EGYPT: MUSLIMS SMASH CHRISTIAN CHURCH DOORS AND WINDOWS

JIHAD WATCH

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Egypt: Muslims screaming “Allahu akbar” smash church’s doors and windows, pelt Christian homes with stones

APR 23, 2018 9:00 AM BY ROBERT SPENCER

Will the Islamophobia never end?

“Egypt church application triggers attack,” World Watch Monitor, April 19, 2018:

…The government has legalised 219 churches and church-affiliated buildings this year, but 3,511 others remain on the waiting list.

The churches were built without licence as it was “next to impossible” to build or restore a church until the Law for Building and Restoring Churches was passed in September 2016. The demand for official church buildings is a response to growing congregations and the declining condition of existing churches, according to Coptic news site Watani….

Most recently, the Virgin Mary and Pope Kyrillos VI Church in Beni Meinin, Beni Suef Governorate, was attacked on 14 April, the same day as a visit by the Building Authority Committee who came to inspect the building in preparation for legalising its church status.

The church’s 700 Coptic members, who had used the building as a church for 10 years, had also applied for the building to be expanded.

Local sources told World Watch Monitor that Muslim villagers had heard about the morning inspection and then, at about 7pm, attacked the church and some nearby Coptic homes.

“Many Muslim young men from our village and villages nearby gathered in front of the church building and began pelting it with stones and bricks while shouting ‘Allahu akbar’ [Allah is the greatest], and ‘We don’t want a church in our village’,” said Medhat Halim, a resident in the village.

“Windows and a door were smashed and some of the church’s contents destroyed. They also pelted Coptic-owned houses next to the building. Five Copts received minor injuries.”

Security forces arrived at the village an hour later and arrested 20 Muslims and 12 Christians. Some were released the next morning but 11 Muslims and nine Christians were later charged with “gathering” (illegal for more than 10 people under 2016’s demonstration laws) and the possession of unlicensed arms, and were jailed for four days, later extended to 15 days.

More Coptic homes were attacked two days later (16 April), despite the presence of security forces in the village.

“Some Muslim villagers had a meeting in one of the mosques. They incited people against us. After the meeting they set fire to a wood store owned by my brother, and four other houses,” said Christian resident Magdy Nady.

Police arrested five Christians as they tried to extinguish the fires.

“The police are conniving with Muslim villagers. We were attacked, our homes destroyed, some of us arrested – where are our rights? The Muslim villagers are now pressing us to reconcile under the condition that we close the church. We refuse to do that,” Nady said.

“There is a situation of fear and panic among the Christians and there isn’t any protection for us.”

By the time the Coptic homes were attacked, police had arrested 16 Copts in connection with the unrest. Many other young Copts left the village for fear of being arrested. Nady said the police made the arrests to force the Copts into a Customary Reconciliation Session (formal village meeting) where, in exchange for an end to the rioting, the Copts would give up their plans for a licenced church.

 https://www.jihadwatch.org/2018/04/egypt-muslims-screaming-allahu-akbar-smash-churchs-doors-and-windows-pelt-christian-homes-with-stones