Nadia Blétry, International La-Croix –
A week after the attack by ISIS that killed 29 Coptic pilgrims, the Christian minority in Egypt has condemned the security loopholes that put them at risk. Egyptian authorities have implemented an ambiguous policy regarding radical Islamism.
Since the shootings of the Coptic pilgrims that killed 29 people in Egypt last Friday, Milad Salama has oscillated between sadness and anger.
“I lost my voice while shouting on the phone for the police to come to the scene of the shooting,” Salama, a young lawyer who lost close relatives in the attack, recounts in a hoarse voice.
“I arrived well before the police after my family informed me that they had been shot… The security forces are neglecting us,” he complains.
Just as they do each time new violence occurs, Christians have again condemned the security lapses by the government. These Coptic Christians, who comprise 10% of Egypt’s population of 93 million, regard themselves as victims of this negligence.
Friday’s attack, for which ISIS has claimed responsibility, took place on a desert road 200 kilometers to the south of the capital. It is clear that the attack was well planned. The assailants were familiar with the location and the habits of the Christians of the region and managed to escape the security forces.
“Everyone knows that pilgrims visit the Monastery of St Samuel on Fridays. The road should have been secured,” says Fr Rafic Greiche, spokesperson for the Catholic Church in Egypt.
Owing to army pressure, ISIS have suffered setbacks in their stronghold in northern Sinai. As a result, they are now attacking unprotected soft targets, namely Christians.
Their strategic aim is to destabilize the country by creating sectarian tensions between the two communities.
“Awareness among the communities could be improved, and the army is not trained to fight against terrorism,” says a diplomat posted in Cairo.”But in reality, it is difficult to thwart this type of attack.”
In addition, Christians are also under-represented in security services administration.
Egypt declared a state of emergency after the double assault on the churches of Tanta and Alexandria on April 9 which killed almost 50. Security measures were reinforced, including the number of police officers in front of churches.
“But it is impossible to put a police officer behind every Christian. There are millions of them and the security forces obviously do not have the means to do so,” the diplomat adds.
Evidently, the measures implemented to date have not proved sufficient to curb the violence and reinforcing security alone is not enough to resolve the problem.
For decades, successive regimes have implemented ambiguous policies regarding religious organizations. Moreover, the current government has not abandoned this strategy either.
President El-Sisi ousted the Muslim Brotherhood from power in 2013 while reaching out to the Salafist party that advocates radical Islamism.
Mina Thabet, a specialist on minority groups who works with an NGO, believes that “terrorism can not be fought purely with weapons”.
“We need a global strategy. We need culture, economic reforms, and social justice as well as education,” she argues.
The lack of education, as well as its corollary, the teaching of conservative thought, is also blamed for being the vector of rampant extremism.
“I was taught to believe that Muslims were superior to Christians,” explains a young student of Al-Azhar University, a global center for Sunni Islam.
“Certain lecturers even taught that killing a Christian was not a crime,” he adds.
In Egypt, Islamization of society has also led to a turning inward by the Coptic community itself, which has also had consequences, says Victor Salama, a professor at Cairo University.
“The public sphere has become Muslim and today we are witnessing double-standard justice,” Salama explains.
“For example, a group of young Copts who made a parody video of ISIS were sentenced to prison in January 2016 and had to flee the country.
“However, after the attacks on Minya, some internet users posted hate messages, rejoicing at the violence against Christians. But these were not prosecuted even though the law punishes such behavior. Such impunity weakens the Copts,” Salama says.
As a result, Egyptian Christians are at great risk in the current social and political environment.
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https://international.la-croix.com/news/soft-egyptian-security-policies-put-christians-under-threat/5284
Photo: Since the deadly double attack in Egypt on April 9, the police have increased surveillance like here in the city of Tanta, north of Cairo. / Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters