By Heba Fahmy
The year 2010 witnessed a surge of events threatening Egypt’s fragile sectarian balance, where Copts make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s 80 million population.
The most recent was the Omraneya clashes in November which represented a rare occurrence of clashes between Copts and security forces rather than Copts and Muslims.
Omraneya clashes
Clashes erupted in November after Al-Omraneya’s district administration decided not to allow Copts to turn a community center being built next to the Virgin Mary and Archangel Michael church into a chapel. Two Copts were killed in the clashes, and dozens of Muslims and Copts were injured.
Police arrested more than 150 Copts as a result of the clashes, 14 of whom were accused of public property vandalism and the attempted murder of the assistant director of Giza security forces.
Two women and two detained minors were released briefly after their detention.
A total of 112 Coptic defendants were released, with a group of 42 released on Dec. 19. Forty-two remain behind bars, after their detention was renewed for 15 days pending investigation.
The decision to release the defendants followed a memo that was presented by the defense team on behalf of the defendants. The memo called for their release citing concerns of some of the detainees’ deteriorating health, as well as other defendants’ fear that their academic future would be in jeopardy if they missed too many classes at their high schools or universities.
Their charges include damaging an official central security forces vehicle, illegal assembly, the use of illegal weapons, possession and use of explosives, and disturbing public security and peace.
Lawyer of Coptic Orthodox Church Ramsis El-Naggar, was optimistic that the remaining defendants would be released as well.
Nagaa Hammadi shooting
The Nagaa Hammadi shootings emerged as the most violent sectarian crime of the year.
Three Muslims were accused of shooting six Copts and a Muslim guard at a Church in Nagaa Hammadi on the eve of Coptic Christmas on Jan. 6, 2010.
The Qena Criminal Court is trying Mohamed Ahmed Hassan El-Kamuni, Qurashi Abol Haggag Mohamed Ali and Hendawy El-Sayed for the drive-by shooting.
The defendants maintained that they were not involved in the shootings, with El-Sayed retracting his previous confession, claiming it was extracted under torture.
The trial has been postponed several times sparking anger among Copts who held several demonstrations calling for the swift conviction of the defendants.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) — a religious freedom watchdog — commented on the case in September. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” said USCIRF chair Leonard Leo, in a press statement.
“Is it possible for Coptic Orthodox Christians to get justice in the Egyptian court system?” he asked.
The Nagaa Hammadi court sessions were marked with tight security. Streets leading towards the courthouse were closed, with security forces spread out everywhere. Both lawyers and journalists alike were subject to security inspections prior to entering the trial.
During investigations in the shootings, it’s been suggested that that the killings were a reaction to the Girgis Baroumi case, a 22-year-old Copt accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in the town of Farshout. Both trials are still in progress.
Priests’ wives spur tensions
The cases of Camilia Shehata and Wafa Constantine, wives of Coptic priests whom Islamists claim were forcibly detained by the Coptic Church after they had willingly converted to Islam, were also high on the list of incidents igniting sectarian strife in 2010.
Shehata disappeared for a few days in July, setting off Coptic protests. Police found her and escorted her home, triggering protests by Islamists who said the church was detaining her after she converted to Islam.
Wafa Constantine also went missing, in 2004, reportedly after her husband refused to give her a divorce. She was temporarily sequestered at a convent as reports of her conversion circulated. Her case was revived during Shehata-related protests.
Bishop Morkos, head of the Orthodox Church’s media committee, denied allegations that the two women had been detained.
“Constantine declared in front of the prosecutor general that she is Christian and will continue to be, and Shehata declared her Christianity in front of the media,” said Morkos. “What do they want more than that?”
This, however, did little to convince one of Al-Qaeda’s branches that raided a Baghdad church in November and threatened to attack Christians across the region if Egypt’s Coptic Church didn’t release the two women in 48 hours.
“If you turn your churches into a prison for Muslim women, we will make them graveyards for you,” a man from Al-Qaeda group said in an audiotape on SITE monitoring group’s website.
“Egypt refused having its name or affairs pushed into such criminal acts,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. It also “strongly condemned” the attack on the church.
Egypt’s church didn’t heed to the group’s demands either and Bishiop Markos stated that the church wasn’t afraid of Al-Qaeda’s threats.
The tape, which was issued in November, also addressed the Vatican demanding it pressure Egypt’s church to release the two women.
Three lawyers filed a lawsuit against President Hosni Mubarak and Rami Ibrahim, the Cairo bureau chief of Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jareeda, which calls upon Mubarak to force Pope Shenouda to release the two women.
Lawyers Tarek Abu-Bakr, Nizar Ghorab, and syndicate board member Gamal Tag stated in their lawsuit that the detention of a “Muslim” citizen was illegal, and has triggered sectarian tension and harmed national unity.
The lawyers also requested documentation from Ibrahim that proves his newspaper’s prior allegation — that Shehata converted to Islam — is indeed true.
The case has been adjourned to January 2011.
Egyptian Qorshi Abul Haggag, who is accused along with two other men of killing six Copts and one policeman, stands in the defendants cage during the opening of the trail in Qena in southern Egypt on on February 13, 2010. (AFP Photo/ Victoria Hazou)
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