On January 6, 2010, the eve of Coptic Christmas, three armed Muslims fired indiscriminately into a group of Coptic Christian civilians exiting a church in the city of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt. The shooting left six Copts and one Muslim dead, and numerous others wounded.[1] Officials in Egypt, including President Hosni Mubarak and the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, were quick to denounce the incident, emphasizing the importance of maintaining national unity, as well as equality and lack of discrimination among citizens, while assuring that those responsible for the shooting would be dealt with harshly.[2] The Egyptian authorities consistently maintained that the shooting was not motivated by sectarian hostility, but was an act of vengeance for the rape of a Muslim girl by a Copt in the nearby city of Farshut in November 2009. The parliamentary Human Rights Committee concluded that the crime was not facilitated by outside funds, nor was it the result of incitement, and that the accused had no connections with any foreign elements.[3]
In the Egyptian government press, several writers demanded the incident not be covered up, and called to respond with more than mere rhetoric and to acknowledge the atmosphere of hate, tension, and social discrimination that exists between Muslims and Copts in the country, and which is likely to bring about further incidents such as this.
The following are excerpts from official statements and articles on this affair:
Mubarak: The Hearts of Muslims and Copts Are Bleeding
President Mubarak responded to the incident in a speech on the occasion of Egyptian Science Day: "We are aspiring [to become] an advanced society and a modern civil state that is intolerant of deviant thinking which confounds religion with politics, ignorance, extremism, or sectarian incitement, a society which instills the values of [equal] citizenship among its members, in theory and in practice, and which does not make distinctions between Muslim and Coptic [citizens]… The criminal act in Nag Hammadi caused Egyptian hearts – both Muslim and Coptic – to bleed. All the sensible preachers, intellectuals, and members of the media in this nation bear the heavy responsibility of [fighting] civil strife, ignorance, and blind extremism, and in combating the contemptible sectarian tendencies which threaten the unity of our society and do damage to Egypt's image…"[4]
In a speech on the occasion of Police Day, Mubarak remarked on the incident again: "The criminal act in Nag Hammadi shocked the conscience of the homeland... This heinous deed against Copts on Christmas Eve requires self-scrutiny from [us] all – Muslims and Copts... We are struggling against events and phenomena atypical of our society, which are driven by ignorance and extremism and nourished by the lack of enlightened religious discourse on the part of Al-Azhar and the church, a religious discourse which must be supported by the education system and the media, as well as by our authors and intellectuals, and which must stress the values of citizenship and [the principle] that religion belongs to Allah and the homeland to all…"[5]
Sheikh of Al-Azhar: Islam Condemns the Murderers
The sheikh of Al-Azhar, Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, denounced the shooting and called it a crime according to the shari'a. According to his statement, every Egyptian citizen – whether Muslim, Christian, or other – is equal in rights and duties.[6] In an interview for Al-Ahram, Tantawi stated that the criminal aspect, namely the rape of a Muslim girl by a Coptic youth, must not be confounded with the aspect of religious tensions. "This individual crime does not warrant collective punishment, which is forbidden by the Koran…"[7] The sheikh of Al-Azhar and the minister of religious endowments led Friday prayers in a Nag Hammadi mosque in hopes of restoring calm. Offering his condolences to the families of the victims, Tantawi stated that a Christian life is protected just as a Muslim life is, and that the murderers have no religion and are renounced by Islam.[8]
Egyptian Columnist: The Official Statements Do Not Reflect the Reality
In his column in Al-Ahram, Egyptian journalist and author Sharif Al-Shoubashi, former culture ministry undersecretary for foreign relations, welcomed the official statements stressing equality between Muslims and Copts, but claimed that they do not reflect the situation on the ground: "I asked myself, if I were a Copt, what would my feelings be regarding this attack [in Nag Hammadi] and regarding the emotional state which led its perpetrators to take up arms for the purposes of their inane crime, of the sort called 'hate crimes'? What would go through my mind after the initial response of rage? I found myself answering that, if I were a Copt, I would say to myself: The official position of the state, as expressed in statements by senior officials, is based, as far as I know, upon [the principle of] indiscrimination between Muslim and Christian. The constitution and the law in general theoretically treat each individual in society as equal…
"[However,] we impatiently await the ratification of a uniform law for the construction of houses of worship in Egypt… Moreover, I would demand to remove the clause of religion from official documents, especially from identity cards and passports, which serves as an unjust means of discriminating amongst citizens. If I were a Copt, I would also say to myself: The official statements are satisfactory, but the reality is utterly different. Day to day events prove that many [Egyptians] hold a different view of Copts, a view based on discrimination, mistrust, and doubt.
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"The main reason for this, in my opinion, is the constant media indoctrination, which has not ceased now for 30 years. [This indoctrination] is rooted in the basic notion that a citizen's first identity lies not in his national identity as an Egyptian, but in his religious identity as a Muslim. This has brought about a frightening merge of religion and politics, while causing the common citizen to begin viewing anyone non-Muslim as unentitled to the rights of the citizen who believes in Islam… The problem is not, primarily, the laws [themselves], but rather the general attitude of society, and an overall atmosphere which disseminates [certain] notions and beliefs… If I were a Copt, I would say to myself that my main problem lies in this atmosphere, which has intensified over the last 30 years and has given birth to extremist streams that define citizenship on the basis of religion. This apparently excludes Copts from [the circle of] citizens, and robs them, in a distorted and aggressive manner, of the title 'Egyptian,' to which they cleave more than anything else…
"This atmosphere causes hostile feelings towards Copts and relegates them to the position of second class citizens relative to the Muslim majority. If I were a Copt, I would be astonished at the sectarian categorization so rampant in the media, which spreads poison that has been polluting the minds [of Egyptians] for many years, during which time certain propagandists of hate, civil strife, and extremism, came to monopolize the scene... If I were a Copt, I would say to myself that, undoubtedly, the despicable perpetrators of the crime which cost innocent lives in Nag Hammadi in no way represent the Egyptian people, and that they are an anomalous minority.
"The tragedy is that they [themselves] are the victims of the same hateful atmosphere of which I spoke, which has divided Egypt into two camps, after 100 years of living [together] under the slogan of 'Solidarity of the Crescent and the Cross'. Therefore, the tragedy of Nag Hammadi can recur at any moment… If I were a Copt, I would say to myself that I have heard with my own ears those who scream in broad daylight that the Copts are heretics, that their place is in Hell and that their end will be bitter… Yet, I would raise my voice and with all my might declare that Egypt is my dear homeland, and that I am unwilling to replace her with any other… If I were a Copt, I would today be angry and apprehensive. What would pacify me? Not words, but actions."[9]
Egyptian Columnist: We Have Discrimination Here, Just Like in the Rest of the World
In his column in Al-Akhbar, Ibrahim Sa'ada, former chairman of the board of directors of the government daily Akhbar Al-Yawm, criticized the claim that the shooting was not committed on sectarian grounds: "Are we kidding ourselves when we refer to what occurred in Nag Hammadi as nothing more than an isolated [incident, rather than a reflection of sectarian hostility]?'...[10] What happened in Nag Hammadi must be seen as extremism and racism on the part of these three men, who have admitted to their crime… I don't know why we hesitate to admit to this truth. After all, the extremism here in our country is similar to that in most, if not all, the other countries of the world. All nations suffer from the extremism of individuals or groups who act in violence against other individuals and groups which differ from them in color, culture, values, beliefs, or religion. Moreover, conflicts emerge [even] among the followers of the same religion, if there are differences of opinion with regard to interpretation... Why deny [it]? Why ignore it instead of discussing [matters] openly, with the goal of [mutual] rapprochement?"[11]
Editor of Government Weekly: The Murder – A Result of Religious Fanaticism
Salah 'Issa, editor of the Egyptian culture ministry's weekly Al-Kahira, wrote in his regular column in the government weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi: "To claim that the incident is not sectarian, simply because its perpetrators have no strong ties to their religion, is to adopt a narrow definition of which crimes are sectarian and which are not, and is in fact an oversimplification of matters, likely to lead us into the abyss… The Nag Hammadi incident was a blatant sectarian crime, one involving no pre-existing personal dispute between the accused and those upon whom they opened fire, where [the attackers] did not know any of [the victims] personally or intend to assault any one of them specifically. The only reason they chose those specific [victims] as targets for a volley of bullets was that they came from the direction of the church, where prayers were being held. They chose them for their religion, not for any other reason. In other words, what defines a crime as sectarian is not solely the motivations of its perpetrator, and whether he is a member of a fanatic religious organization, an average religious person, or a criminal whose behavior has no relation whatsoever to any religion, but also the denomination and identity of the victims of the crime, especially when there are no personal motivations for its execution…
"What happened on Christmas is not a sectarian crime in the classic sense, but a sectarian incident of a more dangerous type than what we have [previously] encountered… The sectarian violence in this and previous instances was not carried out by organized ideological groups. It stemmed from an atmosphere of religious fanaticism, which has spread among many and leads to extremism in some. If we allow this [to continue] without decisive intervention and long-term strategies on all levels, we will be transformed from [united] Egyptians to [divided] sects."[12]
[1] Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), January 8, 2010.
[2] The shooters will be brought to trial on charges of use of force and violence, threatening security and public order, disturbing the peace, and premeditated murder. A senior source in the Office of the Chief Prosecutor stated that the accused shooters might face a death sentence. Al-Gumhouriyya (Egypt), January 17, 2010.
[3] Al-Gumhouriyya (Egypt), January 17, 2010.
[4] Al-Ahram (Egypt), January 22, 2010.
[5] Al-Gumhouriyya (Egypt), January 25, 2010.
[6] Al-Gumhouriyya (Egypt), January 11, 2010.
[7] Al-Ahram (Egypt), January 20, 2010.
[8] Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), January 16, 2010.
[9] Al-Ahram (Egypt), January 27, 2010.
[10] The author refers to the Parliament's announcement of January 17, 2010 that the murder was an "isolated" incident. Al-Misriyoun (Egypt), January 18, 2010.
[11] Al-Akhbar (Egypt), February 7, 2010.
[12] Al-Ahram Al-Arabi (Egypt), January 16, 2010.
