By Mai Shams El-Din
CAIRO: The fact finding committee of the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) said in a press conference Wednesday that thugs were responsible for setting fire to the Virgin Mary Church in Imbaba, after clashes erupted two kilometers away in front of Marmina Church.
“The events were first sectarian when a group of bearded men wearing galabeyyas —identified by eyewitnesses as Salafis — gathered in front of Marmina Church in Luxor Street searching for a woman who was said to be held inside the church,” said George Ishaq, NCHR board member and one of the committee’s members.
“Such a gathering was illegal and cannot be justified under any circumstances,” he added.
The committee issued a summary of the detailed report that was presented to the prosecution investigating the case, including the accounts of eyewitnesses, Sheikhs and priests as well as those injured in hospitals, in addition to photos and videos of evidence gathered from the crime scene.
“During this illegal gathering in front of the church, live ammunition was fired but the committee was unable to identify who exactly started the shooting, this will be revealed by the prosecution,” Ishaq said.
“Clashes in front of the Marmina Church escalated, and calls to burn other churches in Imbaba led the angry mob to move to the Virgin Mary Church, which eyewitnesses confirmed was burnt by thugs [not Salafis] who are not from the neighborhood,” he confirmed.
The report said that the thugs divided themselves into two groups, the first fired live ammunition to stop residents from intervening to protect the church, while the other group stormed the church to set it ablaze.
The committee’s report drew conclusions from their field visits to Imbaba.
“The security vacuum created after the January 25 Revolution led to the widespread use of illegally-owned arms, with thugs playing a bigger role in poor neighborhoods like Imbaba,” Ishaq said, citing the report.
“The spread of extremist religious ideologies led to the marginalization of Copts, who are considered ‘people of the book’ with no rights but to be protected,” he added.
The report also cited attempts to taint the achievements of the revolution by trying to show that this instability is an outcome of the revolution.
Bad governance over the past four decades is the main reason behind the eruption of sectarian violence after the revolution, said the report.
“Imbaba’s violence is a direct result of the oppressive tools used by the former regime to solve sectarian problems, where dealing with sectarianism in Egypt needs other tactics,” he said.
The committee also noted that the special demographics of Imbaba led to the escalation of events.
“The slum nature of Imbaba and the lack of basic services in addition to the large population and rising unemployment made it easier for religious extremism to gain huge ground especially when a rumor related to honor or religion spreads,” Ishaq said.
The report finally recommended issuing new legislation to fight sectarianism and religious discrimination and a unified law for building houses of worship.
NCHR board member and one of the committee’s members Nasser Amin said that the committee does not have solid evidence to prove that the violence was preplanned.
“We cannot deny or confirm whether these events were planned, only the prosecution can determine that,” Amin said.
“What we have in Imbaba is obvious sectarian violence that turned to a series of crimes, including the gathering in front of a house of worship, chanting slogans against another religious group, burning a church, the use of Molotov cocktails and live ammunition,” he added.
Hafez Abou Saeda, NCHR board member, said that gunfire was used by both sides as evidenced by the equal number of deaths on both sides, blaming the slow intervention of security forces to be another reason for the escalation.
“There was a huge security vacuum; had police forces intervened on time, we would have avoided the loss of many lives,” he added.
The report did not mention Abeer Fakhry, the woman at the center of the violence who was said to be held inside Marmina Church.
“The events now are beyond the issue of Abeer, it is a representation of the severe sectarian problem we currently face in Egypt,” said committee member Soheir Lotfy.
Firemen fight a fire at the Virgin Church in the Imbaba neighborhood in Cairo late Saturday, May 7. (AP Photo)
