By : The Wall Street Journal –
Leader blames Islamic State for gun attack killing dozens of pilgrims.
Minya, Egypt—Gunmen in three sport-utility vehicles opened fire on a bus carrying Christian pilgrims in central Egypt, killing at least 28, the latest bloodshed in a wave of violence that is fast emerging as a security crisis for President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.
Ten of the dead were children, who were traveling with their parents to visit an ancient monastery; many suffered bullet wounds to the head and chest, said Bishop Makarios, the highest Coptic clergyman in Minya Province, where the attack occurred.
Mr. Sisi, a former army chief who took power by coup and later won election with a vow to stamp out terrorism in his country, has cast himself as a regional leader in the fight against extremism. But as Islamic State’s territory continues to shrink in Iraq and Syria, Egypt has seen more frequent and widespread attacks claimed by the group, particularly targeting the Christian minority.
Coptic churches haven’t been the only targets. Hundreds of families have fled their homes in the restive Sinai Peninsula after Islamic State extremists killed seven Coptic men and vowed to target others.
Mr. Sisi blamed Islamic State for the mass shooting on Friday, which occurred as the bus, coming from the city of Beni Suef, stopped briefly on its way to the St. Samuel monastery, about 190 miles south of the capital Cairo. The attack also injured 24 people, according to the Interior Ministry. As of late Friday no group had claimed responsibility.
After an emergency meeting of national security officials late Friday, Mr. Sisi addressed the nation in a televised speech, accusing Islamic State of trying to divide Egyptians.
He called on all nations to join the fight against terrorism, saying he is expecting greater support from the administration of President Donald Trump. He also cryptically suggested that political chaos in neighboring Libya had been connected to Friday’s attack.
Mr. Trump affirmed U.S. support for Egypt in a White House statement on Friday. “America stands with President Al Sisi and all the Egyptian people today, and always, as we fight to defeat this common enemy,” he said.
Near the site of Friday’s attack, as families of some of the victims prepared to bury their dead in a village in Minya province, bursts of anger punctuated the grief.
“I am Christian and I’m not scared!” scores of men chanted as they marched ahead of six ambulances carrying the bodies of seven members of the Farouk family.
The funeral procession ended at the St. Marcus Church, where prayers were held for the family ahead of their burial.
Ayman Ezzat, a rickshaw driver, blamed the massacre on Mr. Sisi, saying the president hadn’t done enough to protect Copts in Egypt, a view widely shared by Christians since a December church bombing in Cairo’s largest Coptic cathedral that killed at least 25 people.
“Our lives have turned into hell,” he said. “I’m a Copt and I curse myself everyday for bringing [Mr. Sisi] to power. He failed us. He sold us.”
Bishop Makarios said while security forces can’t be expected to protect all pilgrims to Coptic holy sites, Egypt’s extensive intelligence gathering apparatus must do more to intercept attacks before they happen.
Mr. Sisi imposed a three-month national state of emergency last month after Palm Sunday suicide bombings by Islamic State’s Egyptian affiliate, Sinai Province, killed at least 45 worshipers at Coptic churches in Alexandria and Tanta.
Attacks on Egypt’s Christians have become more frequent and have spread from the Sinai Peninsula to the heart of Egypt’s better-secured mainland—an indication, said Michael Hanna, an Egypt analyst at the New York-based Century Foundation, that Mr. Sisi’s security forces don’t have the capacity to contain insurgents.
“That such sophisticated attacks are increasing is suggestive of resilience, coordination, and state failure,” said Mr. Hanna.
Mr. Sisi, who initially took power in a 2013 military coup, gained early support from the Coptic church on the belief that Christians would be safer under the former army general. Many Christians were fearful of persecution under then-President Mohammed Morsi, who was a senior official of the Muslim Brotherhood and the nation’s first democratically elected president.
Early in his presidency, which began in 2014, Mr. Sisi spoke of a need to reform global Muslim communities to stamp out the spread of extremist ideology. Those statements won him plaudits and support from some Western leaders.
He also cracked down on his opponents, many of whom were political Islamists, prompting some Egyptians and international human-rights groups to accuse him of inflaming radicalism, rather than eradicating it.
Coptic Church leaders have since become impatient, saying Mr. Sisi has failed to secure their homes and houses of worship—and has done little to address traditional issues of discrimination from the country’s Muslims majority.
“It’s too complex and too costly for him so he gave up on it,” said Coptic activist Mina Magdy. Mr. Magdy said the state of emergency imposed last month wasn’t followed with any meaningful security measures.
Critics of Mr. Sisi say that Egyptian authorities have chiefly used the state of emergency to detain his critics, including potential challengers for his office in 2018 elections, and to block independent news websites.
Spokesmen for the foreign ministry and president’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Sinai Province, the ISIS affiliate, has carried out hundreds of attacks on police and military personnel since 2014, mostly in the northern Sinai. It also claimed responsibility for the 2015 attack on a Russian airliner en route from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik that killed all 224 crew and passengers aboard.
In December, the group expanded its campaign to sow divisions in the country, vowing to step up attacks on Coptic Christians, who make up some 10% of the country’s 92 million people and constitute the largest community of Christians in the Middle East. That threat came in a video in which it celebrated the December suicide bombing.
In late April, Pope Francis visited Cairo, invited by Mr. Sisi in part as a show of support for the beleaguered community. There, the pope spoke before thousands, delivering a forceful condemnation of religiously motivated violence while calling for greater religious freedoms.
Mr. Sisi has won strong support from Mr. Trump, and the two leaders have met repeatedly since the U.S. president took office in January, discussing Egypt’s role in improving regional security.
Mr. Trump has said he admired Mr. Sisi’s strong hand against terrorism. On Friday, in a statement issued by the White House, he condemned the “merciless slaughter” of Christians in Egypt.
Minya Province, the pilgrims’ destination on Friday, has the largest population of Coptic Christians in the country, and has been the site of frequent attacks by Muslims for more than a decade.
Violence escalated there sharply in 2013, following the coup against Mr. Morsi. After Pope Tawadros II, the Coptic leader, appeared alongside Mr. Sisi during the public announcement of the coup, some of Mr. Morsi’s followers in Minya burned churches and attacked Christians, assuming they had supported it.
Informal reconciliation councils, established to damp tensions, have routinely ruled in favor of Muslim parties. That has led to Coptic accusations of government discrimination.
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By Dahlia Kholaif and Tamer El-Ghobashy. https://www.wsj.com/articles/gunmen-in-egypt-attack-bus-carrying-coptic-christians-1495796748
Photo: Egyptians wait outside a hospital to retrieve the remains of the victims of Friday’s attack in Minya province. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES