By Essam Fadl
CAIRO: A group of Muslim youth set the homes of a community of Bahais on fire in Shouraneya village in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Sohag, the same homes that were burnt down almost two years ago forcing the Bahai residents to flee.
Head of the legal unit of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, Adel Ramadan, told Daily News Egypt that people in the village destroyed other homes owned by Bahais following rumors that the Bahais, adherents of a minority religious group, will be returning.
“A group of Bahais had asked state security police to secure their return to their homes. They were told that they can return on Tuesday, and suddenly we found people attacking homes.”
Ramadan confirmed that his organization has already set up an investigation committee.
“We have strong evidence that two state security officers incited the people to attack the homes of Bahais and we will file a complaint to the Prosecutor General as soon as all the data evidence is collected and we will take these officers to court,” he said.
Eyewitnesses said that a number of village youth were holding a protest on Tuesday — demanding an extension of the operating hours of the ferry that connects their village with nearby villages, increasing price surveillance over butchers and bakers and establishing a local unit for the village — when suddenly they started chanting slogans against Bahais to burn their homes down.
One Bahai named Mohamed Abdel-Rahman Mohamed Ammar, who fled the village to Cairo in 2009, said that his home was robbed before it was set alight.
“We were supposed to come back to the village on Tuesday after promises by state security,” Bahaa Abdel-Rahman, who had also fled in 2009, told Daily News Egypt.
“People told us that the police had left the village an hour before the attacks, which proves their involvement in inciting people,” he said.
Bahai activist Dr Basma Moussa told Daily News Egypt that none of the members of the Bahai community have been in the village since 2009. When they heard about the second attacks, they contacted the police but nothing was done and those who had burnt the homes also prevented the fire trucks from entering the village.
“I call for a reinvestigation of the 2009 attacks along with the new attacks, because the previous investigation led to nothing and nobody was interrogated by the prosecution,” she said.
Moussa said that Bahais demand a civil state that guarantees citizens’ rights regardless of their religion.
