Sectarian Violence in Egypt Diverting Attention From Political Opposition

By Joseph Mayton


	Mayor Eva Habil, a 53-year-old Coptic lawyer and Egypt’s first woman mayor, speaks with a Muslim constituent in Komboha, a Coptic town 250 miles south of Cairo (AFP photo/Alain Navarro).

RELIGIOUS TENSIONS are not new to the Middle East, but in Egypt, where the government has long boasted of calm and tolerance between the country’s Muslim majority and Christian minority, worries of sectarianism are growing. The Arab world’s largest nation has been plagued by a frustrating spiral of claims blaming the other religous group for the alleged upsurge in religious violence.

The question that has been emerging among intellectuals, activists and rights workers is how to determine whether an incident is sectarian in nature or simply a social clash that happens to be between a Christian and a Muslim.

Diana is a young Christian college student who was returning to her home in Haram—a suburb aptly named for its proximity to the Giza Pyramids—when she was harassed and thrown to the curb by men in a car. She said she had seen her attackers before in the area, and that they knew who she was.

“I was terrified and scared that I could have died,” she said. Asked if she felt the attack was religious in nature, she denied any connection, adding that the young men “were just looking to attack a woman and I was there.”

Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) and the country’s leading authority on religious violence and rights, agrees with the young Coptic student. According to Bahgat, there is a litmus test that can be used to determine whether an incident is sectarian or not. This requires that an observer put the aggressors in context.

“You have to ask, for example, if the attackers are Muslim, would they force other Muslims to do the same thing,” he explains. “For example, there were reports that Bedouins in Upper Egypt forced Coptic priests to denounce their religion and say the shehada [the statement to become a Muslim]. If you can say they would have done the same actions against fellow Muslims, then it is not sectarian.”

Two similar incidents highlight Bahgat’s assertions of sectarianism in Egypt. On Nov. 23, at least eight people were arrested in Cairo’s Ain Shams neighborhood after clashes between Christians and Muslims erupted over a makeshift Christian prayer hall established directly across the street from a mosque. The building in question was an abandoned factory which the church had bought to serve as a prayer hall.

A group of Muslim demonstrators took to the street in front of the converted prayer hall and, according to reports, Christians and the Muslim protesters began to fight, throwing rocks and burning two cars.

Many Muslims argue that it is not the idea of having Christian places of worship that bothers them, but the manner and place where they are established. Mona, a 62-year-old mother, asked why a church was being built directly in front of a mosque.

“What is the point of that? They [Christians] know that it will create tensions among the population,” she said. “This sort of in-your-face religion needs to end.”

A more violent altercation in Bamha, a village some 15 miles south of Cairo, reveals how frustrations can boil over into all-out sectarian violence. When Copts planned to enlarge a village church in May 2007, Muslim demonstrators took to the streets in protest.

According to reports from the area, Muslims and Christians threw firebombs and bricks at each other, injuring a dozen or more people. At least 10 homes and businesses were set on fire before police arrived to bring order to the embattled town, arresting 17 people from both faiths.

The EIPR, which followed the violence and the aftermath, reports that, a year and a half later, no one has been prosecuted in connection with the violence.

In both incidents, the issue of churches was central. Under Egyptian law, a new religious building can be built only after receiving a presidential decree. Christians argue that because President Hosni Mubarak defers these decisions to his governors, add-ons and new construction is nearly impossible.

Naguib Gobrail, a Coptic lawyer and ardent supporter of Christian rights, says reforms need to be made or further violent outbursts could be seen.

“The unified religious building law has been stalled for over 15 years in the parliament—three parliamentary terms and nothing has happened,” the lawyer added.

Unfortunately, these are not the only incidents that media outlets have highlighted. A number of land disputes involving Copts and Muslims in southern Egypt have ended violently. These cases are difficult to categorize as sectarian, however. Mohamed Youssri, the head of Tadamon, a local NGO that aims to bring together other NGOs, believes that, despite international media reports, which are quick to point out religious tensions, most of the land disputes happen to be between Muslims and Copts and are not sectarian in nature.

While much of the recent violence most certainly is “related” to religion, he acknowledges, “It is not religion that drives the violence, but the fact that our religious institutions are trying to take advantage of a tough situation by pushing agendas that shouldn’t be pushed,” he added, such as the monastery building on disputed territory.

“If the church had had a dialogue with the people in the area, a solution could have been developed,” Youssri said about the Ain Shams and Bamha clashes.

While Bahgat argues that sectarianism is on the rise, George Ishaq, a leading Kifaya (Enough) opposition leader and Copt, says that the religious divide as described by the EIPR director is too great. While he agrees that there are religious tensions that become violent, he maintains that, overall, Egypt is not heading to catastrophe.

“Certainly there are some people who are sectarian, but the number is not as much as some argue,” he states. “What happens when the government is corrupt and people have no rights? They go to God—and that is what has happened here.”

According to Ishaq, although a larger number of Egyptians are turning to religion as an outlet, that does not mean there is an inherent connection to increasing religious violence.

Ishaq and Bahgat agree on one thing, however: the government’s continued inaction has led to a major rise in religious-based violence across the country.

“The problem is, of course, when you have the government failing to respond effectively to incidents of violence, and to also address the root causes of the violence, it leads to an increase in tension,” explains Bahgat. “The increase in sectarian tensions then decreases the government’s ability to intervene, because they fear it might lead to further backlashes. So you have this vicious cycle.”

Ishaq, for his part, has called on the Christian community to become more involved in Egyptian society. Sitting back and complaining about the injustices not only is unproductive, he argues, but alienates Muslims who are allies in the fight for equality against the government.

“Too long have the Copts sat in their churches and complained about their situation,” he says. “They forget that all the people are facing a struggle for their rights against the government—so when I talk to Christians, I tell them to go out to the community and be involved, not as a Copt, but as an Egyptian.

“We must come together as Egyptians and pressure the government to change,” the Coptic activist argues. “Then the violence will stop.”

Joseph Mayton is a free-lance journalist based in Cairo.