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Egypt's Coptic Christians failed by authorities, says report

Egyptian authorities are being accused of failing to prevent deadly mob attacks on Coptic Christians.

In a new report Amnesty International is accusing security forces of failing to prevent the onslaught on Christian churches, schools and charity buildings in August that left at least four people dead and buildings burnt to the ground.

The human rights charity says failure to bring justice to those responsible for the 'deeply disturbing' assaults sends out the message that believers are 'fair game'. The report states that between August 14th and the 16th, there were more than 200 attacks on Christian-owned properties and 43 churches were damaged or destroyed by followers of ousted President Morsi.  Amnesty visited sites of sectarian violence in Al-Minya, Fayoum and Greater Cairo to gather evidence from eyewitnesses, local officials and religious leaders.  Local residents reported that mobs armed with automatic rifles, shotguns, Molotov cocktails, home-made explosives, metal bars and knives ransacked churches and Christian properties, chanting slogans such as "God is Great" or "Christian dogs have no place in Egypt".

A journalist who witnessed attacks in Al-Minya said attackers were armed with machetes and swords. Historical and religious relics were desecrated in the attacks and graffiti was scrawled onto church walls - including "Morsi is my President".

Some residents were attacked in their homes including 60 year-old Coptic Christian, Iskandar Tous, who was shot dead inside his home, his body disfigured and dragged in the streets by a tractor.

After his body was buried, it was dug out of the grave twice. His cousin, lawyer Samir Lamee Saqr who sustained shotgun-pellet wounds in the attack, told Amnesty how the events unfolded.

He said:

"On August 14th, at about 9am, stones were thrown at our homes – the only two Christian homes on the street – and electricity at home was cut. 

"Muslim neighbours later told me that the attackers tampered with the electric cables outside.

"By 10am, the crowd got bigger, there were about 2,000 men and they were armed and firing at our houses.

"I was trying to escape with my family, my wife, my baby twins, and my mother; using a ladder we climbed to a neighbour's house, and then to another.

"I received several shotgun pellet wounds, and my mother was hit with pellets just below her eye.

"My cousin was in the house with his wife, and daughter-in-law. His daughter-in-law managed to escape. His wife saw him shot and killed, and only got out alive because some other Muslim intervened to get her to safety."

Nicholas Piachaud from the human rights charity's north Africa team told Premier's Des Busteed during the News Hour there should be an investigation into the deadly incidents. 

Amnesty's report describes an "unprecedented level" of attacks against Coptic Christians following the dispersal of two pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo August 14th, with Copts widely perceived as supporting the ousting of former President Mohamed Morsi.

The sectarian attacks have also taken place against other Christian denominations, including Catholic and Evangelical ones.

At the time of the violence in August, the Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa, Most Revd Dr Mouneer Anis made a call for urgent prayers for the country.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Most Revd Justin Welby welcomes Amnesty's report and last Sunday he joined an Anglican-Coptic service of prayer for people caught up in unrest in Egypt, Syria and the wider Middle East.

Speaking before the event in Guildford, he said:

"I am delighted that Anglican and Orthodox Christians will worship together and remember in prayer the very difficult, indeed life-threatening circumstances in which some of the Churches are living."

Amnesty's report comes two years after a bloody crackdown by Egypt's armed forces on protesters outside the "Maspero" state television building in Cairo in 2011; where 26 Coptic Christians protesters and one Muslim were killed.

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