Mission World - Mar, 2010
03.03.2010
Protest at slaying of Christians in Egypt on Christmas Eve
On January 14, 2010 members of the Coptic Church, both Orthodox and Catholic, protested peacefully in front of the Egyptian Consulate in Exhibition Street in the Melbourne CBD. Approximately 6,000 people attended the protest which then moved to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Spring Street. The reason for the protest is as follows.
Early on the morning of January 7, seven young Coptic Christians and a Muslim security guard were gunned down in a hail of bullets as a crowd of worshippers left the Church of St Mary after the Orthodox celebration of Midnight Mass in the southern Egyptian town of Nag Hamadi. Twenty one other people were critically injured in the attack. Eye witnesses said that three men in a car sprayed the crowd with automatic gunfire before speeding away. This particular act has shocked Egypt’s Christian community and sent shockwaves throughout the world because of its timing on Christmas Eve.
This incident is the latest in a series of acts of persecution and oppression against the Coptic people. According to Bishop Suriel of Melbourne there is an ongoing apathy towards the rights of the Copts by Egyptian security forces and justice is not served. Ten years ago, 21 Copts were killed in the Upper Egyptian village of El Koseh but no one was brought to justice. In 2006 persons entered several churches and attacked worshippers with swords and large knives, killing one man and injuring tens of others.
The Interior Ministry called the shooting a revenge attack. This attack, like the others mentioned above, underscores the Egyptian Government’s failure to address chronic sectarian strains in Egyptian society where religious radicalism is gaining ground. Egyptian authorities have a track record of rarely seeing justice through attacks of a sectarian nature. Their plan of action is to organise quick local reconciliation sessions instead of resolving the issues. There is no guarantee that arresting the culprits means they will be put on trial or convicted. Often the judiciary is not presented with enough evidence to convict the perpetrators.
Human rights groups say sectarian violence is steadily increasing in Egypt. As the Copts cannot speak for themselves for fear of reprisal, the Coptic Christian community which is 100,000 strong in Australia is making a protest in Melbourne. The Australian Government agreed to convey the concerns of the Copts in Melbourne to the Australian Embassy in Egypt which would forward their protest to the Egyptian government.
About the Coptic Orthodox Church
Christianity is said to have arrived in Egypt through St Mark the evangelist about 55AD. He, the writer of the first gospel is also their first saint and martyr. The word “Copt” basically means “Egyptian” and is derived from the Greek word “Aigyptos.” Later in history the term “Copt” was used to refer to the Orthodox Christians of Egypt.
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