II. Sectarian Tension and Violence

10. A fight erupted on 4 April 2009 in the Karmouz area of Alexandria between a Muslim and three Christian brothers, during which the Muslim, Ahmed Gomaa Abd al-Razeq, was stabbed several times; he died of his wounds the following day. The attorney for the Christians told EIPR researchers that the Karmouz prosecutor’s office charged the three with premeditated murder based on eyewitness statements and ordered them to be placed under preventive detention. Their detention was renewed more than once before the case was referred to a criminal court on 2 July 2009. According to the sister of the three defendants, who spoke with EIPR researchers, tensions began between the two families, one Christian and one Muslim, in January due to a dispute over getting rid of some garbage. Information indicates that several area Muslims taking part in the victim’s funeral on 5 April broke the windows of three stores owned by Christians, and threw stones at the Karmouz police station, where the three brothers were then detained. There have been no reports of police arresting any of those involved in these attacks.

11. The village of Higaza Qibli, located in the Qus district of Qena, was the scene of a revenge killing on the evening of 18 April 2009 that left two Copts dead (Amir Estafanos and Hydra Adib) and a third (Mina Samir) injured by gunfire. Information indicates that individuals from the family of the deceased were involved in the killing of a village Muslim in 2004. They were sentenced to three years in prison on charges of manslaughter, after which the security apparatus forced 17 Christian families to leave their homes in the village to mollify the family of the deceased Muslim. A church source with knowledge of the events told EIPR researchers that members of two of the 17 families who were forced out in 2004 returned to the village on the day of the incident to bury a relative in the village cemetery and that one of the victims was a member of the one of the families who had returned, while the second victim had nothing to do with the revenge. Four suspects were referred to the Qena Criminal Court and the court began hearing the case on 29 June 2009.

Attempts to bring the two parties together in reconciliation continued without success as of the release of this report. The attempts are led by a group formed by General Magdi Ayoub, the governor of Qena, to complete the reconciliation. At the same time, information indicates that members of the two Christian families who returned to the village after being forced out five years ago have refused to respond to demands by the security apparatus that they leave the village again. Security forces continued to prevent them from leaving their homes as of the release of this report.

12. On 4 May 2009, the Minya Criminal Court acquitted Gamal Salim (aka Gamal Rustam) in the first session of his trial on charges of murdering Yeshua Gamal Nashed during sectarian clashes in the village of al-Tiba, located in the Samalout district of Minya, in October 2008. The Christian-majority village was the scene of a traditional reconciliation between the family of the deceased and the defendant shortly before the trial began, on 8 April 2009, in the presence of the governor, the Minya security director, and several members of the People’s Assembly and the Shura Council, as well as local leaders, Muslim and Christian clerics, and some 5,000 village residents. Twenty young Muslims and Christians presented their shrouds to the father of the victim asking him to reconcile, in a symbolic expression of their collective participation in the clashes that led to the shooting death of the victim (see paragraph 8 of the Fourth Quarterly Report, 2008). According to statements made by the victim’s father to EIPR researchers shortly before the reconciliation, the reconciliation involved the victim’s family renouncing its civil right to damages and a promise to leave the criminal charges to the judiciary. Nevertheless, the court, in its first session, acquitted the defendant for lack of evidence in the crime after the defendant’s lawyer presented the court with a copy of the reconciliation file between the two families.

A fight had erupted between a Muslim and Christian resident of the village on the evening of 3 October 2008 after a Muslim harassed a Christian girl and her brother intervened to defend her, a version of the events supported by the police and the prosecutor's office. The fight devolved into clashes between village Christians and Muslims that left Yeshua Gamal dead and four others injured, among them a Muslim man; several homes, lands, and property were also torched and vandalized.

