Quick Egyptian Roundup

Several quick takes on Egypt, courtesy of Al-Masry al-Youm's English site:

• Just shoot the protestors. The Egyptian independent and opposition media are having fun (actually that's probably not the right word: how about "aneurysms"?) over suggestions by more than one (though one is quoted here) ruling party figures that democracy protestors should just be shot down in the streets.

• Farouk El-Baz, the Egyptian-born ex-NASA scientist who was critical to the US space program (so much so that in at least one Star Trek episode there's a shuttlecraft named the El-Baz: no kidding), and brother of Usama El-Baz, who was Egypt's foreign policy guru for decades and still commands attention (in short: smart family), has spoken to students at Cairo U and said that "over the past 7000 years Egypt has never been as backward as it is now." I suspect this is normal Arab exaggeration: nobody could read or write 7000 years ago, though indeed that marks the beginnings of Egyptian civilization.

• An account of what our old friend Eyjafjallajökull (why does the spellchecker keep questioning that?) has done to Egyptian air travel.

• Remember the Nag Hammadi killings back in January? Well, the trial has been postponed for the third time.

Overseas Copts Call for Boycott of Mubarak, NDP

Two activist organizations of Copts abroad, the Free Copts and the National American Coptic Assembly, have called on Copts in Egypt to refuse to vote for President Mubarak or other National Democratic Party candidates, charging that the NDP and State Security were guilty of "connivance" in the Nag Hammadi killings on Christmas eve. The Bikya Masr link also discusses the increasing activism of other Egyptian groups abroad.

What is significant here is the fact that I have noted on a number of earlier occasions, namely that Coptic Pope Shenouda III has been a public supporter of Husni Mubarak and has virtually endorsed Gamal Mubarak's succession. Since the late 1970s there have been tensions between the overseas Copts, who clearly have a lot less to lose by expressing their views, and the Church at home. (There is also something of a tradition of rivalry between the Church hierarchy and the influential Coptic laity, but that's a different, if related, story.)

Meanwhile, the campaign to portray the Nag Hammadi killings as the actions of common criminals instead of sectarian violence has included press allegations suggesting that the main killer's gang had previously had dealings with Bishop Kirillos, who was the seeming target of the attack, and public statements by a number of leading government figures dismissing the events as some kind of Upper Egyptian gangland vendetta. The local NDP Deputy, it has been suggested, knows more than he has publicly discussed. Christmas eve, however,makes it a bit difficult to assume sectarianism was completely absent. A lot of this has appeared in the independent opposition press and a lot of it may be disinformation from one or more of the interested parties, but it's clear that the government wants to spread the idea that there's some local feuding going on rather than a national issue.

Meanwhile Al-Masry al-Youm emphasized remarks of the Chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom to Fox News suggesting that Egypt might face sanctions as a result of recent events.

The problem is not that the Copts have many legitimate complaints — they, and Muslim Egyptians as well, have plenty of government abuses to complain of — but that when Copts abroad attack the government, the backlash is sometimes bad news for their co-religionists at home.

And the timing of this is bad, since Mubarak's busy basking in the glory of Egypt's having won the Africa Cup for the third year in a row. Here he is greeting the team:

Denial is a River in Egypt After All

The Arabist on the continuing state of denial about Nag Hammadi being sectarian.

Roundup of Opinion on Nag Hammadi

I know I've been pretty much all-Egypt the last couple of days, but Misr Umm al-Dunya and all. Anyway, Al-Masry al-Youm's English pages have a roundup of press reports on Nag Hammadi, well titled, "The Discourse of Denial: Spinning Naga Hammadi."

Ambassador Scobey Visits Pope Shenouda

This may or may not be significant: US Ambassador to Egypt Margaret Scobey has paid a visit to Coptic Pope Shenouda. Officially, this is her visit to provide greetings on the occasion of Coptic Christmas January 7, when Scobey was out of the country. As the linked Al-Masry al-Youm story notes:

According to a source at the papal office, Scobey and Shenouda also discussed the 7 January shooting incident in the Upper Egyptian city of Naga Hammadi, in which six Coptic Christians and one Muslim were killed.

Now a source at the papal office may be seeking to make a sectarian point: this wasn't apparently a characterization from the US Embassy. But it also is useful data: the US may be sending a subtle message here.

Copts Divided in Nag Hammadi Aftermath

Several things continue to simmer in the wake of the Nag Hammadi Christmas Eve killings. Although the arrested bloggers have now been released, protests in the Coptic Community have been building. Georgette Qollini, a Christian Member of Parliament, has insisted in a debate in Egypt's People's Assembly that the government is refusing to acknowledge that the Nag Hammadi killings were sectarian. Some video interviews in Arabic here. Qollini is a member of the ruling National Democratic Party but is not on board with the party's attempts to paint the killings as criminal rather than sectarian in motivation. I should note that Qollini is one of the Presidentially-appointed members of the People's Assembly. The President gets to appoint ten members and usually uses the power to name women, minorities etc. who hae trouble winning at the polls. As both a Christian and a woman, Qollini probably seemed ideal, but now she's splitting with the Party line.

