Cairo (AsiaNews)
- Yet another case of violence and abuse against Coptic Christians. On
26 February, the Court of Bani Suef (Upper Egypt) dismissed the appeal of the
families of the two children Rzik Nagy, aged 10, and Mina Farag, 9, accused of
desecrating the Koran. They have
been detained in a juvenile prison since April 2012. The case has attracted a
lot of criticism in the country. Many
claim the trial was illegal and devoid of any logic.
Sami
Harak, a lawyer and member of the Egyptian Movement Against Religious
Discrimination, points out that "the Bani Suef case is a sad precedent
and in the future there may be others for religious defamation, especially
against children of the Christian faith."
On
9 April 2012 the two were stopped by a local imam who accused them of
having urinated on the Koran. Before
calling the police, the Muslim cleric led Nabil and Nady to the local church demanding
the priest punish them. At
the priest's refusal the Imam took the two children to the local court with
three other Muslims of the village. Without
a trial, the judge detained the two children in a youth detention center on
charges of religious desecration. Their
parents' appeals and those of the local Christian community to local
authorities have proven fruitless. Nabil
and Nady are both illiterate and according to the parents could not have known
what was written on those pages, found in among rubbish.
If they are convicted,
the case will mark a serious precedent for the country. For
Saaid Abdel Hafez, a Human Rights lawyer, a double mistake has been committed. Given
their age and the fact they are Christians they can not be punished under
Sharia law. Local
Muslims should seek compensation from parents and representatives of the local
Coptic community. The
second and more serious mistake was the trial by a civil court under pressure
from a religious leader.
Fr. Rafic
Greiche, spokesman for the Egyptian Catholic Church, launches an alarm ove rthe
growing Islamization of the country. "The
Muslim Brotherhood - he says - are quietly replacing all local officials in governorates
with people loyal to them. Egypt is increasingly becoming an Islamic country,
with serious risks especially for the Christian minority." According
to the priest these changes are occurring silently and far from the eyes of the
media. Islamists
are replacing second and third rank officials, which act as
"advisors" to the leaders of the various sectors of the economy and Justice
system. "The
general population - he says - notice nothing strange. But dozens of people are
being laid off and replaced with others who are openly close to the extremist establishment."
Thanks
to this "infiltration of the most intransigent wing of the Muslim
Brotherhood and the Salafis act without
the fear of being punished."
On
24 February, a group of Islamists had surrounded the church of Abu Maqar in
the Shubra al-Kheima district of Cairo, stopping for a second time the
construction of the building. The
extremists raided the site undisturbed,
claiming that there was no necessary permits. Last
July 6, hundreds of Salafists has laid siege to the site for more than 24 hours
and hoisted a banner reading "Mosque Ebad al-Rahman", telling
Christians to leave the place. Many
of them were armed. (S.C.)