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Christians in Egypt

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Tensions between Egypt’s majority Muslim population and Coptic Christian minority are rising. The government has supposedly stepped in, but recent attacks have raised doubts as to whether these measures are sufficient.

Guirguis Fawzy is typical of the Christian community in Egypt. Middle class, successful and well networked. Guirguis lives with his family in Suhag in the Nile Valley north of Luxor where he deals in wood. He has relatives in major cities such as Cairo and Alexandria. Like most Copts he considers himself first and foremost an Egyptian, his Christian faith playing only a secondary role in how he sees his own identity. But this relaxed view of his own place in Egyptian society is both rejected and challenged by militant Islam. Keen to exploit growing polarization since the 2013 military coup that removed the Muslim Brotherhood from power, Islamic critics of current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s strong-arm tactics have been quick to portray this as evidence of a pro-Christian agenda. It doesn’t take much these days to provoke communal violence. Worse still a wave of terrorist shootings and bombings targeting Copts has shocked the community leading many to question whether the government is doing enough to protect them.

Does Egypt really need a Women’s Affairs Ministry?

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REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh.
Egyptian Muslim women take part in evening prayers called “Tarawih” on Laylat al-Qadr (Night of Decree), outside Amr Ibn El-Aas Mosque, Cairo, Egypt، June 21, 2017.

Hagar Hosny

CAIRO — Egyptian member of parliament Hiyam Halawa announced Dec. 3 that she had finalized a proposal for the establishment of a Ministry for Women’s Affairs.

Egypt would not be the first Arab country to establish a Ministry for Women’s Affairs. Other countries, such as Tunisia, Lebanon and Palestine already took this step. But in Egypt, the National Council for Women (NCW) is the national mechanism regulating and addressing Egyptian women’s affairs. The council was established by a presidential decree in 2000 and is subordinate to the president of the republic.

The NCW proposes the general policy when it comes to the development of women’s affairs, empowering women to fulfill their economic role, integrating their efforts into comprehensive development programs, submitting proposals and observations to the competent authorities, and expressing an opinion on all conventions relating to women.

Halawa talked to Al-Monitor about her proposal. “The establishment of this ministry aims to create a single entity that includes all institutions concerned with women’s rights. It will be responsible for distributing their roles, developing their plan of action and addressing neglected women’s issues. The ministry will have its own administrative structure and enjoy all ministerial competences,” she said.

She added, “The ministry will work on all women-related issues and provide protection to women in the social, economic and political fields. It will see to the application of the constitutional provisions providing for equality between men and women in all rights and duties.”

She explained that the proposal took into consideration the state budget. A provision in the proposal specifies that the budget to be allocated to the new ministry would be secured from the budget already allocated by the government to women’s institutions such as the NCW, and that the proposal is so far under review and discussion.

Egyptian singer jailed for music video ‘inciting debauchery’ Video

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A female Egyptian singer has been jailed for a sexually suggestive music video in which she appears in underwear and eats a banana. It caused a stir in the conservative country.

The 21-year-old pop singer has been jailed for two years for appearing in the music video.

A Cairo court charged Shaimaa Ahmed, who goes by the name Shyma, of inciting debauchery and harming public morality. It also ordered her to pay a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds, about €476 ($560).
“I have issues,” has sparked controversy on social media and television in the conservative Muslim-majority country.

In the video, Shyma stands in front of a classroom of mesmerized men as she licks peanut butter off her fingers, tongues an apple, pours milk on bananas and eats them, and devours a taco shell.

The backdrop is a chalkboard with gender symbols and “Class #69” written on it. In some scenes she wears lingerie. In others, she is dressed in tight clothing bending over while casting a seductive look over her shoulder.

Shyma was arrested on November 18, four days after the clip was released. She denied the charges, saying that her director included the scenes without her consent. The director, Mohamed Gamal, was also fined and sentenced to two years in absentia.

The singer can appeal the verdict.

cw/se (AP, AFP Reuters

Egypt’s Coptic pope shuns US VP Mike Pence over Jerusalem

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The Coptic pope’s decision comes a day after Egypt’s top Muslim cleric Ahmed al-Tayeb (L) also refused to meet Pence

The Coptic Christian pope has canceled a meeting with the US vice president in Cairo, in protest against America’s move to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Palestinian leader Abbas also snubbed Mike Pence.

In a statement released on Saturday, the Coptic Church said it “excused itself from hosting Mike Pence” when he visits Egypt, citing US President Donald Trump’s decision made “at an unsuitable time and without consideration for the feelings of millions of people.”

Egypt’s Coptic Church said it would pray for “wisdom and to address all issues that impact peace for the people of the Middle East.”

The decision comes a day after Egypt’s top Muslim cleric Ahmed al-Tayeb also refused to meet Pence.

Egyptian Coptic Christians, the largest religious minority in the region, make up about 10 percent of the country’s 93 million people.

Solidarity from non-Muslim Arabs

The Coptic Pope’s refusal to host Pence is largely symbolic but significant, because it demonstrates the Arab solidarity for Palestinians irrespective of religious affiliations.

Trump’s decision to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem has not only been criticized by Muslim countries; Germany, China and Russia are among scores of nations that have slammed the US president over the policy U-turn.

The status of Jerusalem was a key stumbling block during previous peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, in particular the question of how to divide sovereignty and oversee holy sites.

Egypt’s Sinai Death toll in mosque attack rises to 305

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Death toll of a bomb and gun assault on a packed mosque in Egypt’s restive North Sinai province rose to 305 on Nov. 25, as the country mourned for its dead.

Warplanes struck militant hideouts in retaliation for the country’s deadliest attack in recent memory.

Special prayers were planned nationwide a day after gunmen detonated a bomb and mowed down worshippers fleeing the Rawda mosque in North Sinai, where security forces are battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared three days of mourning and vowed to “respond with brutal force” to the attack, among the deadliest in the world since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

“The army and police will avenge our martyrs and return security and stability with force in the coming short period,” he said in a televised speech.

Hours later Egyptian air force jets destroyed vehicles used in the attack and “terrorist” locations where weapons and ammunition were stocked, an army spokesman said.

The state prosecutor’s office said in a statement that 235 people were killed and 109 wounded in the assault on the mosque roughly 40 kilometers west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish.

Egypt mosque bombing: killing 85 people in Sinai attack

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Suspected militants have targeted a mosque in the north of Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, with reports of gunfire and explosions. Scores have been killed, according to state media.

Militants were reported to have set off a bomb and opened fire at a mosque in Egypt’s restive northern Sinai on Friday, apparently targeting supporters of the security forces attending prayers there.

State media said at least 85 people were killed in the attack on the Al Rawdah mosque, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the provincial capital, Arish city.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing men in four off-road vehicles arrive at the scene to carry out the attack. They were seen to plant explosives around the mosque which were detonated as worshippers left. The attackers were then said to have opened fire at those who fled.

State television said President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi had convened an emergency security meeting soon after the attack.

Some 80 people people were wounded, according to Egypt’s MENA state news agency. The Egyptian government declared three days of mourning in the wake of the attack.

Egyptian security forces are fighting an Islamic State (IS) insurgency in northern Sinai, with militants having killed hundreds of police and soldiers over the past three years as fighting there intensified.

Militants in the area have also targeted the followers of the mystical Sufi branch of Sunni Islam, as well as Coptic Christians.

Egypt triggers major security shakeup a week after ambush

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By BRIAN ROHAN
Associated Press

Egypt launched a major shakeup of its security services on Saturday in an apparent reaction to an ambush by militants outside Cairo last week that killed at least 16 police troopers.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi replaced his armed forces chief of staff, while the Interior Ministry, in charge of police, dismissed the head of national security, a handful of generals, and a dozen senior leaders responsible for the area where the deadly shootout occurred.

The move was not unexpected after officials publicly evoked potential intelligence failures, lack of coordination, or incompetence as playing a factor in the losses, the latest installment of Egypt’s ongoing war against Islamic militants, including the Islamic State group.

Last Friday’s attack took place in the al-Wahat al-Bahriya area in Giza province, about 135 kilometers (84 miles) southwest of Cairo — a gateway into Egypt’s vast Western Desert which leads to lawless Libya. Authorities consider the area an infiltration path for smugglers and militants, and have blamed some past attacks on extremists transiting through.

The ambush’s brazenness and location raised the specter of the simmering insurgency creeping closer to the capital, which has been largely secure and far from what has long been its main front — a northeastern corner of the Sinai Peninsula.

Security troops have announced major operations in the Western Desert and areas near Cairo in recent days, and foreign companies and embassies have long warned expats against travel to such places, even those as seemingly tame as the Fayoum Oasis.

Just a day ago, security forces killed 13 militants in another gun battle in the western desert, during a raid on an alleged militant hideout in the New Valley province which shares part of the porous border with Libya.

The attack a week ago that seemingly prompted the leadership shakeup appeared to be a carefully planned ambush that trapped many counter terrorism officers as well, including two police brigadier-generals.

