The year 2008 witnessed no less than 20 incidents of sectarian violence. In one case only was a man convicted: Khamees Eid of Dafash, Minya, who was accused of murdering the Copt Milad Farag Ibrahim, was handed a suspended sentence of one year in prison despite the fact that he had admitted his crime.

Horrendous list

The villages of Bemha in Ayaat, Giza; Gabal al-Teir in Minya; Bushra and Dashasha in Beni Sweif; al-Rouda in Tamiya, Fayum; as well as the district of Ain-Shams in Cairo were among the places where—between May 2007 and May 2008—Copt’s homes, property, lands, and businesses were attacked, plundered and torched in the wake of rumours that Copts had been attempting to build a church, social services building or, in one case, a cemetery. No criminal was indicted, let alone caught in the first place, nor was any Copt compensated by the State or the community for his losses.

The town of Esna in Upper Egypt, the villages of Dafash and Tayyiba in Minya, al-Nazla and Tamiya in Fayum were also scenes of savage violence in 2008 against Copts, their churches, homes, lands and businesses as the outcome of individual fights or arguments that involved Muslims and Copts.

One case especially stands out, that of the village of Nazla, Fayum, which saw a two-day spate of violence against its Coptic population in June 2008 when the Muslim convert wife of a Muslim man fled her home with her baby boy and it was rumoured she wished to revert to her original Christianity especially that her husband had taken another wife and was abominably maltreating his first [convert] wife.

The wife was brought back by the police two days later, but the Coptic villagers, their church and property had been ravaged. In what is almost an unprecedented incident, the Coptic victims were last week handed cash sums by the government in compensation for their losses.

As for the by-now notorious attack against Abu-Fana monastery in May 2008, during which the monastery and its land were attacked and torched, the monks assaulted and four of them abducted and savagely tortured in order to deny their Christian faith, then thrown in the desert at dawn the following morning, a culprit has yet to be caught.

Ironically, two Coptic contractors who were not present at the site of the attack have ever since been detained despite proof of their innocence and a prosecution order of their release. They are being used to pressure the monks to go back on their testimony regarding the attack.

No rule of law

Kamal Zakher, a lawyer and political analyst, told Watani that sectarian incidents ought to be termed ‘criminal’ incidents instead, since they involve obvious crimes that are punishable by law. The common practice of terming attacks against Copts as ‘sectarian’ incidents or disputes is misleading, he says, since it gives the impression of some sort of confrontation between two more or less equal disputing parties, whereas the truth is that the attack is usually one-sided.

Defenceless Copts are more often than not the victims of violent attacks by the predominantly stronger Muslims who usually far outnumber the Copts. And once matters calm down, the police hardly ever catch the culprits who incited or carried out the criminal act, a practice which defies any rule of law. 

This absence of the rule of law, Mr Zakher says, threatens society at large, and is probably the reason behind the fact that victims frequently refrain from demanding their rights and succumb to traditional unofficial “reconciliation sessions”—which have their origins in rural or tribal community practices—in which they permanently lose their rights. All this goes utterly against the Constitution and the modern civil society.

It is absolutely disturbing, Zakher remarks, that mainstream Muslims have come to believe they ought to take the law in their own hands to ban what they see as detrimental to Islam. This prerogative used to be the turf of extremist Islamists until the 1990s; it has now gained wide public participation. In this context it might be worth noting that the majority of attacks against Copts are incited through mosque microphones through which fiery messages are relayed to Muslims to “defend Islam”.

It does not help at all, Mr Zakher says, that most officials are today phobic about implementing the law to the disregard of religious prejudice. This religious radicalism has, over the past 40 years, infiltrated the executive, legislative, and—worse—the judicial authorities.

The law is rendered impotent, Mr Zakher says, which goes absolutely against the principles of the civil State.     

State injustice

From a strictly human rights perspective, the non-implementation of justice encourages crime, Hafez Abu-Saeda, head of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) says. In the case of crimes against religious minorities, the fact that criminals are never brought to justice sends the message that no punishment awaits offenders.

It is not surprising then, he explains, that sectarian violence against religious minorities and derision of their religions thrive. But this is very dangerous practice, Mr Abu-Saeda says, since it threatens social peace and citizenship rights, and promotes outright discrimination. The law is put aside, he says, and an unholy alliance is secured between State officials and the perpetrators of sectarian attacks.