She has also criticized the local Nag Hammadi governor, himself a Copt and an NDP member.

There is also growing criticism by some Copts of their Church's relative silence. Bishop Kirollos of Nag Hammadi, who was accompanied by the young men who died and may have been the intended target, is being criticized for not more openly denouncing the government in the matter. Although there are reports that some local priests will sue State Security and the local governor, Pope Shenouda's office in Cairo has been clear in noting that it is not a Papal initiative. I've noted before that Shenouda's closeness to Mubarak and the NDP is not all that popular among some Copts (especially Copts abroad); the latest violence, the bloodiest in some years, is making things worse.

The arrests of the bloggers, who were merely going to offer condolences and express Muslim-Christian solidarity, is a reminder of how nervous this is making the government.

More on Blogger Arrests; Three-Day Weekend

Egypt says that the arrested bloggers will face charges due to their having staged a demonstration; apparently they've been "deported" back to Cairo. This just looks heavy-handed. Were they actually violating any actual law?

As I noted earlier this will be a three-day weekend in the US due to Martin Luther King day, so blogging will occur only if events demand it; otherwise, see you Tuesday.

18 Bloggers Arrested Near Nag Hammadi

Eighteen Egyptian bloggers, including prominent blogger Wa'el ‘Abbas, have been arrested in on their way to Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, apparently due to an impending visit by the Sheikh al-Azhar. Is State Security afraid they'll blog at him, or what?

One of them, Amira al-Tahawy, has been quoted as saying they were left without food or water for 10 hours. Also of concern, the Interior Ministry is apparently denying the arrests.

The huge amounts of attention media and Internet coverage have given to the Christmas Eve killings has focused attention on Nag Hammadi, and State Security does not like to work in the limelight. Let's hope this is resolved soon.

More here. The English is awkward but the names are hotlinked to their blogs.

This will be the three day Martin Luther King holiday weekend in the US, though if anything demands it, I'll try to post.

Coptic-Muslim Tensions Still Running High; Overseas Copts Getting Involved

Sorry to keep coming back to Egypt, but as I've said before, I write what I know. Tensions between Copts and Muslims in Upper Egypt have been running high since the Christmas Eve killings, and now Security has arrested 28 Copts and 14 Muslims in the rioting and burnings that took place in Bahgura (or Bahjura). There's also a newer video of the immediate shooting aftermath on YouTube which is fairly graphic and therefore I'm not embedding it; if you really need to see it you can go here. And Al-Masry Al-Youm has a chronology of sectarian violence in Egypt since 1972. It's not comprehensive or complete, but it's better than anything the official press (or "semi-official" as Al-Ahram is always referenced) would publish.

As the story at the first link above shows, Copts abroad are getting into the debate now. There's some danger here. So far the government has been promising to mete out justice to the killers (remember a policeman also died). But when the overseas Coptic community starts denouncing the Egyptian government, the government sometimes has a tendency to go into the bunker.

As you'll see in the linked story, Morris Sadek of the National American Coptic Assembly has called for the United States to intervene and even noted that Copts were better off under French and British occupation and asked for those countries' intervention too.

I have enormous empathy for the Copts, but this was a local Muslim-Christian vendetta, and since Napoleon's dead and so's Anthony Eden, the British and French reference is only going to alienate Egyptian nationalists (including many Copts). The American intervention idea? Not going to happen. When a minority, however ill-treated, seems to be calling for foreign imperial intervention against its own government, that suggests an uncertain grasp of reality. But it's mostly Copts abroad, or some like Sadek who move between the US and Egypt, who can get away with saying these things.

Back in 1981 when Anwar Sadat deposed Pope Shenouda, it was in part a response to his embarrassment at Coptic demonstrators he encountered on his visit to Washington to see Ronald Reagan shortly before. If Copts abroad get too noisy, the government is likely to react badly. A minority, in the real world of the Middle East, is better off not defying the government.

If the perpetrators are not brought to justice, there will be plenty of grounds for protest. But calling for foreign intervention? That won't happen, so if overseas Copts want to protect their co-religionists at home, don't throw fuel on the smoldering embers. Things are already bad enough.

Coptic Web Poll on Nag Hammadi

The venerable Coptic weekly Al-Watani in Egypt has had a poll on their website (in Arabic) asking "Who do you think is responsible for Nag Hammadi? The answers as of tonight (from a presumably almost entirely Christian readership): Security, 31%; the Governor, 4%; a "Culture of Hatred," 61%, and "an individual act," 3%.

Nag Hammadi Update

The sectarian tensions in Upper Egypt have been building through the weekend. There were some Christian attacks on Muslim shops in the village of Bahgura, and Christian protests continue. There are signs the government may be ready to try to calm things down by charging the killers with terrorism and sowing sectarian division rather than just murder. (And they did kill a cop as well as six Copts.) If you read Arabic, check out Al-Masry al-Youm's latest story and the earlier links below it. They're giving good coverage.

