“We only ask for security, peace and dignity,” they said.
Ayman Nabil, whose father was arrested on charges of murdering a Muslim, asked, “How can we go on living when we’re being attacked, and are yet unable to get out of our homes?”
“My father was the guardian on duty at the village’s post office when they attacked it, prompting him to fire warning shots,” he said. “The Muslim victim wasn’t present in the village during these events, and was murdered in the city of Malwi. Security forces aim to frame my father, to justify the attack against us. We have lost everything, while the director of security calls us liars by stating that no losses occurred. I tell him, ‘Come see for yourself the losses that our village has suffered.’”
“All of those who were arrested haven’t been charged with anything and I don’t know why my brother was arrested when he wasn’t in possession of a weapon nor did he participate in the events,” Nabil said. “My uncle Louis, 60, was also arrested on his way out of his house. All of the arrested Copts were the ones affected by the attack, while police have yet to arrest any of the real perpetrators, who they know quite well.”
Eid Louis, brother of the Copt accused of having an affair with a Muslim girl, said, “Rumors of an affair between my brother and a Muslim girl are false, and was used as an excuse to attack us.”
“After checks were made, the girl was found out to still be a virgin, so where is the evidence of an affair?” he asked. “Such claims have been recently used to attack Christians in several regions.”
He added, “We had hoped that police would intervene, as it knows of the existence of the MB in the village and their daily marches against Christians. We are barely able to leave our own houses, and yet police was lax in protecting us on Friday when attacks against us were repeated. The perpetrators continued to set fire to other houses under police’s nose, and all Copts locked themselves in, screaming and praying to God to save them. If their quarrel really is with a specific party, then why are they attacking the entire village?”
Yvonne Boushra, the young girl who was thrown from the second floor and broke both her arms, stood among the rubbles of her destroyed house, and told MCN the details of the events.
Ezzat Ibrahim, a human rights activist and an eyewitness, said, “When I went to the village, I mourned the losses suffered by Copts. Tahani, a lonely woman living off aid given to her by church, was robbed of all her belongings, among other injustices suffered by Copts of the village.”
Ibrahim continued, “Extremism in Minya continues to threaten Christians, while security forces still adopt the same methods used, arresting innocent Copts to force them to attend ‘customary reconciliation meetings’.”
“Marie Sadek owns a piece of land, which a Muslim wanted to takeover by force, and he refused to build a house for him on it. Later, clashes erupted between both parties, leading to the death of two Muslims and a Copt. Security forces then allowed Muslims to murder a poor farmer on his way to work, to even out the number of casualties.”