. . . . . . . . . . الاتحاد العالمى للاقليات من اجل السلام: Egyptian Police Arrest Christians, Muslims for Eating

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Egyptian Police Arrest Christians, Muslims for Eating

By Mary Abdelmassih

On August 30, 2009 Egyptian police forces in the Upper Egyptian town of Aswan, launched an unprecedented and unconstitutional campaign to enforce the Ramadan fast, the Muslim month of fasting, arresting 150 for publicly eating, drinking or smoking.These arrests were seen by many as a step closer towards adopting an Egyptian model of the Saudi Arabian "Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" Police Squads."There is no such offence in the Egyptian law," said lawyer Khaled Ali, executive director of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center. "The Interior Ministry, to justify the arrests, has twisted "violating public decency," which is punishable under Egyptian law, by making eating and drinking publicly in Ramadan to fall under this category."Faced with a public outcry, the Ministry of Interior denied the arrests, and the Aswan head of Criminal Investigations stated, contrary to published reports, that the arrests never happened at all. This was followed by the Ministry of Interior saying the public has misunderstood the campaign, which is aimed at combating crime in general and drugs in particular during the holy month, and that those arrested 'looked suspicious' to the police.Coptic lawyer and activist, Mamdouh Ramzy told the Egyptian newspaper al-Youm al-Saba'a on 9/8/2009 that the police in the Governorates of Hurgada and Dakahlia have been following suit. He called on the Minister of Interior to investigate the police officers involved in these campaigns, and failing that, Ramzy threatened to file a complaint with the Attorney General.Ramzy fears that Egypt is becoming another "Taliban State," and described the Interior Ministry's actions as persecution of Christians, who naturally don't fast during Ramadan and are prone to arrests. He cites these actions as strong evidence of the "radicalization" of the Egyptian police forces.Al Arabiya News reported on 9/9/2009 the governor of Hurgada ordered all cafes and restaurants to be closed for business during the day, despite the city's popularity as a tourist destination. It also reported that in the Delta governorate of Dakahlia, seven youths were arrested for smoking in the street and were later released after paying a fine of LE 500 ($90).Jurists and human rights organizations in Egypt condemned the raids, saying that there is no article in the law nor in the Constitution, which provides for arresting those who publicly broke the fast. In addition, it is against the civil rights of citizens, and neither the police nor others are allowed to violate them.Gamal Eid, head of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), cites this incident as evidence that "the government is implicitly endorsing turning Egypt into a religious state," in an interview with the Egyptian newspaper al-Youm al-Saba'a. "Silence over the actions of its police force in Aswan only proves that the Interior Ministry is in collusion and approves this illegal behavior."Eid also says this is not the first time the government tried to adopt these Ramadan non-fasting campaigns. "Two years ago, the government tried them in Cairo and several arrests were made at the time, but it had to back down because they were unconstitutional"Mohamed Al-Jilani, Assistant Secretary-General of the Free Constitutional Party and founder of "Egypt for Egyptians" Association said that Egypt now lives in the "Golden Age of Wahhabism"Coptic activist General Nasry Girgis told Copts United that history tells us that until the beginning of the reign of Khedive Muhammad Ali, Christians were forbidden to manifest publicly breaking fast in Ramadan. "Does this means we are moving backwards 200 years in time?"Members of the Islamic Research Academy called on 8/9/2009 for a law to be passed which makes breaking Ramadan fast in public punishable. One of its members, Dr. Mohamed Othman, told the Egyptian Rosel Youssef newspaper "to profess breaking Ramadan fast is a disrespect to the feelings of those who fast, and if there is an excuse for not fasting, then a person should stay out of public sight."Dr. Mohamed el-Gindy, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, gives the authorities the right to arrest those who publicly break Ramadan fast, and should issue a binding ruling to punish them. He explains that those who are not fasting should not leave their homes, and venture out into the street, as this is something which is contrary to the norm, therefore the public authority is authorized and can act to prevent committing such a "sin."Muslim Salafis greeted the arrests as a step forward towards implementing Shari'a laws in Egypt. Sheikh Adel al-Sayed, deputy chairman of the religious non-governmental organization Ansar al-Sunnah (Supporters of the Prophet's Teachings) in Egypt, told Al Arabiya News that although fasting is between Allah and His worshiper, flaunting sins publicly is against Shari'a and the police initiative promotes virtue and prevents vice. "If a man drinks at home, I cannot arrest him but if he drinks in public, I am fully entitled to pursue him in the name of the law; there is a clear clause in Egyptian law against violating ethics and morals."During Ramadan in September 2008, the police in the north-eastern city of Port Said, near the Suez Canal, raided and demolished the cafe of six Christian brothers and brutally assaulted them for opening for business during Ramadan. The Ghattas brothers were sentenced in January 2009 to three years imprisonment with hard labor, charged with resisting arrest and assaulting the police. Although a video of the police raid, shot by a passerby, was presented to court by their defense lawyer, Ramsis el-Naggar, the judge dismissed it.In the latest campaigns, police officers have actually used their official position and made use of the government's organs to limit the freedom of citizens and criminalized their behavior without any legal basis. The great concern is the lack of clarity on the law of "violating public decency."