This is the worst sectarian violence in Upper Egypt since Kosheh back in 2000; in my then-newsletter The Estimate at the time I wrote this analysis on "Egypt's Copts After Kosheh": Part One. And Part Two. It remains, I suspect, my best analysis to date on Coptic-Muslim tensions in Upper Egypt, despite being a decade old.

The Aftermath in Upper Egypt

UPDATED: Pakinam Amer's Twitter feed, already cited below, has been full of rumors of Coptic retaliation against Muslims; she's wisely advising posters to be cautious since explosive rumors spread so readily in these situations. That feed is worth watching. (Also: #nagahamadi.) Vendetta has a long history in Upper Egypt, as I've noted. Also updated: while their current online postings don't add anything not found elsewhere, the weekly Coptic newspaper Al-Watani, which has been around since the Nasser era, should have a new issue Sunday. Their website is here; some pages are translated into Engish or French, though not always right away.

I usually don't post over weekends, and probably won't much this one, but if you want to follow the Nag Hammadi story further, as The Arabist also notes, Al-Masry al-Youm's English language site's reporter, Pakinam Amer, has been posting a series of good reports on Nag Hammadi's aftermath, such as this one, and Amer is also tweeting: the feed is here. Right now her coverage seems to be better than some of the Arabic coverage. The government has now arrested three suspects in the killings. And Al-Ahram has discovered the story since it is, of course, due to the brilliance of the State Security Forces that they were identified.

Still More on Nag Hammadi

I certainly don't want to inflame sectarian divisions, but as more comes out about Nag Hammadi (strictly speaking I should be writing it Nag‘ Hammadi) I'm passing it on; the Gaza confrontations are being covered everywhere; this isn't.

According to this English report in Al-Masry al-Youm, Bishop Kirollos of Nag Hammadi has said he had previously received a message on his cell phone saying "it is your turn." The same article says this is the second-bloodiest sectarian bloodshed, after the 2000 massacre in Kosheh, in Sohag Governorate.

Nag Hammadi is in Qena Governorate, as is the town of Farshout where violence led to the burning of many Coptic shops a few weeks ago after allegations of the rape of a Muslim girl by a Copt.

Meanwhile I should note that Gamal Mubarak attended Christmas eve services at the Coptic Cathedral of Saint Mark last night. Mubarak used to go himself (a practice I believe Nasser started), but lately Gamal has been the designated figure, which may be why Pope Shenouda keeps virtually endorsing his succession.

Wa'el ‘Abbas Talks to Al-Jazeera About Nag Hammadi

Egyptian blogger Wa'el ‘Abbas was interviewed by Al-Jazeera English today about a video that was E-mailed to him of the aftermath of the Christmas Eve shootings in Nag Hammadi last night:



If you want to see the full video with the Arabic background, here's Wa'el's upload to YouTube:



And elsewhere on YouTube, today's funeral:



Obviously a lot of outrage in play.

Impressive that information can get out so quickly. As I write this Al-Ahram's website headlines the story of the Egyptian border policeman killed at Rafah, followed by a report that the Copts are celebrating Christmas today. The independent media were posting stories last night; Al-Ahram will doubtless get around to it eventually, and I gather there may have been more in the print paper, though not headlined. [UPDATE: here on the website: Security says it wasn't sectarian. Nah, shooting Christians coming out of Christmas eve services and apparently hitting some of the bishop's deacon/escorts isn't sectarian. Thank you for clearing that up.] For those who read Arabic, Al-Yom al-Sabi‘ reviews how the various media are treating the story, including its own comments on Al-Ahram's relative silence.

Coptic Protestors Clash With Security Forces

More trouble today in Nag Hammadi: as many as 2000 Coptic protestors clashed with security forces today as they protested last night's drive-by killings. Bear in mind that today is Coptic Christmas. Also see here.

There's some suggestion that this is an outgrowth of the earlier troubles in Farshout, when Muslim rioters burned Coptic businesses after an alleged rape of a Muslim girl by a Christian.

There is a longstanding problem of clashes between Copts and Muslims (sometimes but not always Islamists) in Upper Egypt, where a problem of ongoing vendettas between families is also established. Sometimes wild rumors lead to clashes; sometimes real events.

Christmas Eve Violence in Egypt

A rough day in Egypt. First there was violence at the Gaza border, in which at least one border guard died. Now, there's been a drive-by shooting in the Nile city of Nag Hammadi, outside a church where Copts were celebrating Christmas eve (under the Julian calendar). Five Coptic civilians and a policeman were killed. There's been an upsurge in violence against Copts in Upper Egypt lately, most notably in Farshout, also in the same general area. UPDATE: This Arabic report from Al-Yom al-Sabi‘ quotes a security source as suggesting this was linked to the Farshout troubles.

If more is known I'll post more on this tomorrow.