MARED (Egyptians Against Religious Discrimination) Group released a statement on Sunday condemning escalating violence against Christian Copts in Egypt
The statement, which was signed by 47 NGOs, and more than 200 public figures and activists, drew attention to the repeated attacks on Copts, their churches and properties, describing them as “criminal acts by the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists.”
The statement condemned the “police failure, which amounts to complicity, in facing these sectarian attacks, as their performance has been slow and they failed to carry out the roles provided for by the law.” It denounced the failure of the police to intervene to protect citizens and their property in spite of their prior knowledge of tension and their presence in locations of events during the attacks.
The statement also denounced the “double standards of the European and American mediators, visiting Egypt in constant streams to defend the Brotherhood, as they did not pay attention to the crimes committed against Egyptian Christians.
The statement called for the enforcement of the rule of law and prosecution of the perpetrators and instigators of violence, and not to resort to the shameful “customary reconciliation” meetings.
The statement warned against terrorist attacks after the eventual breaking up the two Brotherhood sit-in hotbeds, and called for “urgent action to protect Egyptians and stop the campaigns of incitement against citizens on the basis of religion.”
The statement also called on the Ministry of Interior to perform its duties in protecting Christian citizens and intensify its security presence around houses of worship.
The statement stressed that, “since the second wave of the Egyptian Revolution on June 30, 2013 overthrew the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood, attempts have started to punish Christian citizens for their participation in this revolutionary wave, dividing the Egyptian people, and provoking hatred among its components.”
“Over only one month, the guerrilla groups of the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists attacked Egyptian Christians in several villages, cities and provinces. In these attacks, many Christian citizens were killed and their churches, homes, shops and cars were burned and looted. They were terrorized with their children and displaced from their homes,” the statement pointed out.
The statement condemned “these criminal acts by the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists who live on dissemination of hatred and religious and sectarian intolerance, and who are working on creating hotbeds of conflict in different parts of Egypt in order to destabilize, divide, and weaken the state.”
The statements denounced the media blackout on the sectarian incidents in Upper Egypt.
Among the signatories of the statement were the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, the National Union for Independence of Legal Profession, the New Woman Foundation, Coptic Solidarity, Cairo Center for Human Rights Studies and the Egyptian Center for Human Rights.
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Parts of this dispatch were used: www.mcndirect.com/showsubject.aspx?id=48241