Such a status works to the detriment of the country since it relays the sense that the State is unjust; it sides with a portion of the populace against another. The double-faced rhetoric and glittering slogans propagated in reconciliation sessions can never create peace while attacks continue to be waged against defenceless victims and no law is implemented or any decisive measure is taken to stop such crimes.

Fanatic climate

Amr al-Shobky, expert at the al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, said the absence of real democracy in Egypt is behind the absent justice. The Coptic file, he said, is the subject of bargaining between the security apparatus, the Church and the Azhar, which has worked to foster a fanatic climate in Egypt.

A civil State, Baha’i activist Basma Moussa asserts, depends on the partnership between all sectors of society. The problem is not merely the absent justice, but the defective thoughts that prevail in people’s minds. Punishing one person does not mean that fanaticism will be eradicated, she says. Dr Moussa believes in the importance of opening a new dialogue to achieve better awareness.

William Wissa, who is an Egyptian writer and journalist resident in France, and author of the book al-Kosheh … The Absent Truth believes that the State apparatuses are the main culprit behind the absent justice.

“This is what happened in Kosheh in 1999,” he says. “When the police discovered two Copts were murdered, they headed to the church and shamelessly asked the priest to nominate a person in his parish to be charged with the murder.

When the priest refused, the police detained a number of Copts and subjected them to torture to force a confession, so that no Muslim would be charged with the murder and the crime would not take on a sectarian colour. The crime was fabricated against a young Copt named Shaiboub William and when 15 Copts presented complaints against four officers for torturing them in the police station, no action whatsoever was taken. One year later sectarian violence again erupted in Kosheh; 21 Copts were murdered but no culprit was indicted.

Comprehensive outlook

The fact that attacks against Copts are committed within the collective collaboration of the mob makes it difficult to determine the identity of the criminals or find incriminating evidence against them, Sameh Fawzy, journalist and political researcher says.

Even if the Coptic victims are able to identify the criminals, the latter easily manipulate the testimonies and alibis since the entire mob backs them. This took place in the notorious al-Kosheh sectarian violence on the eve of 2000, in which 21 Copts were killed. Some 100 suspects were brought to trial but none was indicted since the judge said he was not comfortable with the authenticity of the testimonies or evidence, and could thus condemn no-one.

The entire Coptic community went into shock and heartbreak—no justice was exacted and, more important, the green light was given for more sectarian crimes.

The common practice in rural or tribal communities of bringing the sides of a conflict together to attain reconciliation and social peace, Mr Fawzy says, assumes in the first place that both sides are in a way offenders as well as victims. Even though this is not true in case of sectarian crimes, local and security officials insist on resorting to it, which raises the ire of Copts and increases their victimisation.

There is no excuse for excluding the law, Mr Fawzy insists. Egypt is reportedly a civil State with institutions the responsibility of which is to execute the law. No one should be allowed to take the law into his own hands. The positive participation of Copts in public and political life cannot be underscored enough if this principle is to be upheld.

Yet sectarian problems which, predictably, defy simplified solutions, should be tackled comprehensively starting with education at schools and a fair media outlook.

Those reconciliation sessions

Gamal Messaied, a lawyer from Mallawi, Minya, who is defending the offenders in the Abu-Fana attack claims that security officials always attempt to calm matters following sectarian attacks for fear of the incident being used to tarnish Egypt’s international image. He alleges that expatriate Copts fan the flames of sectarianism in Egypt, and insists that reconciliation sessions play a vital role, especially in Upper Egypt and rural areas, in putting an end to conflicts, away from the courts.  

The progressive Islamic intellectual Gamal al-Banna told Watani he believes that sectarian attacks ought to be criminalised, and the criminals should be brought to justice. Reconciliation sessions, he insists, can never put an end to the violence. “This is an erroneous security policy based on the absence of law,” he noted.

But General Fouad Allam, former deputy of the State Security, begs to disagree. There is nothing wrong with the concept of reconciliation sessions, he claims, they are vital in containing collective anger and attaining social peace. They have been successfully conducted for centuries in rural Egypt since they are particularly suited to the Egyptian temperament. The problem is that the manner in which they are held today is a farce and thus achieves nothing. They are merely played up for formal pacification, he says.

Proper reconciliation sessions, General Allam says, ought to be revived, with all the village elders taking part, as well as representatives from the religious institutions and the victims and offenders. Justice should be meted fairly and agreements should be respected.

Reconciliation sessions, General Allam—who has a wide and respected experience in dealing with rural and tribal communities—says, can go a long way towards attaining peace and justice where no incriminating evidence exists to indict particular criminals.