
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