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The Cultural Genocide of Egypt's Christian Copts By Mary Abdelmassih

The Egyptian Government, In a new step in long-term and premeditated process of obliterating Coptic identity and history, has decided to change the name of the Coptic village of Deir Abu Hennis, in the Upper Egyptian province of Mallawi, Minya. The village was founded in the 4th century AD on the grounds of the Monastery of St. Hennis the Short, a much revered Coptic Saint. The new name chosen by the Government is "Valley of Peppermint."
More than four thousand Coptic villagers demonstrated on Thursday June, 11 against this forced change, vowing to fight to the end to keep the name of their village. They carried banners with slogans such as 'Let us all die and May Abu Hennis live for ever' and "We, the inhabitants of the village refuse the change in the name of our village and we want it to remain as it is. It is our right and our demand"
The inhabitants of the village, who are 100% Copts, are not only angry because the Minister of Justice,issued an order to change the name of their village into "Valley of Peppermint," but because this decision was made on 4/12/2009, but they were informed on 6/9/2009.
Upon hearing of the news, the Copts in Deir Abu Hennis village sent on 6/9/2009 a plea to all concerned authorities and Coptic NGOs, expressing their anger at this decision. They made a petition which was signed by 35,000 village inhabitants.
They believe that this change in the names of Coptic villages is premeditated and did not come as a result of a whim on the part of the local council, otherwise why does the Minister of Justice get involved, even though this does not gall under his jurisdiction.
In an effort to pacify the villagers, the Governor of Minya immediately contacted the director of Mallawi City Council and sent him to the village to try and calm the angry crowd, and promised to reverse decision of the Minister of Justice to change the name of the village. However, he told them that this will require some time and promised to try to have this done by next Thursday.
Attorney Dr. Naguib Gibraeel, President of the 'Egyptian Union' Organiztion for Human Rights filed a petition against the Minister of Justice, the Governor of Minya, the Minister of Culture and the Prime Minister in his capacity as head of ministers and governors, to stop the change in the name of the village of Deir Abu Hennis. His plea was founded on grounds that this decision is an obliteration of the Egyptian identity and the Coptic history as an integral part of the history and civilization of Egypt.
Numerous Egyptian satellite channels including OTV, owned by Coptic tycoon Saweiress, filmed the demonstration and interviewed the demonstrators. According to Free Copts reporters, State Security tried to prevent the media and attempted to confiscate the video tapes, but were prevented fom doing so by the villagers.
The government tried previously in 1964 to change the name of the same village, also to "Valley of Peppermint", but faced with the villager's opposition, it reversed its decision and the order was cancelled through a Presidential decree issued in 1979.
Dr. Gibraeel has been protesting for several years against the changing of Coptic names, whether of streets, squares or areas and substituting them with Islamic names, which has been going on for some time, and spreads all over Egypt from Aswan to Alexandria. To raise awareness of this on-going phenomenon, he previously filed petitions against the Governor of Cairo for substituting Coptic names of places of interest with Muslim ones around Cairo.
Coptic Bishop Thomas of El-Qussia Diocese, Upper Egypt, gave a lecture last July at the Hudson Institute entitled "The Experience of the Middle East's largest Christian community during a time of rising Islamization." He talked about the dilemma of the Copts who kept their Christianity, and identity as Egyptians who have their own culture, in the face of their fellow citizens who have adopted an Arab culture and identity. "Now when you look at a Copt, you don't see only a Christian, you see an Egyptian who is trying to keep his identity versus another imported identity that is working on him," he said.
As a reaction to this lecture more than 200 articles appeared in the Egyptian Media attacking Bishop Thomas, asserting the Arab and Islamic identity of Egypt, others called for putting him on trial charged with 'treason', while one Imam called for his death.
Dr. Gibraeel also appealed today to the Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, responsible for safeguarding the cultural heritage of Egypt, asking for his intervention. A meeting is scheduled between them on Thursday, 6/18/2009.
The village of Abu Hennis is placed on Egypt's tourist map, and tourists come from all over the world to visit it as part of the history and culture of the Copts of Egypt going back to the 4th century AD. "It represents an assault on the country's national wealth, and gives rise to sectarian tensions, as the name of Deir (Monastery) of St. Hennis the Short, is a source of religious pride to the Copts, and part of the history of the martyrs of the Coptic Orthodox Church," he said.
As a warning, Dr. Gibraeel vowed that if this matter of Deir Abu Hennis village is not resolved, he would bring the matter to UNESCO, being the responsible authority for safeguarding cultures and civilizations. This would be a source of great embarrassment to Egypt and its Minister of Culture who is presently one of the contenders for the President of UNESCO, while in his own country 600 years of Coptic history and culture is being obliterated.