13. Two explosions took place on the evening of 10 May 2009 in front of the Zaytoun Archbishopric for Orthodox Copts in the Zaytoun area of Cairo. According to statements to EIPR researchers from an eyewitness, the first explosion occurred at 8:40 pm in the front part of a car parked in front of the archbishopric, while the second, stronger blast, occurred at 12:40 am the same night, caused by an explosive device in the front tire of a car parked ahead of the first car. The blasts coincided with a wedding in the church and a church meeting inside, but there were no casualties or damage to the archbishopric building. Security forces surrounded the scene of the blasts and prevented the media from reaching the scene as soon as the attack occurred. No party had claimed responsibility for the attack as of the release of this report.

On 11 May 2009, the Ministry of Interior issued a statement about the incident, saying that the explosion was caused by a locally made device placed outside the church. “Another device was found, outfitted with a cell-phone detonator; it was detonated by experts with the Civil Defense Department,” the statement said. Although there have been successive news reports about the arrest of a large number of suspects, no suspect had been indicted as of the release of this report.

14. On 13 May 2009, a fight erupted between Muslims and Christians in the Saft al-Laban area of Boulaq Dakrur in Giza. The fight grew into sectarian clashes in the area that left injuries on both sides. According to information obtained by EIPR researchers from eyewitnesses, the fight started when three Muslims verbally harassed a Christian girl as she was leaving school. A rumor later spread in the area that Christians had torched a mosque close to the scene of the fight, which was denied by the sheikh of the mosque to EIPR researchers. Nevertheless, the rumor led a large number of Muslims to intervene in the clashes, and the two sides exchanged gunfire. One Muslim was injured by a bullet in the face while a Christian was injured with a deep knife wound on the left side of his upper chest and another Christian sustained a head wound inflicted by a heavy object. The windows of three Christian-owned stores were smashed and two motorcycles were vandalized.

The same day, police officers arrested 23 Christians, among them children, in addition to the woman who was harassed. According to eyewitnesses, while searching the home of Christians police officers smashed pictures of Christian religious symbols. Fifteen Copts and approximately six Muslims appeared before the prosecutor and were questioned on charges of rioting. The prosecutor’s office ordered their release on bail on 14 May. Despite the prosecutor’s decision and the payment of bail, three people from each side continued to be detained inside the Boulaq Dakrur police station in an attempt to pressure the parties involved to conclude a traditional reconciliation. On 1 June, the six were placed under administrative detention, pursuant to the Emergency Law, and were still detained in the Burg al-Arab prison in Alexandria as of the release of this report.

15. Clashes took place on 5 June 2009 between a Christian and Muslim family in the Manshiyat al-Salam area, located in the Mahalla al-Kubra district of Gharbya. The clashes left at least 20 people injured and took place due to a romantic relationship between a Christian woman and a Muslim man. Security forces arrested 25 people, among them women, from both sides; the prosecutor’s office released them the day following the incident, while keeping four individuals (two Muslims and two Christians). They were still detained at the Burg al-Arab prison in Alexandria as of the release of this report after they were placed under administrative detention. Relatives of some of the detained say they were beaten and verbally degraded while in detention.

Testimonies gathered by EIPR researchers indicate that the events can be traced to the disappearance of a 16-year-old Christian girl (her name is withheld to protect her privacy) on 21 May 2009 along with a member of a Muslim family. The Christian family filed a complaint with the security services and the girl returned to her family the same day in unclear circumstances, after which her family removed her from the area. Testimonies given to the EIPR by both families indicate that tension and fights continued between the two families until they evolved into a clash, during which stones, clubs and knives were used.

