Egypt: Violence against Christians at an alarming level

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Egypt | 12 February 2017

Ignored by the main international media, 2017 has begun with a spate of attacks against Egyptian Christians, as reported by Word Watch Monitor on 25 January 2017. Five Coptic Christians have been killed in a span of two weeks in Cairo and Alexandria. The victims" throats were slit but no valuables were taken, indicating that the motive for the killings was not robbery. At least one of the victims, Youssef Lamei, had been threatened by Salafist Muslims before the attack. The killing of these five Christians is particularly alarming since it is barely a month after the December 2016 bombing of Cairo"s cathedral complex which killed 28 Christians, as reported by BBC News on 11 December 2016 (with an update from World Watch Monitor on 10 January 2017). St. Mark"s cathedral is the largest church complex in Egypt and the seat of the pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt. The attacks are believed to have been carried out by Islamic militant groups such as Islamic State and a new militant group called the Hasm Movement. The Egyptian government holds the Muslim Brotherhood responsible for the attack against St. Mark"s cathedral. Yonas Dembele, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, is shocked by these incidents: "They indicate a sharp rise in deadly violence against Coptic Christians. While Islamic militants have mainly been attacking security personnel and military facilities over the last months, such high profile attacks against Christians have been limited. Therefore, these incidents seem to indicate either a change in strategy or the rising influence of new and more aggressive groups like the Hasm Movement. Either way, the security of Egyptian Christians is even more precarious than it has been in the recent past and the trend is worrying.