Twenty-four hours after Egyptian police and armed forces killed more than 600 and injured at least 3,700 in an operation to clear to Muslim Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo, human rights organizations in Egypt were reporting co-ordinated mob attacks on churches. The Coptic human rights organization Maspero Youth Union had documented more than 40 attacks on churches, day cares, schools, homes and businesses within a day of the police operation in Cairo.
“Yesterday I was on Skype the whole day,” said Fr. Bishoi Anis, pastor of Toronto’s Holy Family Coptic Catholic parish.
Anis is in constant contact with his old parishioners, friends and family in Minya, where he served for 18 years. The rectory where he lived in Egypt was looted and burned. As many as a dozen Coptic families have left town seeking safety.
“They actually fled,” said Anis. “They were actually attacked by the Muslim Brotherhood. They (Muslim Brotherhood supporters) took whatever they had in their houses then they burned their houses.”
Blaming the Copts has become an easy political ploy for the Muslim Brotherhood, Bishoi said.
The Reuters news agency reports that 41 were killed in mob violence in Minya, 200 km south of Cairo, Aug. 14, including six policemen.
To keep Catholics out of harm’s way, Catholic Coptic Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sedrak cancelled all public celebrations of the Feast of the Assumption of Mary Aug. 15.
“We are against any blood or killing,” said Holy Family parish council president Mejed Bebawi. “We need a peaceful relationship. That’s the goal we have, that all Egyptians have the same rights and that we live in peace, peace and democracy.”
Most members of the Coptic community in Toronto still own shops, houses and other businesses in Egypt and all have family at risk, said Bebawi.
“All the free time in our lives we are just following the news,” he said. “You can’t take time to get some rest or go shopping or whatever. All your life is affected. Your heart is there. All of us have family there.”
The most dangerous thing for Copts in Egypt right now is any emphasis on international support for the Christian community. Any Western support only fuels the Muslim Brotherhood argument that Christians aren’t true Egyptians and should be treated as foreigners, Bebawi said.
“We have to solve this by ourselves — Christians and Muslims,” said Bebawi.
Toronto’s larger Orthodox Coptic community is organizing protests in front of the United States Consulate over the Aug. 18 weekend.
Canadian Coptic Centre chairman Fr. Angelos Saad of Mississauga’s Church of Virgin Mary and St. Athanasius said he hoped the Canadian government would condemn the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorists.
“We are expecting the Canadians to be clear in statements against the Muslim Brotherhood,” Saad said.
Saad warned that Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Toronto are organizing protests. Western media reports about the violence in Cairo have failed to notice the military government’s commitment to return Egypt to democracy over the next year, he said.
In a press release, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Canada is “deeply concerned” by the rising violence.
“Canada firmly believes that implementing a transparent democratic system that respects the voices of all Egyptians, including members of civil society and religious minorities, is the best way to restore calm and give all Egyptians a stake in the future stability and prosperity of their country,” said Baird.
Pope Francis has urged prayers for the people of Egypt.
“Let us pray together for peace, dialogue and reconciliation in that dear land and throughout the world,” said the Pope during celebrations of the Feast of the Assumption of Mary at Castel Gandolfo.
The Geneva-based World Council of Churches also called for prayers.
“The only way forward is for mutual recognition as equal citizens within Egypt, sharing responsibilities and authority, accepting the diversity of political opinions and religious beliefs,” said WCC general secretary Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit.
The problem is that free elections did not result in democracy, said Anis. The Morsi government was a winner-take-all regime that governed for its supporters and against the rest of the country.
“There was no democracy during his reign. He looked after just his community,” said the Catholic Coptic priest. “The whole Egyptian people feel they are oppressed. Everything is going down. There was no security in Egypt."