The troops had been acting on intelligence and moving against a militant hideout backed by armored personnel carriers when they drew fire and rocket-propelled grenades, according to officials who reported the incident anonymously because they weren’t authorized to brief journalists.

They added that the force likely ran out of ammunition and that the militants captured several policemen and later killed them.

While the official death toll announced by the Interior Ministry was only 16 at the end of the day, with 15 militants killed or wounded, officials who spoke with the Associated Press earlier had citied over 50 policemen killed in the attack. That would make it one of the worst on Egyptian police in years, although the differing numbers could not be reconciled.

Egypt’s categorically pro-government media unleased a tidal wave of jingoism following the killings, calling for military trials and summary executions of militants. And along with some officials, they have accused the foreign media of publishing fake news for reporting the higher death toll.

No militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group, whose local affiliate is spearheading an insurgency in Sinai, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Egypt has been under a state of emergency since IS-claimed bombings and suicide attacks targeting minority Coptic Christians killed scores earlier this year, and attacks on the mainland have recently increased.

The last time Egypt’s security forces suffered such a heavy loss of life was in July 2015 when IS militants carried out a series of coordinated attacks, including suicide bombings, against army and police positions in Sinai, killing at least 50. However, the army then said only 17 soldiers were killed along with over 100 militants.

Attacks by militants significantly increased since the army’s 2013 ouster of an elected but divisive Islamist president.

Following el-Sissi’s decree, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Farid Hegazy will now be the country’s second most senior soldier, replacing Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Hegazy. The two are not related.

Armenia, Egypt resume economic talks for fist time in 12 years

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Armenia and Egypt have kicked off a new round of talks on economic and technical cooperation for the first time in over a decade, Egypt’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday, September 27, Ahram Online says.

Experts from the two countries met for the fifth round of a bilateral cooperation committee, Egypt’s ambassador to ArmeniaTarek Maaty said in a statement.

The committee last met in Cairo in 2005.

The talks are especially important as they highlight “the determination of the two sides to push forward economic, trade and technical cooperation,” the statement added.

A number of agreements are expected to be signed on bilateral cooperation.

Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan has said he looks forward to a visit by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to the country, Maaty said.

Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian also renewed his invitation to Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry to visit Yerevan.

In July, Egypt and Armenia launched a regular flight connection between the two countries, as they celebrated 25 years since the signing of a 1992 agreement creating bilateral diplomatic ties.

Related links:

English. Egypt, Armenia hold first cooperation committee meetings since 2005

Egypt sentences 28 to death over 2015 prosecutor killing

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A Cairo criminal court on Saturday, July 22 sentenced to death 28 people over the 2015 killing of Egypt’s top prosecutor after the death penalty was approved by the country’s top religious authority, and it also jailed 15 others for 25 years each, Reuters reports.

Public prosecutor Hisham Barakat was killed in a car bomb attack on his convoy in the capital, an operation for which Egypt blamed the Muslim Brotherhood and Gaza-based Hamas militants. Both groups have denied having a role.

The court had in June recommended passing the death penalty to Egypt’s top religious leader, the Grand Mufti, who can approve or reject the recommendation. The mufti’s guidance is required when a court seeks the death penalty but his decision is not binding..

The sentences, confirmed by the court in Saturday’s hearing, can be appealed.

“The verdicts were shocking today,” said one of the defense lawyers, Ahmed Saad. “Others who had nothing to do with the assassination of martyr Hisham Barakat received life sentences. They had nothing to do with the incident.”

Egypt’s Interior Ministry released a video last year showing several young men confessing and admitting going to Gaza for training from Hamas, but some later denied the charges in court.

The defendants said they were forced to confess under torture and their lawyers asked that they be medically examined.

Egypt faces an Islamist insurgency led by Islamic State in North Sinai, where hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed. But the group has increasingly targeted Egypt’s Christians with church bombings and shooting.

Related links:

Reuters. Egypt court sentences 28 to death over 2015 prosecutor killing

Armenian citizens injured in Hurghada stabbing to be transported to Cairo hospital

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The Armenian citizens wounded in a knife attack at an Egyptian Red Sea resort in Hurghada will also be transported to Cairo, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan wrote on Twitter.

“The people injured in Hurghada stabbing will be transported to the best hospital in Cairo to receive a better quality medical care,” the tweet reads.

To remind, a 28-year-old Egyptian man stabbed two German tourists to death and wounded four others from Armenia, Russia and Czech Republic at a seafront hotel in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada on Friday.

Earlier Tigran Balayan reported that the Armenian citizens have not sustained life-threatening injuries due to the attack. The assailant has been neutralized due to the help of the injured Armenian woman.