“At their most brutal, these recent attacks have culminated in the burning of churches and places of worship, the stripping and public parading of 70-year-old Souad Thabet, and the senseless murder of Father Raphael Moussa,” decried Bishop Angaelos while in the UK on Monday.
The clergyman acknowledged there were ‘clear efforts’ by Egyptian officials to curb Christian persecution but said forces at a local level were guilty of ‘at best, carelessness and, at worst, criminal negligence’.
The attacks come as rumors fly over affairs between Christians and Muslims and over rumors of new churches being built.
In June, a Christian home was set afire by a mob of about 5,000 because of a rumor the house was set to become a church. That month, a Coptic priest was shot and murdered in Al Arish.
This month, a Coptic pharmacist was stabbed and beheaded; five Christian homes were torched; a Coptic Church was burned; a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man was stabbed to death; and the families of priests were attacked in the village of Tahna al-Gabal.
“There has been a spiral of attacks in the last three months. They are almost weekly now,” Bishop Angaelos said. “Egypt is in a very vulnerable position. People are frustrated and vulnerable to radicalization.”
Egyptian Christians, nearly all of whom are Copts (adherents of the Coptic Orthodox Church or other Coptic churches), most likely account for about 10% of the country’s population, though different sources’ estimates have ranged from 3% to 20%.
editor@ugchristiannews.com