The Plight of the Afghan Woman

The vast majority of Afghanistan's population professes to be followers of Islam. Over 1400 years ago, Islam demanded that men and women be equal before God, and gave them various rights such the right to inheritance, the right to vote, the right to work, and even choose their own partners in marriage. For centuries now in Afghanistan, women have been denied these rights either by official government decree or by their own husbands, fathers, and brothers. During the rule of the Taliban (1996 - 2001), women were treated worse than in any other time or by any other society. They were forbidden to work, leave the house without a male escort, not allowed to seek medical help from a male doctor, and forced to cover themselves from head to toe, even covering their eyes. Women who were doctors and teachers before, suddenly were forced to be beggars and even prostitutes in order to feed their families.
Since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, many would agree that the political and cultural position of Afghan women has improved substantially. The recently adopted Afghan constitution states that "the citizens of Afghanistan - whether man or woman- have equal rights and duties before the law". So far, women have been allowed to return back to work, the government no longer forces them to wear the all covering burqa, and they even have been appointed to prominent positions in the government. Despite all these changes many challenges still remain. The repression of women is still prevalent in rural areas where many families still restrict their own mothers, daughters, wives and sisters from participation in public life. They are still forced into marriages and denied a basic education. Numerous school for girls have been burned down and little girls have even been poisoned to death for daring to go to school.

Who are we

The World Minorities United for Peace is a non-profit organization established June 5th, 2009. Our motto is a verse from the bible: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Our goal is to establish peace for all the minorities in the Middle East and around the world as well. We believe that peace in Israel, which is a minority in the Islamic Middle East, will cause peace in the whole area. That’s why we believe that minorities in the Middle East and in Israel should unite together for peace.
We believe that peace for the minorities in the Islamic countries should be an international goal for the whole world. Peace is meaningless if countries keep signing treaties for human rights and religious freedom while Islamic countries do not enforce the implementation of such treaties.
The Minorities include:
- The Copts and the Baha’is in Egypt.
- Christians in Iraq
- The Maroonites in Lebabon
- Christians of Darfur in Sudan
- Christians in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran.
- Bosnia
- Returning the region of Crete to Greece.
- The disarming of all fanatic Islamic groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and others. We believe that those who are not working for peace are working against it. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

. . . . . . . . . . الاتحاد العالمى للاقليات من اجل السلام