16. On the morning of 21 June 2009, Izbat Bushra al-Sharqiya, located in the al-Fashin district of Beni Soueif, witnessed sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians in the town that left eight Muslims lightly injured and dozens of Christians with various wounds, most of them inflicted by security forces. According to field investigations conducted by EIPR researchers in the village after the incident, the fight erupted after some Christians attempted to convene prayers in a building owned by Orthodox Coptic Archbishopric of Biba, al-Fashin and Samsata—the same building in which security forces prevented prayers last year (August 2008). Father Ishaq Qastour, the village priest, told EIPR researchers that security forces’ insistence on not allowing Christians to enter his home to visit him raised suspicions of Muslims in the town, who began to believe that the building was about to be turned into a church. On the day of the incident, clashes started when a Muslim woman in the village hit a Coptic woman standing in front of the building, which prompted intervention from men on both sides. As a result of the clashes, the building’s windows were broken, and the priest’s car was vandalized. Police reinforcements came to the town an hour after the clashes and arrested 19 Christians, in addition to eight Muslims who were hurt during the fight, all of them women and children. They were brought before the al-Fashin prosecutor at dawn on 22 June and were released later that evening.

Investigations by EIPR researchers found that all the Christians who were arrested by police were inside their homes at the time and that police used physical violence during the arrests, which increased the number of injured and also destroyed contents in the houses. The security forces imposed a curfew on the town’s residents, finally allowing them to begin to move around on the fourth day after the incident. For three successive days after the clashes, agricultural lands owned by Copts in the village were vandalized. Some filed police reports naming only anonymous perpetrators, since their identities are unknown.

The security apparatus removed Father Ishaq Qastour from the town on 29 June 2009 and closed the building. In addition, three Christian families in the village left voluntarily because of attacks against them; they returned to their homes two days later following requests by both the church and police, in order to prevent an escalation of the situation.

On 30 June 2009, a reconciliation took place in the presence of Ezzat Abdullah, the governor of Beni Soueif; an EIPR researcher also attended. The meeting consisted solely of speeches given by the governor, the area archbishop and a delegate from the Minister of Awqaf in the governorate. At the end, the governor agreed to pave the two roads leading to the town, but did not mention the incident or the desire of local Copts to build a church or an alternative place for prayer.

Some 70 Christian families live in Izbat Bushra, according to Father Ishaq Qastour. The nearest licensed church is in the al-Fashin district about 9 km away; others pray in the Izbat Bushra al-Gharbya church, about 15 km away.

A previous report from the EIPR discussed anonymous attacks against some Copts in Izbat Bushra al-Sharqiya on 20 and 21 July 2008 that involved the destruction of agricultural lands and the torching of one house, after Muslims objected to the purchase by the archbishopric of a building in which to hold prayer and appointed a priest to the area. The town has no church. Investigations into this matter had come to naught as of the release of this report (see paragraph 10 of the Third Quarterly Report, 2008).

17. A fight took place on 29 June 2009 between a Muslim and members of a Christian family in Kafr al-Barbari, located in the Miyyit Ghamr district of Dakahlia, following a dispute over the price of a bottle of soda. The fight left one Muslim dead, Mohamed Ramadan Ezzat, age 17, the day following the argument. According to field investigations by EIPR researchers, eyewitnesses to the incident said that some 2,000 people gathered at the funeral of the deceased on 30 June 2009. During the funeral procession, some members of the deceased’s family set fire to the home of the Christian family and to the shop where the fight took place. According to eyewitnesses, people from outside the village, while returning from the cemetery, threw stones at homes of village Copts and repeated religious slogans. Newspapers reported that a group of Muslims also cut off the Mansoura-Zaqaziq Road to protest the death of the Muslim boy. The area was surrounded by a heavy security cordon and the media were prevented from entering after the incident.

The police arrested the members of the Christian family involved in the fight (the mother, father and two boys) and brought them before the Miyyit Ghamr prosecutor, who charged them with murder and ordered them to be placed under preventive detention. The prosecutor’s office released the mother on 4 July after it was found that she was not in the village at the time of the fight. In the early morning hours of 1 July, police forces launched a campaign of random arrests in Muslim homes in Kafr al-Barbari and the adjacent Miyyit al-Qarashi. The prosecutor’s office ordered the release of 18 suspects and renewed the detention of one person on 15 July.